[bkfunk]

If you have termites, you don’t just light the house on fire.

So many tech people try to solve all the problems of Gov tech in the executive branch, which is intentionally slow and conservative. And yet, watch any Congressional hearing about a tech topic, and it’s painfully obvious that Congress has very little expertise in tech issues on staff.

Instead of going 12 rounds with OIRA about the PRA (which I hate as much as the author does), what if we…changed it?

The Judiciary also has no idea how to think about tech issues.

Don’t blame the executive branch for the perverse constraints and incentives created by the Legislative and Judicial.

[mezzie2]

I've been wondering for a while now why we aren't pushing for more technologists in office. I know most of us don't feel ourselves to be temperamentally suited, but it seems sorely needed.

Maybe some of the recent grads who find themselves in a losing tech job market can pivot.

[omnivore]

it's expensive, the risks of losing are big and they dig into your whole life and basically ruin it. But agreed more people should be in these roles or at least advising these people, but the money is bad and it requires a different set of skills.

[mezzie2]

I think it'd be best to start with getting people to run for local, non-partisan offices. School board, etc. You're right that trying for anything higher than that is going to run into life ruining amounts of interference from existing interests, but I think it could be done at the lowest levels first.

> the money is bad and it requires a different set of skills.

Which is one thing that makes me think of recent graduates. Recently retired people/people in tech who've FIREd also might be viable. People who either can't get a high paying tech job or who had them and are past that stage in life - politics is better than service sector work (for the recent grads) and the retired wouldn't depend on the money.

Skillswise, there are more people going into CS who don't have a passion or intuition for technology - we pushed a lot of people into CS and STEM in general over the last decade or so who wouldn't have pursued it in the 90s-2010s. I bet there are lots of C students who could do a better job at understanding tech than our current leaders and a better job at communicating with non-technical people/schmoozing than most of the talented techies.

> at least advising these people

I think they need to hold office. Advising isn't going to cut it - the incentives for our current politicians to listen to this group aren't there. The only incentive lever we have any hope at pulling (outside of radical system change) is threatening their seats.