In Confusion Lies Opportunity
For good and mischief
“In confusion lies opportunity.” Darrell Balmer
Darrell was my first manager at IBM. I don’t remember the context, but what he said made a lot of sense.
In the United States, we are going through a change in government. There is confusion. The confusion is more than just a change in government. We have had confusion within our administrations for many years.
Where is all the money going? Nobody seems to know. According to an article in The Hill, the Department of Defense could not account for 61% of its $3.5 trillion in assets as of 2022. That is how much couldn’t be accounted for. What about amounts that can be accounted for, but were wasted? Without tracking there is confusion. In confusion lies opportunity - for mischief.
It is easy for me to imagine a government that is so large its employees don’t have to worry about oversight. I know from experience that it is difficult to manage a small business. Imagine computer systems that are out of date. Imagine software that is not used because it failed long ago, and the computers are no longer supported. There can be incentive for chaos. In confusion lies opportunity - for mischief.
In the Goldilocks Manifesto, we see that the harm from public action is waste. The way to minimize that harm is by prioritizing spending. We cannot prioritize spending without tracking it. The first thing to do is put systems in place to track our spending.
We should ensure that we can trust our election system. Nobody should be able to say an election was rigged. That is not true today. I have a stack of identification cards nearly an inch thick. One is my voter registration card. It is no longer needed to vote. In Washington State, we vote by mail. There is no way to know whether I marked my ballot, or someone did it for me. Why don’t we have a picture voter identification card for all citizens? Why don’t we vote on paper? Is it because, in confusion lies opportunity - for mischief?
In the Goldilocks Manifesto, we learn that the harm from political action is oppression. The way to minimize that harm is through checks and balances. The political system in the United States has a number of checks and balances. Our constitution with its three branches of government is a good example. It all starts with a trusted election system.
The confusion in our government gives us a great opportunity to do good - by eliminating the confusion from government. That is the only way we can minimize the opportunity for mischief.