Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mark Cuban offers to fund former 18F employees

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 454 posts

Re: Mark Cuban offers to fund former 18F employees

#31

Post by hypeatei »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #19

Privatization is what a lot of people believe is the answer, thinking that there is so much waste and useless things the Federal government does. These people must have never worked at a large corporation. I have a relative in the federal government and we would share stories because the dysfunctions are basically the same. Any large organization of humans working uses a pyramid organization since like the middle age…

> These people must have never worked at a large corporation

Efficiency isn't the point, the point is funneling more money to themselves and their friends.

Re: Mark Cuban offers to fund former 18F employees

#32

Post by kingstoned »

dzonga wrote: post #15

18f has(d) really smart people. who gave up higher wages in the private sector to serve the public. then idiots like musk come along. damage from musk n co will be monumental in the years to come.

It's generally a myth that government employees are somehow receiving low total compensation and they could do better in the real economy.

Here's one government employees providing stats and experiences about what it is like to work for the government: https://www.betonit.ai/p/the-joy-of-government-employment

Re: Mark Cuban offers to fund former 18F employees

#33

Post by davidw »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #19

Privatization is what a lot of people believe is the answer, thinking that there is so much waste and useless things the Federal government does. These people must have never worked at a large corporation. I have a relative in the federal government and we would share stories because the dysfunctions are basically the same. Any large organization of humans working uses a pyramid organization since like the middle age…

> Any large organization of humans

Yes, well said. Also, when you are serious about trying to make it more efficient, you need to understand how things work and why and what incentives are in place and how that relates to what the stated purpose is, and a bunch of other things. You can't come in and make random cuts over the course of a few days and expect things to go well.

Re: Mark Cuban offers to fund former 18F employees

#34

Post by noobermin »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #19

Privatization is what a lot of people believe is the answer, thinking that there is so much waste and useless things the Federal government does. These people must have never worked at a large corporation. I have a relative in the federal government and we would share stories because the dysfunctions are basically the same. Any large organization of humans working uses a pyramid organization since like the middle age…

Having worked at large organisations and governments, they are literally the same. This is so obvious if you've ever had first hand experience of them. I think this is a great example of how a lot of people, even supposed "intellectuals" think with thought-terminating cliches and ideology, because the narrative of gov'ts being inefficient has been a talking point and narrative since Reagan whilst all the time any large corporation or organisation in general has the same type of inertia but somehow no one makes the broad generalisation about both of them.

It's even harder to reach a certain type of "thinker" or "skeptic" who sees such a dividing line between private orgs and governmental orgs because they already style themselves as being critical or intellectual.

Re: Mark Cuban offers to fund former 18F employees

#35

Post by jordanb »

mharrig1 wrote: post #3

So Mark Cuban wants to lean into exactly what DOGE is pushing by putting himself in the middle of the Governmental to Private shift? That doesn't surprise me and gives more evidence that Cuban is not dissimilar to Musk, just that he has much better PR.

> Cuban is not dissimilar to Musk, just that he has much better PR.

Pretty sure they have the same PR. Remember when Musk was getting all those cameos and references in various media?

Elon's problem is he's terminally online so he couldn't just let his media manager run his twitter like a normal billionaire, and at this point I think he's on a trip.

Re: Mark Cuban offers to fund former 18F employees

#36

Post by brookst »

trial3 wrote: post #16
hiddencost wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean Musk is carrying out a coup, and Cuban is trying to invest in some programmers. I think there's some day light here.

but the core problem to me feels like “billionaires in charge of what should be government functions.” this is still that bad for that reason even if Cuban is funnier on Bluesky

This is the category / degree fallacy. We don’t get to choose a world where billionaires have no special power. The choice is whether to accept some good from billionaires, or to reject what good they can do because of the harm they do.

Re: Mark Cuban offers to fund former 18F employees

#37

Post by lesuorac »

hypeatei wrote: post #31
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #19

Privatization is what a lot of people believe is the answer, thinking that there is so much waste and useless things the Federal government does. These people must have never worked at a large corporation. I have a relative in the federal government and we would share stories because the dysfunctions are basically the same. Any large organization of humans working uses a pyramid organization since like the middle age…

> These people must have never worked at a large corporation Efficiency isn't the point, the point is funneling more money to themselves and their friends.

Happens in large corporations too.

Purchases of companies owned the CEO / brother. Mother hiring their children to high internal positions.

Re: Mark Cuban offers to fund former 18F employees

#38

Post by llamaimperative »

JansjoFromIkea wrote: post #9
mharrig1 wrote: post #3

So Mark Cuban wants to lean into exactly what DOGE is pushing by putting himself in the middle of the Governmental to Private shift? That doesn't surprise me and gives more evidence that Cuban is not dissimilar to Musk, just that he has much better PR.

yeah I had to step back from this when I saw it* on my feed because I was so disenchanted by how positive the replies were. Not even sure what their issues with DOGE are if they think this is a great solution... ETA: I'm on about his bluesky post, to be clear, not this thread

I don’t think anyone who “likes” this solution thinks “it’s a great solution”

I reckon approximately 100% of those people would prefer 18F stay how it is

Re: Mark Cuban offers to fund former 18F employees

#40

Post by cmorgan31 »

hypeatei wrote: post #31
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #19

Privatization is what a lot of people believe is the answer, thinking that there is so much waste and useless things the Federal government does. These people must have never worked at a large corporation. I have a relative in the federal government and we would share stories because the dysfunctions are basically the same. Any large organization of humans working uses a pyramid organization since like the middle age…

> These people must have never worked at a large corporation Efficiency isn't the point, the point is funneling more money to themselves and their friends.

Yup, those with capital are the only ones positioned during times of chaos to take advantage of the situation.
Post reply on HN