Accountability needs a system, not an email
Submarines, aliens, and procrastination (Issue #280)
I have a friend — whom I am absolutely not going to name, for obvious reasons — that works in U.S. federal government. Last week, they emailed Elon Musk their requisite approx. five “bullets” listing their accomplishments for the week. He will apparently feed the responses to an LLM, creating an automated portrait of what the government has accomplished.
Takes exploded after Musk sent that email on Saturday. An engineering lead in the U.S. Digital Service used it to prompt a long letter to both Musk and Susie Wiles, the White House Chief of Staff, explaining how indiscriminate firings have left him without a team to carry out the work of making government more efficient. Others explained that the email was no way to lead a team (or even to measure productivity). Mainly, workers found it insulting because Musk is not their boss and does not work within their agency. Others, like my friend, just responded normally.
One perspective, on Medium, felt different. Canadian writer Jennifer Robson notes that a group of current or former Shopify execs tweeted a “glowing endorsement” of DOGE’s strategy, comparing it to the Canadian government’s “Program Review” strategy in the ’90s. Robson worked in the Canadian government between 1994–1995 and 2007–2010, so she has some insider knowledge here.
Essentially, Program Review created a new process for teams to shed resources they no longer needed. “This could include doing less but better with fewer resources,” she explains. Every investment needed to pass a number of tests:
Robson draws a clear distinction between Program Review and DOGE. One sets up a sustainable process for keeping government accountable and maintaining efficiency; the other is sudden, chaotic, and unsustainable. Robson writes that Program Review succeeded in balancing the federal budget within three years because it “followed the rules of our system and institutions. It didn’t look to break them. It was aimed at making them stronger.” And, fundamentally, it empowered people who understand the system best — not interlopers or newcomers — to ask: “Do we still need this?”
🌊 Also today: life on a submarine
Jon Davison takes us aboard the HMAS Rankin, a submarine that can dive upwards of 590 feet. He was a guest of the Royal Australian Navy, and was invited to interview the crew and take a few photos for a coffee table book about Australian subs. He spent a total of 126 days at sea between Korea, Japan, Hawaii, and Sydney.
The crew cooked “180 extra large ‘slab pizzas’” while submerged, one pretty much every Saturday night they were at sea, he writes. For Davison, the trip was memorable because it forced strangers to cooperate in ways they never would have to on land (or even at sea level). “You MUST have trust and honour, you MUST be well organized, you MUST have humility and respect, you MUST be able to let go, to get on with each other and grow personally.”
👽 A dash of practical wisdom
Not doing what matters most to you? Procrastinating on a project you care deeply about… but can’t get the time to start? Enter: The Alien of Shame. It’s a trick from James Clear. Imagine that an alien watched you for two weeks. What would the alien say your values are? How are those different from your actual values? Draw a little alien and keep it by your desk to remind you… They’re Watching. (The Growth Equation)
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Edited and produced by Scott Lamb & Carly Rose Gillis
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