Deadline

Have you ever been unaware of an important deadline that your boss really cared about, and had to ask for some assistance at the very last minute?

Fear not, you are not the only person to whom this has happened.  One of the worst cases has to be this one, which additionally happened while the boss was off on an important business trip:

The reason for this haste is that I was informed only yesterday that, weather permitting, it is likely that the weapon will be used as early as August 1st, Pacific Ocean Time, which as you know is a good many hours ahead of Washington time.

The memo was sent on July 31, 1945. The time is not given, but 9AM in the morning in Washington would be about 1AM in Japan, so technically it was already late. It was in this way that Henry Stimson, Secretary of War,  asked his boss, President Harry S Truman, to confirm the copy for an enclosed press release to be used when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.

Truman was still in Potsdam, finishing up the final Big Three conference. It was a few days after the Potsdam Declaration threatening Japan with total destruction, so Truman certainly had some idea of the timing involved. Little Boy had been delivered by the USS Indianapolis, and the bombing orders, with four potential targets, were already issued.

In any case, the bomb was not dropped until the following Monday, August 6. While it had to be a little embarrassing for Stimson, it's also the case that a lot was happening that week.  Even though earth-shattering events might be all around us, we're still human.

Math

Folks following this model of history can often find themselves making unexpected mathematical jumps. Like a reaction to this headline:

Indiana Jones? FBI finds thousands of artifacts in 91-year-old's home

The natural reaction for everyone, of course, is to say “Indiana Jones? He can’t be 91 - he’s Lost Generation, born late 19th century, the youngest of which anywhere is 113 years old by now. A 91-year-old was born in 1923 or 1924 - that’s GI Generation, and nearly at the end of it as well.”

For those who didn’t realize when Indiana Jones was born, there are a couple of ways to identify his birthdate, some rougher than others. The first movie gives a date of 1936. If Jones didn’t look like he was in his late 30s/early 40s, one could infer that from his holding a professorship. Either way, that has him born in the 1890s. (Or you could check Harrison Ford’s birthdate, see that the movie came out in 1981, and calculate from there - but folks get cast in movies for different reasons than being the correct age.) Mostly, though - like other 1930s serial heroes - Indiana Jones is a classic Reactive/Nomad: Living in interesting times, self-sufficient, pragmatic - and with morally questionable attributes, as noted by both Marion and Belloq.

For those who didn’t realize it MATTERED when he was born...well, yes, it’s fundamental to the model. The primary concept is that people alive during a particular time are all affected by events during that time, and the specific effects are dependent on what stage of life they are in. Young adults - who can take direct action with regards to a Crisis (for example) -  will react differently than children, who are subject to the actions of others.  The different generations can be completely reduced to people born during specific timespans. 

Whether all people in a generation really match the archetypes is a different question.  It works for him, though: With a (clearly Missionary Generation) father focused - quite literally - on the Holy Grail, Indiana rebels via an archeological career that does not require a spiritual component. We see him with ancient pagan idols, neolithic tombs, Egyptian hieroglyphics, but neither the Ark nor any of the other relics he later pursues are artifacts of his religion - if any. He is only trying to save the world.