politics

I feel like I disagree with this approach to government efficiency:

https://x.com/DOGE/status/1860739165144367441

The examples listed are a tiny fraction of all spending. If a government _optimizes_ for "don't make oopses that look bad on twitter", then it will end up missing a lot of valuable opportunities, and at the same time lots of actually-wasteful large-scale things will remain just because they look respectable.

You _want_ a VC-like approach on small-scale public funding, that is okay with large quantities of oopses, because its goal is to make sure it captures the 1000x opportunities. Concentrate prudence energy on the large-scale stuff.

How the Government Spends your Tax Dollars: 
-$28 million on licensing fees for a green “camouflage” pattern on Afghan National Army uniforms 
-$2.5 million on a Super Bowl Ad for the Census 
-$1.7 million for holograms of dead comedians -$500,000 to build an IHOP in Washington,…

Department of Government Efficiency

I don’t think $28m to license for a specific camouflage color can be compared to a “VC-like” bet on something

And I think the point is more on principle than on specific items

“Look at the way they spend, on both big and small. We need to change the DNA of government, and their spending”