Pioneering SpiritAn open letter to Lin-Manuel Miranda on the last, best hope to save the republic
Sir, The hour grows late. The President asserts the right to govern by decree. Worse, the Congress has ceded its constitutional prerogatives, neglecting to protect its power of the purse and even the sanctity of its chambers from executive overreach. Charles I chuckles from the grave. In this dark and doom filled hour, one hope remains: the power of story, aided and abetted by unassailable songs stirring up this country’s frayed and nearly forgotten faith in this experiment in self-governance...
Pioneering SpiritApplied research questions on the past, present and near future of government operations
by Patrick Atwater
Pioneering SpiritIntroducing the California Alternative Transformation (CAT) principles for moar efficient, effective…
The Meme Lords are rallying, with the DOGE Techno King and his digital court scheming their next big gambit. The internet's good citizens face a choice: cheer from the sidelines or chart a better path. Let's talk CATs, not DOGE.From our AI Oracles: “Here’s an image of a regal Shiba Inu wielding a scepter and playfully smashing the Capitol.”Putting the future of American government in the hands of a self-styled “Techno-King” seems, uh, mildly antithetical to the spirit of 1776. Not to mention ...
Subscribe to Pioneering Spirit
>200 subscribers
Pioneering SpiritAn open letter to Lin-Manuel Miranda on the last, best hope to save the republic
Sir, The hour grows late. The President asserts the right to govern by decree. Worse, the Congress has ceded its constitutional prerogatives, neglecting to protect its power of the purse and even the sanctity of its chambers from executive overreach. Charles I chuckles from the grave. In this dark and doom filled hour, one hope remains: the power of story, aided and abetted by unassailable songs stirring up this country’s frayed and nearly forgotten faith in this experiment in self-governance...
Pioneering SpiritApplied research questions on the past, present and near future of government operations
by Patrick Atwater
Pioneering SpiritIntroducing the California Alternative Transformation (CAT) principles for moar efficient, effective…
The Meme Lords are rallying, with the DOGE Techno King and his digital court scheming their next big gambit. The internet's good citizens face a choice: cheer from the sidelines or chart a better path. Let's talk CATs, not DOGE.From our AI Oracles: “Here’s an image of a regal Shiba Inu wielding a scepter and playfully smashing the Capitol.”Putting the future of American government in the hands of a self-styled “Techno-King” seems, uh, mildly antithetical to the spirit of 1776. Not to mention ...
Subscribe to Pioneering Spirit
>200 subscribers
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
O1.5 decades ago, Code for America launched it's flagship fellowship. Featuring a who's who cast of tech industry luminaries like the US Federal CTO, Twitter Co-Founder and Mark Zuckerberg, the short video harkens back to an earlier, more idealistic age. (Mark then was a golden boy of American innovation, rather than the battle scarred CEO of a company often likened to the tobacco companies.)
It also brings a spirit that's well worth remembering. The series of tech icons ask "what if" best in class digital talent is placed in city government. Over the next fifteen years, Code for America showed high quality user experiences are possible, provided inspiring examples of new digital public goods being repurposed, and helped launch a whole movement.
Of course public institutions change on a cadence different than the internet. Pioneering digitally native government operations is still early days. Not all the institutions have been discovered yet! Early public technology pioneers laid a great foundation, but today we still stand on the cusp of a great frontier:
Only a failure of imagination, the same one that leads the man on the street to suppose that everything has already been invented, leads us to believe that all of the relevant institutions have been designed and that all of the policy levers have been found. For social scientists, every bit as much as for physical scientists, there are vast regions to explore and wonderful surprises to discover.
An updated version of this article can be found at Economic Growth in the 2nd edition.] Compound Rates of Growth In the modern version of an old legend, an investment banker asks to be paid by placing one penny on the first square of a chess board, two pennies on the second square, four on the third, etc.
O1.5 decades ago, Code for America launched it's flagship fellowship. Featuring a who's who cast of tech industry luminaries like the US Federal CTO, Twitter Co-Founder and Mark Zuckerberg, the short video harkens back to an earlier, more idealistic age. (Mark then was a golden boy of American innovation, rather than the battle scarred CEO of a company often likened to the tobacco companies.)
It also brings a spirit that's well worth remembering. The series of tech icons ask "what if" best in class digital talent is placed in city government. Over the next fifteen years, Code for America showed high quality user experiences are possible, provided inspiring examples of new digital public goods being repurposed, and helped launch a whole movement.
Of course public institutions change on a cadence different than the internet. Pioneering digitally native government operations is still early days. Not all the institutions have been discovered yet! Early public technology pioneers laid a great foundation, but today we still stand on the cusp of a great frontier:
Only a failure of imagination, the same one that leads the man on the street to suppose that everything has already been invented, leads us to believe that all of the relevant institutions have been designed and that all of the policy levers have been found. For social scientists, every bit as much as for physical scientists, there are vast regions to explore and wonderful surprises to discover.
An updated version of this article can be found at Economic Growth in the 2nd edition.] Compound Rates of Growth In the modern version of an old legend, an investment banker asks to be paid by placing one penny on the first square of a chess board, two pennies on the second square, four on the third, etc.
No comments yet