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Comment by dev_dull | Hacker News Reader

If you think they’re going to end up with “technically competent” engineers I have some bad news for you: they’re all gainfully employed. What they’ll end up with is the same thing committees always up with: bureaucrats who wouldn’t be able to hack in the private sector.

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So your argument is that there's nobody both technically competent and willing to work in an important role for the government? I can tell you for a fact you're wrong, and if you don't believe me, you may want to widen your social circle.

Like most government positions, I'm not sure I would trust anybody that actually wants to take that position. It's going to skew heavily towards either activists or the corrupt.

In theory, anyway, I'd push for appointing people to such roles by sortition, although that would never work in practice. Politics as a duty rather than as a career.

There's plenty of people with the necessary skills outside of the private sector or outside of the SF/SV tech bubble. The key will be how they select the experts, if it's a revolving door from FAANG then we know it was all a sham.

Sortition from what pool? I'd favor educating congresspeople (and citizens) but where's the incentive to make that happen?

I think there’s an abundance of capable and willing people for government positions, but bureaucrats don’t select for these people. They select for other bureaucrats.

Sure, but establishing this office includes setting out staffing procedures, so there exists a mechanism for this issue to be addressed. Whether it will be or not is another question.

Just pay more. I can guarantee you there are plenty of software engineers currently coding dark patterns and rigging Candy Crush or what have you that would prefer to work for the government if they paid competitively.

Current senior software engineer positions at a FANG company pays better than the president of the United States.

That's fine, it will represent the views of people who don't see technology primally as a way to extract wealth from fellow residents.

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