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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

At the same time, I'd prefer people with practical tech experience, not academics who have rarely experienced solving real world problems (as opposed to theory).

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I doubt that PhDs from Boeing or FFRDCs are going to real strangers to "real-world research problems."

At the same time, are they experienced in CRUD apps? Probably not. Solve the right problem with the right people.

The OTA doesn't need devs and Facebook engineers, they're not developing CRUD apps, and they don't need to know what CRUD is. They need to be well educated, qualified professionals who are capable of advising the government on technology issues that affect the whole population. They need to be well-rounded and capable of seeing things both from many perspectives, including those of tech company engineering departments, federal law, and scientific pursuits.

Thank you! I appreciate the correction!

Sounds like sci-fi writers might best fit the bill.

A concept used to great effect in the novel Footfall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footfall

What in the world difference would it make if they're familiar with CRUD apps? They're not writing code for government infrastructure

I'm struggling to think of something more irrelevant to the technical needs of legislators than some fad storage technology.

It's not a tech, and that's sort of the point.

An analogy might be 'designed an actual building - even a warehouse' when talking about an architect.

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