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Comment by ineedaj0b | Hacker News Reader

all those perspectives have truth to them but you're missing a third: they are preparing for automation.

you can drastically reduce workforce sizes at all companies. AI hasn't done this yet because there's no hole to fill; people fill the hole happily. but.. it's coming and we all know how behind gov (and many businesses) navigate compared to our best tech companies. this reduction in gov size will happen first, then maybe 2026 or whenever you'll hear stories of legislation to increase pay for gov workers and congress to attract better talent.

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They fired the people helping with automation, and the people with domain knowledge to enable automation.

We know the hack and slash method leads to more corruption and doesn't produce savings.

The resources like 18f would have been critical for what you are describing above.

'Agentic AI' is still a pipe dream, context is still required for application of what we know it can do anyway.

Nothing shows any inkling that DOGE has the appropriate SME's in place. If they do they better start communicating intent and proving themselves.

Right now it seems that they are rank amateurs who are nothing more than an impediment to efficient, effective government.

you bring up good points. but you should also keep in mind sometimes young kids who don't know any better often do a pretty good job.

any attempt to 'do it right' is also meetings and panels and... more ways to slow down and avoid being removed. it's tough

> but you should also keep in mind sometimes young kids who don't know any better often do a pretty good job.

At entry level positions in their field. Not at taking a damn axe to the internal workings of a government they know nothing about.

> sometimes young kids who don't know any better often do a pretty good job.

At greenfield projects.

I'd love examples of where young kids who don't know any better have improved legacy systems already in production.

The entire idea of 18F and USDS was that you needed to fuse {young talent} with {help navigating government requirements} to produce good outcomes. Take away the latter, and you end up with broken things.

My $0.02: Elon and DOGE are being encouraged to be publicly excessive and will then be politically blamed for any negative outcomes in 2026 or '28, if things turn south.

> they are preparing for automation.

This isn't preparing in the slightest. This is impulse-response. Taking a sledgehammer to our institutions and seeing what happens. A cruel child picking apart the legs of a spider just to see how many it can before it dies.

Adding performance guidelines has been done before. It was done in a systematic way that tried very carefully to avoid disruption to functions[1]. DOGE is forcing its way into offices and physically compromising internal data systems in order to feed data into an experiment.

1. https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/library/papers/bkgrd/bri...

i don't have any experience in high level CEO stuff, but i heard when companies are purchased (takeover's etc.) they say consider what you need to cut; then cut double what you initially think.

i think you should keep in mind that both parties have very smart people in them that care about the country and are trying to do the right thing.

it's a shame the best gov employees are probably non-partisan but you'll never see them in those jobs.

>i think you should keep in mind that both parties have very smart people in them that care about the country and are trying to do the right thing.

I think this is an absurd claim that is not supported by the facts. DOGE staff are young Elon sycophants[1] that have openly and explicitly supported eugenic policies[2]. There is no reason to believe that they are trying to do the right thing.

1. https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-government-young-engin...

2. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/06/nx-s1-5289337/elon-musk-doge-...

They said they want "shock and awe" applied against the bureaucracy, to break it down and make it so it can't resist illegal directives. Plus they want to remove its ability to effectively regulate industry.

Why speculate about this when they said exactly what they're gonna do, and why, and then started doing what they said they would?

Wouldn't automation and layoffs be synchronized, in such a plan ?

Also, how do we plan automating park rangers ?

pragmatically, costs. to do it right you need to promise the data isn't leaving, so you'd need to deploy your own stack (costly but not too much). you're explicitly replacing 'people' which left or right probably don't have much support for and people already are incensed when they hear about Musk/Trump, now bring in Machines taking Jobs.

it could happen in the next 4 years, i wouldn't write it off. but all cabinet members need to bring themselves up to speed. trump appears to be moving quickly but it's because he spent 2+ years thinking up everything he's doing. i doubt cabinet picks spent similar time - they probably weren't even sure he'd pick them.

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