Comments on: Why is the government slow, inefficient, and stupid? https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/05/26/why-is-the-government-slow-inefficient-and-stupid/ Fri, 03 Jun 2016 10:24:55 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Orci https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/05/26/why-is-the-government-slow-inefficient-and-stupid/#comment-469996 Fri, 03 Jun 2016 10:24:55 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22563#comment-469996

Off topic, I wish I could remember the name of that sci fi story about the world that regularly leveled itself in war. They had sacred museums that they maintained in order to rapidly rebuild… Does that ring a bell with anyone?

You may be looking for A Canticle For Leibowitz

]]> By: skeptic https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/05/26/why-is-the-government-slow-inefficient-and-stupid/#comment-469995 Mon, 30 May 2016 15:17:30 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22563#comment-469995 You have provided absolutely no hard evidence that the government is “slow, inefficient, and stupid?” Your headline is just a clickbait strawman. You must really be a Rethuglican, not an anarchist.

]]> By: Obstreperous Applesauce https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/05/26/why-is-the-government-slow-inefficient-and-stupid/#comment-469994 Sun, 29 May 2016 13:07:07 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22563#comment-469994 Digital record keeping is a whole “thing.” Too often planning in that area has lagged.

Quick Google:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_preservation

http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/records/electronicrecords/erdigitalimaging.php

https://www.bl.uk/aboutus/stratpolprog/collectioncare/digitalpreservation/strategy/BL_DigitalPreservationStrategy_2013-16-external.pdf

http://www.verbatim.com/subcat/optical-media/dvd/archival-grade-gold-dvd-r/

]]> By: Obstreperous Applesauce https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/05/26/why-is-the-government-slow-inefficient-and-stupid/#comment-469993 Sun, 29 May 2016 12:45:17 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22563#comment-469993 Thomas P @ 15

Yes, that’s it it!

Thanks!

]]> By: zebra https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/05/26/why-is-the-government-slow-inefficient-and-stupid/#comment-469992 Sun, 29 May 2016 10:24:18 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22563#comment-469992 Greg #13,

Ship of Theseus?

]]> By: Julian Frost https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/05/26/why-is-the-government-slow-inefficient-and-stupid/#comment-469991 Sun, 29 May 2016 09:41:20 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22563#comment-469991 There’s a quote attributed to Harry S Truman.

Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

Truman may be regarded as a great president, but on this, he was wrong. Dictatorships, even non-totalitarian ones, may be effective at many things, but they are very inefficient in comparison with democracies. That goes for communism, Nazism, and even apartheid.

]]> By: Thomas P https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/05/26/why-is-the-government-slow-inefficient-and-stupid/#comment-469990 Sun, 29 May 2016 09:15:11 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22563#comment-469990 Obstreperous, sounds like “The Mote in God’s Eye” by Niven and Pournelle.

]]> By: Obstreperous Applesauce https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/05/26/why-is-the-government-slow-inefficient-and-stupid/#comment-469989 Sat, 28 May 2016 23:51:35 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22563#comment-469989 Myself, since I freely use hyperbole, and sometimes wonder aloud about how ideal situations would work, I tend to assume others do as well. Because of that, I often don’t catch the drift of what’s actually going on.

I sympathize with what you’re saying though. I can tell you from personal experience that generalized restructuring can be a weird, nightmarish hell on wheels and very wasteful. Just my two cents, but it’s not something I’d recommend without specific compelling reasons and opportunities. As always, the devil’s in the details.

In practice, the closest workable thing I’ve seen to what you describe is a team approach where teams are formed from pools of expertice and desolved when a project/task/problem is finished. And in conservation, of course, there is adaptive management based on science.

Off topic, I wish I could remember the name of that sci fi story about the world that regularly leveled itself in war. They had sacred museums that they maintained in order to rapidly rebuild… Does that ring a bell with anyone?

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/05/26/why-is-the-government-slow-inefficient-and-stupid/#comment-469988 Sat, 28 May 2016 19:06:51 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22563#comment-469988 OA: No offense taken. I admit my position is a bit different than most.

I’m an anarchist but I don’t want to destroy institutions. I want to cause them to cease to exist. and be replaced by clean versions of their former selves.

]]> By: Gary S https://gregladen.com/blog/2016/05/26/why-is-the-government-slow-inefficient-and-stupid/#comment-469987 Sat, 28 May 2016 16:25:34 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=22563#comment-469987 Hmmm, we used to make “backup” copies on 3.5″ floppies. Then later be confronted by the dreaded “Disk error. Reformat?” error message. See also: http://xkcd.org/1683/

This also reminds my dim brain of the A. E. van Vogt story, “The War Against the Rull.” The Military Technology Director had to explain why they lost the war because of their *superior* technology!

]]>