Why is DIR called a philosophy?

I'm curious about people's opinions on this subject. Why do you consider DIR a philosophy of diving? What role has philosophy played in the formation of GUE/DIR? Are there any philosophers involved with GUE/DIR? How did this come to play?

How do you feel about these issues?



Jamie Rumph
(DIR supporter)

I want to use material that is not DIR oriented to explain this point. Refer to this article:

http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/medical/articles/article.asp?articleid=14

Reading through it, you can see how diving is more than just a dive plan, it's a way of life that has values, where thinking is involved, and thus the DIR philosophy.

A philosophy by definition (in this sense at least) is a system of thought or a set of ideals. Every diving organization has a "philosophy" about how to approach and teach diving. GUE/DIR is no different in that regard, except that their philosophy encompasses more than "just" the dive under consideration (and at least in their materials PADI actually agrees with much of the "philosophy" behind DIR, it just gets put into practice quite differently) The differences in philosophies would be more related to an emphasis on what many other philosophies downplay ie. how important is regular excercise? Is smoking so bad for you that it cannot fit into the philosophy of diving you embrace etc.. When it comes to rescue I found an importance difference in philosophy - DIR assumes "The whole team gets back - period." There is no planning for "what if I can't get my buddy back, when should I leave him behind." an idea/philosophy which I have encountered at least in some form in PADI, NAUI, and IANTD training manuals.

Just my impressions after seeing all 4 of those organizations in a training situation so far.

Aloha, Tim

that's a good start. GUE goes a little further in that there's also situational awareness; equipment, environment, team; heavy focus on teamwork; standardized equipment config; standardized training and reactions; the equipment belongs to the team. some of it feels very borrowed from military training, but that just may reflect the fact that if you sit down to figure out how to really do teamwork, you'll wind up with similar results...

lamont:

that's a good start. GUE goes a little further in that there's also situational awareness; equipment, environment, team; heavy focus on teamwork; standardized equipment config; standardized training and reactions; the equipment belongs to the team. some of it feels very borrowed from military training, but that just may reflect the fact that if you sit down to figure out how to really do teamwork, you'll wind up with similar results...

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Good points Lamont, recognizing that the actions GUE/DIR advocates stem from their philosophy of diving. Which in turn helps answer questions that may not have come up yet... what do I do if... your philosophy is where your answer comes from, and if you don't like the answer, then you should start looking for a more compatible philosophy. Or if you believe your philosophy to be correct, then you need to change your way of thinking to line up with it.

Tim

Divesherpa:

I'm curious about people's opinions on this subject. Why do you consider DIR a philosophy of diving? What role has philosophy played in the formation of GUE/DIR? Are there any philosophers involved with GUE/DIR? How did this come to play?

How do you feel about these issues?



Jamie Rumph
(DIR supporter)

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BTW Jamie - If you are asking "an honest question" vs. attmpting to stimulate discussion (which is also ok) what you are doing is called philosophizing - "speculating in philosophy" we are all philosophers, just some can actually articulate and recognize their philosophies, others are ruled by them, but have no cognizant awareness of them.

Tim

Divesherpa:

I'm curious about people's opinions on this subject. Why do you consider DIR a philosophy of diving? What role has philosophy played in the formation of GUE/DIR? Are there any philosophers involved with GUE/DIR? How did this come to play?

How do you feel about these issues?



Jamie Rumph
(DIR supporter)

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Philosophy? To me, its really more a set of Policy's and Procedures...which are based on a specific equipment configuration.

It would be nice to say that this standard set of Policy's and Procedures were consistent throughout the "world"...but its not.

The moment you get into the nit-picky details there is dissension in the ranks...which gives rise to the threads that pop up all the time..."Which hand do I hold my light in?"..."Are rockboots DIR?"...."How do I incorporate my green snorkel into my gear config?"

some philosophies i forgot about are: KISS; failure mode analysis; don't adopt solutions in search of a problem; slow down to do it faster. probably a bunch of other things i'm forgetting...

a lot of the failure mode analysis and simplicity was what first attracted me to GUE because it was similar to my philosophy in dealing with design of highly available systems. again, trying to get to a similar end goal (reducing chances of a catastrophic system failure) results in similar philosophies... i've borrowed back pretty extensively in the way that I view how systems should be managed in that all systems should be built the same, configured the same, reactions of systems operators to events should be the same for all machines, etc... same philosophy works for 12,000 ft back in a cave that works for 12,000 servers...

JeffG:

Philosophy? To me, its really more a set of Policy's and Procedures...which are based on a specific equipment configuration.

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Please don't troll in the DIR forum, and sign up for a GUE course. The equipment configuration is not even half of what its about. You're just beating on a strawman...

JeffG:

The moment you get into the nit-picky details there is dissension in the ranks...which gives rise to the threads that pop up all the time..."Which hand do I hold my light in?"..."Are rockboots DIR?"...."How do I incorporate my green snorkel into my gear config?"

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Although not DIR, and a bit anti to some members of the fraternity, I do see a lot of positives ideas and measures set up by DIR. However it is some of this nit picking that turns me off the 'whole" thing. Many people recite mantra like the preachings of JJ even when they are not appropriate to the question or without knowing the reason behind them. Philosophy is about thinking and many do not think but simply recite.

lamont:

Please don't troll in the DIR forum, and sign up for a GUE course. The equipment configuration is not even half of what its about. You're just beating on a strawman...

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i dont think he was trolling just staying an opinion