[whybroke]

>...young...

This the first and presumably most important requirement in you opinion? Interesting.

May I ask, how did you extrpolate it was a property of the team at all let alone responsible for its success let alone the first component of that success?

[liyanchang]

Disclosure: I'm an engineer at USDS and these are my own opinions.

We hire for experience, which comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Based on my personal observations, the team is actually the most diverse team I've ever worked on by a number of dimensions. We've pulled folks from retirement, others who are chronologically younger but have been contributing to Python and Debian for years, those who have uprooted their family. The job is an incredible mix - it requires being able to debug a slow performing database index one moment, briefing a deputy secretary the next, all while empowering the other federal employees and contractors to do great things.

I would be remiss not to take this opportunity to link to our hiring page. https://www.usds.gov/join

I do recognize that there are lots of talented folks that aren't able to move to DC or can't make it work for a variety of reasons. That's okay. There are many other ways to contribute to our country [0] - working for state/local government, volunteering in your community, being a good parent, inventing the next breakthrough, actually using your turn signals, and many more.

[0] Yes I recognize that not everyone here is US based. Though the point actually is probably true for all countries.

[jdeibele]

As an old guy, I have other committments besides work. Family, non-profits, etc. It's helpful not to have to worry about those things as well as moving across the country for a lot less pay in a job that might not succeed.

[whybroke]

But flexibility, adventurousness, low pay were not listed in the parent post, just age.

Indeed, you can easily insert any idea not actually mentioned post hoc. It's especially easy to insert unsupported but widely believed justifications. For that matter, you could extrapolate that dietary habits or music taste somehow result in less time eating and more team unity if you're absolutely set on justifying a weak assumption or policy.

But particularly one would think the fact they they are not all actually young would be somehow taken into account before justifying they claim that it's the premier attribute to enumerate.

[toomuchtodo]

Young people are mobile, few obligations, and can easily live 4-6 in a rental townhouse in DC for two years while making below market rates.