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I think this is it - he's looking for publicity as reputational CYA (which is a big part of his job).

If you take a look and go "I can do this" and can't, then you look sketchy. If you take a look and go "nobody will ever be able to do this completely, but I'll try" then you look like a hero.

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Not even necessarily a CYA, but setting expectations about what is possible and what isn't is important.

It's like a doctor evaluating a patient.

On the other hand how could these guys have fucked up any more than they already did? I think it's clear that he's earnest and not trying to win points simply based on that fact... did they do anything right?

At least they weren’t building black market nuclear bombs?

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