Patrick McKenzie

And so have to keep both of those parts of the equation in our minds at the same time.

I think that people in tech need to become radically more skilled at interfacing with government to the extent that it is, you know, we have some manifest competency issues in government right now.

We can't simply sit out here and gripe about this on podcasts and et cetera, et cetera.

We've got to go out and do something about it.

And there was a, I think it's been reported that there was a meeting among tech leaders early in the vaccination effort where a bunch of people got in a room and were like, this is going terribly.

I hope someone fixes it.

And I hope someone fixes it is no longer a realistic alternative.

I think we have to be part of that solution there.

Partly it's like having higher fidelity models for how Washington works than simply, oh, they're bad at everything.

It is important to understand that the government has some manifest competence issues.

It's also important when working with the government to understand that telling the government to its face you have manifest competence issues is not the maximally effective way to keep getting invited to the meetings.

I was very religious about not criticizing anything about this Californian response effort in 2021 because we needed to be in the room where it happens.

And, you know, that was a choice made.

And am I 100% happy with that choice?

No, but we kept some relationships that we really needed.

And I'm not saying don't criticize the government, obviously, but be strategic about the sort of things, like play like you were attempting to win the game.

And, you know, on the government side, one, like dispelling the massive UGG field that surrounds software, this is going to be a part of the future, whether you like it or not, we need to get good at it.

We can no longer accept incompetence at this as the routine standard of practice in Washington.

Two, you know, it is enormously to the United States credit that we have a extremely functional, extremely capable tech industry.

Maybe we shouldn't treat it like the enemy.