What DOGE Gets Wrong about Tech and Government

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Members of the DOGE network rarely offer thoughtful accounts that depart from the Musk narrative (government is broken, full of talentless hacks, DOGE is fixing things). So I was interested to see a DOGEr express genuine circumspection. This came from Sahil Lavingia, a startup founder, who was interviewed by Ernie Smith about his experience with DOGE.

Lavignia left his start-up, Gumroad, to join Veteran’s Affairs. Here is the key passage:

Now that he’s there, he says he finds himself surrounded by people who “love their jobs,” who came to the government with a sense of mission driving their work. “In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [a buyout offer], then we wouldn’t have to do much more,” he says, implying software can replace departing employees. “We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening.”…when it comes down to it, what he’s found is a machine that largely functions, though it doesn’t make decisions as fast as a startup might. “I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions,” he says. “But honestly, it’s kind of fine —because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins.”

For anyone with a modicum of experience studying or working in government, nothing Lavignia discovered is novel. Public servants care about public service! There is not really that much waste in government! There are too many meetings and decisionmaking is too slow! Indeed, sir! All true!

https://www.lincolnsquare.media/p/what-doge-gets-wrong-about-tech-and

[rampartd]

1. as a retired civil servant, i agree with this guy

but i am tired of waiting for my pension to post every month