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Back To My Roots

al3x.net

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Re: Back To My Roots

#11

Post by coops »

cjoh wrote: post #9
coops wrote: post #8

For all their hand-wringing over the healthcare.gov debacle you'd think at least one of these DoBT guys would have gone in to help fix it. That probably would have gotten in the way of fund-raising, though.

We did the best we could, and tried to help on it as much as the law would allow. And still do. But one cannot simply volunteer to help the government do things, as the federal advisory committee act prohibits government from accepting free advice or work (you can infer why). Not sure what you mean about fundraising though, as we don't raise money (we have received a grant for our operations from the Knight Foundatio…

You must not have tried very hard. http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/31/oracle-red-hat-and-google-e... People are still flying out there to help with healthcare.gov, all the time.

Re: Back To My Roots

#13

Post by cjoh »

coops wrote: post #11
cjoh wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We did the best we could, and tried to help on it as much as the law would allow. And still do. But one cannot simply volunteer to help the government do things, as the federal advisory committee act prohibits government from accepting free advice or work (you can infer why). Not sure what you mean about fundraising though, as we don't raise money (we have received a grant for our operations from the Knight Foundatio…

You must not have tried very hard. http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/31/oracle-red-hat-and-google-e... People are still flying out there to help with healthcare.gov, all the time.

Cool. Well, if you'd like to help out, let us know.

Re: Back To My Roots

#14

Post by untog »

coops wrote: post #11
cjoh wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We did the best we could, and tried to help on it as much as the law would allow. And still do. But one cannot simply volunteer to help the government do things, as the federal advisory committee act prohibits government from accepting free advice or work (you can infer why). Not sure what you mean about fundraising though, as we don't raise money (we have received a grant for our operations from the Knight Foundatio…

You must not have tried very hard. http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/31/oracle-red-hat-and-google-e... People are still flying out there to help with healthcare.gov, all the time.

Yes, I'm sure the TechCrunch article you read makes you better qualified to judge than someone who was involved in the actual situation.

Re: Back To My Roots

#15

Post by peter_l_downs »

Really interesting — I think the question of "How can I help make government better?" is not asked enough. My guess is that there is a large number of very smart people who would love to write code to improve the government; I know that when I'm looking for a new gig I'll be reaching out.

Re: Back To My Roots

#16

Post by fivethirty »

ForHackernews wrote: post #2

Whenever I read things like this, my immediate reaction is "How do these people have so much money to travel around the world doing nothing-in-particular for two years?" Are there just a lot of really rich people out there? Or am I over-cautious and they're operating without a safety net?

I won't call you over-cautious, but I submit that it's much much cheaper to travel around the world for an extended period of time that you might imagine depending on where you go (i.e. Thailand = cheap, Iceland = not cheap) and how comfortable you are working odd jobs and/or staying at strangers' houses. I traveled literally around the world a couple of years ago (albeit for months, not years) and spent far less than I do living as I do now in the Bay Area, plane tickets included.

Re: Back To My Roots

#17

Post by tw268 »

peter_l_downs wrote: post #15

Really interesting — I think the question of "How can I help make government better?" is not asked enough. My guess is that there is a large number of very smart people who would love to write code to improve the government; I know that when I'm looking for a new gig I'll be reaching out.

Minority set-asides wouldn't be my answer. It seems the government needs the best contractors it can get.

You'll notice that private companies never do that stuff because they suffer if they don't get results.

Re: Back To My Roots

#18

Post by nilkn »

ForHackernews wrote: post #2

Whenever I read things like this, my immediate reaction is "How do these people have so much money to travel around the world doing nothing-in-particular for two years?" Are there just a lot of really rich people out there? Or am I over-cautious and they're operating without a safety net?

He probably is wealthy from the Twitter IPO, but regardless of that travel is not that expensive if you stay away from beachfront suites and luxury events like the Olympics. My roommate spent two months this summer in Europe, and I think he spent something like $6k in total. He just stayed in hostels and traveled by train whenever possible. That's maybe not dirt cheap, but consider that a lot of people in America blow $10k on a one week trip.

The problem for most people on this forum is probably not money--it's time. I'm sure many readers here have $6k to spend on a vacation. How many have two full months off work a year, on top of all the other normal days off and sick time? I'd wager only a very, very small minority, especially among those in the US.

Re: Back To My Roots

#19

Post by ScotterC »

ForHackernews wrote: post #2

Whenever I read things like this, my immediate reaction is "How do these people have so much money to travel around the world doing nothing-in-particular for two years?" Are there just a lot of really rich people out there? Or am I over-cautious and they're operating without a safety net?

Cost of travel is directly proportional to how fast you want to go. You can get by very cheaply if you have no deadlines. Hitch hiking and teaching English classes leisurely can pay your way.

Having deadlines and taking flights, being picky about lodging - this is what costs money while traveling.

Re: Back To My Roots

#20

Post by incision »

This looks great.

You know what's really wacky about government inefficiency?

It's damn near impossible to help, much less fix from the inside.

I've long been convinced that the best/only way to help right along the lines of what these guys are doing - build boxed solutions from the outside.

This is effectively an air-drop of tools which sails in over top of all the petty backbiting, ass covering and general self-serving bullshit that stifles in-house projects.

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