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Comment by FridayoLeary | Hacker News Reader

>Would you prefer that the head of the FAA have no clue about the airline industry or airplanes in general?

Not being an industry expert shouldn't necessarily be a disqualifier. For example we don't insist that the secretary of health should be a doctor, or that the defence ministry should be run by generals. The main qualities needed is being a good manager and able to listen to alternative views and being a good politician (yes, it's important to have good politicians). If anything being an outsider actually helps the organisation more because it avoids conflicts of interest like op and it keeps the head humble.

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I agree with boeingUH60 on the health example

> or that the defence ministry should be run by generals.

This is a weird exception to the rule. It's a case where there is a strong argument to be made for sacrificing competence in exchange for minimizing the risk of a coup by bringing in an outsider without close relationships with the people below him.

There is no other department where we have to worry in quite the same way that they might just choose to start ignoring the rule of law, courts, and congress, and that if they do there is nothing that could really be done about it.

You don't have to look very far to find examples of militaries seizing power. Meanwhile I'm reasonably confident in saying that no aircraft regulation agency has ever seized power in the history of the planet.

It boils down to trust. A head needs to win the trust of his political overlords as well as, in more limited circumstances the general public. That's why he needs to be good at politics. It's no point appointing a supremely qualified individual if he's poor at communications and relationships.

> For example we don't insist that the secretary of health should be a doctor.

I'll definitely want my country's Secretary of Health to be a doctor who understands public health and its related policies, not a politician whose primarily skill is being popular and getting elected.

>The main qualities needed is being a good manager and able to listen to alternative views and being a good politician.

A Health Secretary who's not a doctor would find it difficult to judge if they're being fed the right information by their advisers.

Remember that Boeing's woes began when the company ceased to be run by the engineers and aviation experts, but instead by the arrogant MBA counters who likely pitched themselves as good managers. It turns out they mostly cared about management and printing cash, but lacked engineering expertise, leading to screwups like the 737 Max.

> I'll definitely want my country's Secretary of Health to be a doctor who understands public health and its related policies, not a politician whose primarily skill is being popular and getting elected.

Why not? The head of the WHO is not a medical doctor, he's a doctor in the sense that he has a PhD.

There is probably no organization more trusted than the WHO.

>A Health Secretary who's not a doctor would find it difficult to judge if they're being fed the right information by their advisers.

That's the point of being a good manager. Being able to forge personal relationships and to trust your underlings. Having experience in an industry isn't that helpful when dealing with policy that lies outside a heads direct field of expertise.

Being a doctor doesn't automatically provide a greater insight into what would make policies more successful. Yes he might have first hand knowledge of conditions on the ground, but the longer he's been out of doctoring the less up to date he will be and he will just be stuck with old notions of what things were like years ago.

Your point about boeing is irrelevant, because the managment these had motives beyond engineering excellence, i.e making money.

> I’ll definitely want my country’s Secretary of Health to be a doctor who understands public health

If by “doctor” you mean, as people usually do in general conversation, an MD (or DO), why? Public health is an entirely different discipline from medicine, with its own series of professional degrees. As is public administration. As is public policy. Why would a top-level public administrator and public policy professional in the field of public health need to have a professional degree in medicine more than one in public health, public administration, or public policy?

OTOH, your Surgeon-General or equivalent should definitely be a medical doctor.

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