What happens when a team turns a failure into a dramatic success? Sometimes, their hard work and courage earn them a GAO nastygram. That's because the GAO holds them accountable to the wrong operating model. www.eatingpolicy.com/p/gao-gets-s...

Choose your variety of abundance. It's like having your colors done, but actually useful. www.niskanencenter.org/abundance-va...

“As any gardener knows, planting is not the hard part. Gardening is about creating the right conditions: tending and fertilizing the soil, watering, weeding to give seedlings the space they need to grow. Effective leadership in today’s sclerotic government also requires cultivation”

In which I argue that Weeding is Fundamental. :) www.eatingpolicy.com/p/better-pol...

Per @pahlkadot.bsky.social, “You can’t redistribute what doesn’t exist.” Successful abundance policies must reduce the barriers that make it hard to access resources AND increase the supply of those resources.

💼 “To transform the operations of the public sector, leaders will need both courage and creativity. Government unions and contractors alike will be uncomfortable." @nytimes.com @robertgo.bsky.social @pahlkadot.bsky.social buff.ly/fS3RQch

You can have government efficiency or you can wage the culture war through administrative policy. You can't have both. @gabemenchaca.bsky.social @pahlkadot.bsky.social

Government can deliver better digital services—but only if it adopts the right operating model. Our new piece at @niskanencenter.bsky.social with @pahlkadot.bsky.social explains why moving from projects to products is the path to services that actually work. www.niskanencenter.org/the-product-...

The President Accounts. A 1939 film by The Government. Newly available in the public domain. archive.org/details/FedF...

Bay Area people: I'll be in SF on June 24th and would love to see you at Mannys! www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening...

"I no longer believe that incremental fixes are enough." I get very excited when leaders like Seemay make big, bold moves like this. More of this, please!

This is an excellent explanation of the politics of Abundance, and how it relates to the populist left. Must read. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...

"San Francisco’s municipal code runs about the same length...as 75 “Moby Dick"s and counting. No lawyer, or even a team of them, could ever muck out all the redundant and outdated sections contained in it. So City Attorney David Chiu is calling in Stanford’s AI experts to help him out."

Just like Congress in the 90s, DOGE ate dessert first. The meal is yet to be served. www.eatingpolicy.com/p/what-doge-...

Great read from @pahlkadot.bsky.social as Musk leaves DOGE www.eatingpolicy.com/p/what-doge-.... We have similar problems in the UK government and need action to fix them

The wise @pahlkadot.bsky.social uses this slide with "Hill staffers who ask me what they should do to improve the performance of an underperforming agency." The key contrast is "something is wrong with these people" vs. "something is wrong with this system." Friction-fixers are system-fixers!

Work requirements are welfare for Deloitte.

And all of a sudden, the House has a bipartisan Build America caucus!

OK, we've imagined the Abundance omelet. Now, which eggs should we break, and how? That analysis must begin with a grasp on how the law promotes scarcity and where legal tools can crack it. It also reveals the bigger-than-Democrats dimension to this. hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/building-a...

This was a great piece. @pahlkadot.bsky.social gives a measured, reasonable assessment of DOGE’s approach while I scream internally.

The global view of the Paperwork Reduction Act: We're the only country that does this. It doesn't work. www.eatingpolicy.com/p/why-the-pa...

If agencies are going to have to make do with dramatically fewer staff, is compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, which does not reduce paperwork, a priority? We'll need to make choices; we should choose what's most meaningful to the mission. www.eatingpolicy.com/p/why-the-pa...

Opposite mode doesn't work. There has to be a positive vision for a government that works. www.eatingpolicy.com/p/opposite-i...

Another brilliant must-read from Kevin Hawickhorst, this time on how we used to manage forms in federal government, a far better way than the Paperwork Reduction Act requires. www.statecapacitance.pub/p/trumans-bu... Stand by for more great PRA content this week!

I was thinking about this Joe and Tracy anecdote from the supply chain crisis on gummy bears. Things are probably going to get really weird in a few weeks in unexpected ways:

A government lawyer's absurd effort to justify a $200 bottled water expense @pahlkadot.bsky.social: "an enormous amount of the waste in government (and what some might call abuse) comes from people trying very hard to avoid the perception of waste and abuse" www.eatingpolicy.com/p/the-water-...

Gov nerds, sludge nerds, and nerds of all flavors, you might enjoy this episode of Freakonomics Radio on government's relationship to sludge, featuring: Neale Mahoney, Benjamin Handel, Richard Thaler, and.... me! freakonomics.com/podcast/slud...

They draw on @pahlkadot.bsky.social’s book, Coding America, which was one of the best two or three books I read last year. This core insight is plainly correct. It is too hard for government to implement worthwhile projects, and it results in declining trust in government.

The burning question everyone's asking: Can a command buy bottled water for servicemembers if no other potable water is available? And what does the decision process tell us about accountability and waste? Answers here: www.eatingpolicy.com/p/the-water-...

That viral clip from Ezra Klein on John Stewart about the 14 steps it takes to get rural broadband funding out the door? My guest author Sam Marullo worked at Commerce and has some perspective on this. Take a read: www.eatingpolicy.com/p/planning-i...

Getting some feedback on the Internets along the lines of OK, enough complaining, what's the alternative? Well, this piece is more history than prescription. But the answer about the alternative is: Read everything by @pahlkadot.bsky.social and the @niskanencenter.bsky.social state capacity team.

Per @pahlkadot.bsky.social, Dems should counter Trump with a strong political alternative that delivers tangible results to the public. And that alternative requires self-reflection. www.eatingpolicy.com/p/punching-l...

@pahlkadot.bsky.social ‘s book recoding America is a great prerequisite to the themes in @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social and @dkthomp.bsky.social ‘s new book Abundance.

Important @pahlkadot.bsky.social piece on abundance and its critics today. She concedes "the obvious problems with greater executive authority at this moment." But Teles and Klein/Thompson are not calling for *lawless* executive authority. Just less bound by non-legislative veto players.

"A consistent message for Derek and Ezra in particular has been that countering Trumpism requires a compelling alternative. Some on the left insist that liberals have one. Polling suggests otherwise.” www.eatingpolicy.com/p/punching-l...

DOGE, vetocracy, and Why Nothing Works… @pahlkadot.bsky.social and Marc Dunkelman break it down, I’d say BRILLIANTLY www.eatingpolicy.com/p/why-nothin...

To understand why government is broken and how to fix it, read @pahlkadot.bsky.social: A case for more "Hamiltonianism which favors centralized authority and expert-led bureaucracy" and less "Jeffersonianism, which champions individual freedom and decentralization" open.substack.com/pub/eatingpo...

If you don't have time to read the book, at least read this commentary on it by @pahlkadot.bsky.social Why Nothing Works www.eatingpolicy.com/p/why-nothin...

Well put.

🤔 @pahlkadot.bsky.social

Thank you all for the kind words about my opinion piece yesterday. What no one is talking about is the incredible animation the lovely folks at the NYT did for it. Look closely. Who is wielding the clippers? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/o...

Anyone who cares about the core principles our of government will need to protect civil servants who defend the law. But a defensive crouch is the wrong response. If you’re mad about what Musk is doing to government, it’s time to go on the offense to reform it. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/o...

Jen Pahlka on the difference in good faith efforts to reform government versus Musk's wrecking ball approach. "But my goal — the goal of many Democrats and Republicans alike — has been to revitalize government. Mr. Musk seems to be trying to destroy it." - @pahlkadot.bsky.social

Today is Fork in the Road Day, and we should be thinking about legacy code all over government. www.eatingpolicy.com/p/jed

Seems like a good time to say this again.

Government reform on its face isn’t a partisan issue, so why does it seem to fall under the purview of Republicans? @pahlkadot.bsky.social tells @jerusalem.bsky.social why she thinks Democrats need to “get in the game” of reduction.

The piping of American government has multiple channels: civil service, contractors, consultants. That system was built to make orgs run lean, but it came with a fatal flaw: communication. In Hypertext, we unpack that.

@niskanencenter.bsky.social enter will be hosting a Law of abundance conference in early 2026, chaired by @nbagley.bsky.social and Zach Liscow. Here is the call for papers: www.niskanencenter.org/law-of-abund...

As you know, fixing federal hiring has been at the top of my wishlist for a long time. I had the chance to talk about this on OddLots with the amazing @tracyalloway.bsky.social and @thestalwartt.bsky.social , and it's out today. We cover some other stuff too. :) bloom.bg/3Cfti9V

Lessons from our past- how the federal government taught its managers to cut red tape: "Eisenhower's Bureaucrats" @KHawickhorst @pahlkadot.bsky.social @vgr.bsky.social (Plus- Eisenhower's 6th State of the Union) Fix it instead of throwing it away: roughlydaily.com/2025/01/10/d...