And the leader of the motley doge crew is a drug addled freak who was habitually doing illegal drugs while campaigning with trump and after trump was, sadly, elected. So you can be an incompetent, a clueless wiz kid and an illegal drug wiz pants clown and tear apart something of which they know nothing. Brilliant!
As a government worker retired after 41 years of service, I found the insights of this DOGE story upsettingly familiar in surprising detail even though my service was on a local level. It must be the same everywhere, so there must be some universal truths about government service. Before addressing that, I have to ask if this story is "sanewashing" DOGE.
I think the irrationality of the DOGE resistance to admitting error is not an error but a feature. The primary (likely only) object was to shrink government to fund a tax cut, not fix it but to shrink it by any means necessary. The E in DOGE is for Evisceration, not Efficiency. It's not that they didn't understand or didn't learn. They don't care because it was not the mission. They live by the gospel according to Ayn Rand. It's them (the government workers whose missions they don't value) or us, and moral arguments are for losers. DOGE reports to a boss who is not constrained by facts because he sees everything as transactional and a matter of strength of will as in a real estate deal. The slogan "Move fast and break things" is about outrunning accountability, and that's what DOGE tried under Musk and likely will continue to do as long as facts and logic can't serve the mission of drastically reducing government enough to fund a tax cut. That's why I see this lamentation over what responsible action could have been, as "sanewashing" by treating it as a quest for efficiency. It's was not stupidity but a vandal disguised as an MBA, and this article is reviewing the MBA, which is pointless with efficiency not being the real goal but a cover story to deflect scrutiny. This was a good teaching opportunity, but it made me wonder if Moynihan was fooled by the disguise.
As for the slowness of decision making inside government Moynihan pointed out, every action is governed by the fear of political retaliation, so caution to the extreme and excess is standard operating procedure. A pound of prevention is worth an ounce of cure if the cure is to make you the scapegoat wrecking or ending your career along with the programs you believe in. I learned fast as an engineer, that one "Oh shit!" cancels all your "Attaboys." Error is the price of haste. That caution is responsible for both the inefficiency and the low error rate. I learned a lot in those 41 years, but nobody in a position to act is interested in my advice.
Well yes and no. This was a very workmanlike rundown on DOGE and how it functions, what's inaccurate are the core premises. DOGE is not and was never intended to make or remake anything. It is a wrecking ball, the instrument of choice for Bannon's plan to "destroy the whole enterprise". There have not been any "missed opportunities", to say that is to take the naïve view that "opportunities" mattered at all to Trump and his thugs. Whatever motivating philosophy there may be to all of this, it is only dimly understood by those pursuing it and it is deeply atavistic at its core. The "purpose", if it actually has one, is to 'merely' return human society to an original state of "grace", one of kings, peasants and slaves.
The reason I use the half scare quotes around 'merely' is because it's as yet unclear, once the genie of knowledge and rational thought is out, that stuffing it back into its bottle will work with a living population. We'll see.
Not only was DOGE unfamiliar with how government works, they're also unfamiliar with how most of corporate America works. Nearly every corporate employee in America shares the public sector's frustration about too many meetings and slow decision making. DOGE assumed that the Silicon Valley model of 'move fast and break things' would be accepted because it's universal. It's not; they were wrong. But there were too arrogant to know what they didn't know.
The worst aspect of DOGE, however, isn't just that they ignored existing laws regarding privacy and impoundment of federal funds, it's that those allegedly in charge of vast sectors of the government, the cabinet secretaries, completely rolled over for DOGE and allowed them authority that neither the law nor their own prerogatives as cabinet members should have allowed.
It will take years and billions of dollars to repair DOGE's 'fixes' to public data systems and the rehiring of people with actual expertise in their areas of government. In the end, the only thing DOGE saved us was having to worry about spending billions of dollars to accomplish good things because we'll be spending that tax money fixing their damage.
Doesn't it seem to anyone else that an interesting way to understand the whole 'move fast and break (substitute gun down, blow up or otherwise eliminate) things blitzkrieg mentality is that it was forged within the views and understanding of the tech elite within the context of the days and hours, months and years the 'boyz' spent sitting in front of video game consoles, competing to zap anything that was preventing them from getting to the next level in one game after another? Human progress is so much more nuanced, differently paced, and inclusive of opposing points of views than that.
I learned a lot. I had no idea about DOGE. The where or the why from where they came. You are correct, all I think about DOGE now is that they are evil. They should have never left experienced workers out, but as you pointed out their mission was destruction.
As I read your very good analysis my thoughts returned to days when there was great excitement of what a computer could do. I remember that when the computer phenomena started to pop-up engineer types who happen to compete in the sport of orienteering were excited to use it in topo map making. It did help, I believe. But one thing learned was a person still needed to take the draft map into the field to check the details and perhaps add some small details. Without the field check a more or less worthless topo map would have been printed--and printing a map was and probably still is costly. Lesson learned--maybe--never overlook the talent on the ground for they understand what is needed.
Please stop with the DOGE. It should rightfully be DODGE : Department of Dumbass Government Efficiency
And the leader of the motley doge crew is a drug addled freak who was habitually doing illegal drugs while campaigning with trump and after trump was, sadly, elected. So you can be an incompetent, a clueless wiz kid and an illegal drug wiz pants clown and tear apart something of which they know nothing. Brilliant!
As a government worker retired after 41 years of service, I found the insights of this DOGE story upsettingly familiar in surprising detail even though my service was on a local level. It must be the same everywhere, so there must be some universal truths about government service. Before addressing that, I have to ask if this story is "sanewashing" DOGE.
I think the irrationality of the DOGE resistance to admitting error is not an error but a feature. The primary (likely only) object was to shrink government to fund a tax cut, not fix it but to shrink it by any means necessary. The E in DOGE is for Evisceration, not Efficiency. It's not that they didn't understand or didn't learn. They don't care because it was not the mission. They live by the gospel according to Ayn Rand. It's them (the government workers whose missions they don't value) or us, and moral arguments are for losers. DOGE reports to a boss who is not constrained by facts because he sees everything as transactional and a matter of strength of will as in a real estate deal. The slogan "Move fast and break things" is about outrunning accountability, and that's what DOGE tried under Musk and likely will continue to do as long as facts and logic can't serve the mission of drastically reducing government enough to fund a tax cut. That's why I see this lamentation over what responsible action could have been, as "sanewashing" by treating it as a quest for efficiency. It's was not stupidity but a vandal disguised as an MBA, and this article is reviewing the MBA, which is pointless with efficiency not being the real goal but a cover story to deflect scrutiny. This was a good teaching opportunity, but it made me wonder if Moynihan was fooled by the disguise.
As for the slowness of decision making inside government Moynihan pointed out, every action is governed by the fear of political retaliation, so caution to the extreme and excess is standard operating procedure. A pound of prevention is worth an ounce of cure if the cure is to make you the scapegoat wrecking or ending your career along with the programs you believe in. I learned fast as an engineer, that one "Oh shit!" cancels all your "Attaboys." Error is the price of haste. That caution is responsible for both the inefficiency and the low error rate. I learned a lot in those 41 years, but nobody in a position to act is interested in my advice.
Well yes and no. This was a very workmanlike rundown on DOGE and how it functions, what's inaccurate are the core premises. DOGE is not and was never intended to make or remake anything. It is a wrecking ball, the instrument of choice for Bannon's plan to "destroy the whole enterprise". There have not been any "missed opportunities", to say that is to take the naïve view that "opportunities" mattered at all to Trump and his thugs. Whatever motivating philosophy there may be to all of this, it is only dimly understood by those pursuing it and it is deeply atavistic at its core. The "purpose", if it actually has one, is to 'merely' return human society to an original state of "grace", one of kings, peasants and slaves.
The reason I use the half scare quotes around 'merely' is because it's as yet unclear, once the genie of knowledge and rational thought is out, that stuffing it back into its bottle will work with a living population. We'll see.
Not only was DOGE unfamiliar with how government works, they're also unfamiliar with how most of corporate America works. Nearly every corporate employee in America shares the public sector's frustration about too many meetings and slow decision making. DOGE assumed that the Silicon Valley model of 'move fast and break things' would be accepted because it's universal. It's not; they were wrong. But there were too arrogant to know what they didn't know.
The worst aspect of DOGE, however, isn't just that they ignored existing laws regarding privacy and impoundment of federal funds, it's that those allegedly in charge of vast sectors of the government, the cabinet secretaries, completely rolled over for DOGE and allowed them authority that neither the law nor their own prerogatives as cabinet members should have allowed.
It will take years and billions of dollars to repair DOGE's 'fixes' to public data systems and the rehiring of people with actual expertise in their areas of government. In the end, the only thing DOGE saved us was having to worry about spending billions of dollars to accomplish good things because we'll be spending that tax money fixing their damage.
Doesn't it seem to anyone else that an interesting way to understand the whole 'move fast and break (substitute gun down, blow up or otherwise eliminate) things blitzkrieg mentality is that it was forged within the views and understanding of the tech elite within the context of the days and hours, months and years the 'boyz' spent sitting in front of video game consoles, competing to zap anything that was preventing them from getting to the next level in one game after another? Human progress is so much more nuanced, differently paced, and inclusive of opposing points of views than that.
I learned a lot. I had no idea about DOGE. The where or the why from where they came. You are correct, all I think about DOGE now is that they are evil. They should have never left experienced workers out, but as you pointed out their mission was destruction.
As I read your very good analysis my thoughts returned to days when there was great excitement of what a computer could do. I remember that when the computer phenomena started to pop-up engineer types who happen to compete in the sport of orienteering were excited to use it in topo map making. It did help, I believe. But one thing learned was a person still needed to take the draft map into the field to check the details and perhaps add some small details. Without the field check a more or less worthless topo map would have been printed--and printing a map was and probably still is costly. Lesson learned--maybe--never overlook the talent on the ground for they understand what is needed.