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Comment by JoeAltmaier | Hacker News Reader

SO, a congressman has to be an expert on:

  The Internet
  Farm policy
  Arms control
  Abortion and medicine in general
  Debt, finance and sustainable economic growth
  ...

I'm not sure we can find even one Congressman to fit the bill (and with that elipsis I can guarantee it).

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SO, a congressman has to be an expert on:

Thats kind of exaggerating the parent post's position, the congresspeople were flat out admitting they have no knowledge on the subject. He didn't say they had to be domain experts.

They _should_ have good domain knowledge on everything relevant to the proposed legislation. Its their full time job to legislate. We pay them so they can have time to focus on understanding the issues instead of treating it as secondary to their real job.

The congressman does not have to be an expert, they have to be able to become WELL INFORMED on anything in which they have policy directing power.

As an IT director I dont have to be an expert in python, ruby, networking, exchange admin, etc... That's why I hire staff who are experts in their areas. They inform me as the best direction to take.

I set the policy, understand to a certain level (rather technical, but not for example CCIE level - thats why I hire CCIEs) what each person does.

But I would never stand up at a company meeting and say "I have no clue how our firewall is configured - but I think we should block all traffic to ports 22, 80 and 25 because that seems to be where all our attacks come to. (blah blah blah port knocking blah blah blah)

Strawman. A congressperson ought to either be an expert in those things, or listen to those that are.

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