Novice reformers chase big, countable targets—like imagined trillion‑dollar Social Security fraud—while ignoring messy constraints like contract law and data baselines. This misallocates scarce talent and produces headline metrics without real fixes.
— It warns the public and policymakers against 'easy money' anti‑waste crusades and sets realistic expectations for government efficiency drives.
by Eli Hager
2025.09.08
86% relevant
DOGE leaders wrote 'Find fraud. Quickly.' on the whiteboard and chased quick, countable wins while ignoring the agency’s complex legacy architecture ('Dead Sea Scroll'), matching the pattern where reformers pick easy-to-measure targets and miss binding constraints.
2025.08.25
80% relevant
Rickover’s disdain for management‑consulting 'best practices' and his focus on intangible human qualities and hands‑on oversight echo the warning that chasing legible, big targets and glossy frameworks misallocates reform energy versus building real operator competence.
Daniel Peris
2025.08.20
50% relevant
The essay shows how a highly legible metric (a cap‑weighted index) became the target function for investors and companies, distorting behavior away from messy fundamentals—echoing how simple metrics can misdirect complex systems.
Santi Ruiz
2025.07.03
100% relevant
The piece cites Musk’s belief in ~$1T Social Security fraud, repeated failures to read federal contracts, and misestimation of phone fraud.