An Extinction Level Event is when something - we typically don't really understand what - causes a mass die-off, with 60% or more of species disappearing. The most famous of these was the asteroid that finished off the dinosaurs (if you believe that; I'm skeptical that the answer to their demise is so neat and tidy).
Well Donald Trump said he's going to appoint Elon Musk to lead a "Government Efficiency Commission":
Former President Donald Trump says that if reelected, he’ll create a government efficiency task force — and that Elon Musk has already agreed to lead it. During a speech in New York on Thursday, Trump said the new efficiency commission would conduct a “complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” and make recommendations for “drastic reforms.”
There's no need to look at Tesla's 50% Electric Vehicle market share, or compare SpaceX's launch rate to, well, the rest of the world combined. Most relevant to this discussion is how Elon cut 80% of Twitter's headcount, turning the company around.
Even though reports have Government employees cutting back expenditures in anticipation of potential cuts, lots of folks are skeptical that this can be done at all.
I'm not one of the skeptics, because I've seen this my very own self, in my career at Three Letter Intelligence Agency. It was the mid-1980s and I was a wet-behind-the-ears Electronics Engineer in the COMSEC R&D organization. Their recent triumph was the introduction of the STU-III secure telephone.
The STU-III was a technological marvel, providing high level (Type 1) encryption in a telephony device that, well, worked like a telephone. And it was delivered 2 years early because of a manager who might be described as the 1980s COMSEC version of Elon Musk.
Walt Deeley was a very senior Intelligence Manager. He is listed on the NSA's web site:
As Deputy Director of Communications Security in the early 1980s, Mr. Deeley pushed the development and deployment of the STU-III secure telephone, which has been called the most significant improvement to the security of government voice communications in fifty years. He perceived the need for a new approach, and deployed an affordable and effective telephone security system within two years.
...
Walter Deeley was known as a strong-willed manager who pushed his subordinates hard to get results. While a tough taskmaster, the technical advances and mission achievements he led made the United States more secure.
Bold added by me. Let me give some additional color around that. He was a legend in the COMSEC R&D organization. His reputation was equal parts admiration and fear - it was almost like he who must not be named. People remembered the careers he derailed in his quest for an encrypting telephone.
One story told to me by an old hand was how Deeley had come into the office one Saturday to see how the program was working. He called down to the program office, and the phone rang and rang and rang. Finally one guy who happened to be in the office on the weekend answered. Deeley asked for the Program Manager. When told that the PM wasn't in because it was a Saturday, Deeley told the guy who was there that he was the new PM and to see him first thing on Monday. It was very Elon-Must-at-Twitter.
True story - at least I believed it was. And I for sure wasn't the only one there who did.
So to those who say you can't change how the Government works, color me skeptical. I'm skeptical because I've actually seen it change (well, heard from people who did).
The interesting question here is how you scale this throughout all the Federal Agencies. I think the answer is to use business-as-usual: different offices play office politics against each other to get budget and headcount. That's how the game is played. So set up an incentive structure for Office A to rat our Office B's inefficiencies and duplications to save their own skins. I expect that this would pay big dividends.
It's sort of like setting one type of dinosaur against another, in a battle to the death.
2 comments:
The 1st thing to do is kill the head count game. Joe is a GS-10 but wants to get up in rank, He must add souls to his kingdom by adding a slew of do nothing contractors. Cut the contractor force by 90% and offices lose the reason to even exist. Cut the 5 sided funhouse by 4 sides. I can't begin to tell you about the wasted billions (untracked because the budget team has the collective brainpower of a soapdish). If you don't spend any leftover money at the end of the fiscal year, you get crucified. Consolidate agencies into one to get rid of the SeS and GS-15 staffs. NGA and NSA should fall under DIA or some other overarching command. Rant concluded.
You also paint numbers on the dinosaurs, book odds, and take bets, to further increase the profits of such cage matches.
Then you plow the winnings into funding future cuts.
Make Job Terminations Great Again.
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