It’s strange… I have a sense that civil services used to be enviable, admirable places to work. Elite selection and talented operators getting impressive things done. At least in the UK and China, and also in the US (presumably also other places but I’m less familiar). What went wrong?
My limited experience (c. 14 months as a ‘civil servant’ in the UK AISI, really more like an imported technical expert pretending to be a civil servant) was that I encountered a predominance of very driven, intelligent, and well-motivated people in my immediate vicinity (including, perhaps especially, the ‘real’ civil servants who’d pre-existed AISI). I expect there may have been substantial selection effects. I heard complaints about interfacing with other parts of govt, and certain kinds of moves (like publication or sending messages ‘up the chain’ to MPs) were highly bureaucratised and a bit Procrustean in ways that sometimes limited our autonomy and ability to achieve the mission.
It’s strange… I have a sense that civil services used to be enviable, admirable places to work. Elite selection and talented operators getting impressive things done. At least in the UK and China, and also in the US (presumably also other places but I’m less familiar). What went wrong?
My limited experience (c. 14 months as a ‘civil servant’ in the UK AISI, really more like an imported technical expert pretending to be a civil servant) was that I encountered a predominance of very driven, intelligent, and well-motivated people in my immediate vicinity (including, perhaps especially, the ‘real’ civil servants who’d pre-existed AISI). I expect there may have been substantial selection effects. I heard complaints about interfacing with other parts of govt, and certain kinds of moves (like publication or sending messages ‘up the chain’ to MPs) were highly bureaucratised and a bit Procrustean in ways that sometimes limited our autonomy and ability to achieve the mission.