[HN Gopher] DoGE "cut muscle, not fat"; 26K experts rehired afte...
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       DoGE "cut muscle, not fat"; 26K experts rehired after brutal cuts
        
       Author : jnord
       Score  : 71 points
       Date   : 2025-11-24 22:12 UTC (48 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | LunicLynx wrote:
       | Isn't this part of Elons ,,process": Delete until you deleted too
       | much, then restore enough to make it work again, hopefully in a
       | leaner state
        
         | Jtsummers wrote:
         | That's what the supporters said. The problem was, and is, a
         | complete lack of deliberation, which his process doesn't
         | provide room for.
         | 
         | As mentioned in one of the linked discussions by
         | ChrisArchitect, they didn't go out and actually _talk_ to the
         | groups they were cutting (or not cutting). The people in the
         | field know where a lot of waste is, and having an organization,
         | theoretically, at the level of DOGE take interest in it would
         | have gotten things moving that just don 't happen when you're
         | 10-20 levels from those with actual authority to change policy.
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | [dupe]
       | 
       |  _' Suddenly exposed' DOGE employees fear prosecution after Musk
       | abandoned them_
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46024983
       | 
       |  _Doge 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter_
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46028721
        
       | KaiserPro wrote:
       | Its one of those things that's a hard lesson to learn; ideology
       | isn't greater than experience.
       | 
       | One of the biggest lessons I learnt when I was a younger dev is a
       | living allegory that my manager told me:
       | 
       | "one day the new boss came in to a budget meeting. The boss was
       | out to make a good impression, and come out winning. The boss
       | looked for any 'useless spend'.
       | 
       | Looking at the budget, the Boss saw how much was being spent on
       | cleaner.
       | 
       | Looking around, the Boss boomed 'The place is spotless, why the
       | fuck am I paying for cleaners. There's nothing to clean'
       | 
       | The underlings laughed and clapped. Oh how clever the Boss was,
       | saving such a big amount at the first budget.
       | 
       | Needless to say the Boss was most put out when the invoice for
       | pest removal, food standard violation and toilet cleaning landed
       | in the next budget. "
       | 
       | There's a reason why things are done that way. It might not be a
       | good reason, but its still a reason. You need to find and
       | evaluate the reason for something existing, before you fuck it
       | up. Yes, before you ask, I did fuck up, more than once.
        
         | yoyohello13 wrote:
         | I have a big legacy code base as part of my responsibility and
         | Chesterton's Fence comes up at least once a month.
        
       | alistairSH wrote:
       | Who's going to prosecute them? It won't be the Trump DOJ. They're
       | safe, sadly.
        
       | bgirard wrote:
       | This is one of many frequent reminders: In some environments, how
       | you brand and market your work (Mush with a chainsaw cutting
       | spending comes to mind) is often more important than the work you
       | do. Most wont bother to look at the actual results of your work.
        
       | encomiast wrote:
       | This is coming out the same day two DOJ cases led by a US
       | attorney with no previous prosecutorial experience were
       | unceremoniously tossed out. DOGE sent in a bunch of 20 somethings
       | to "fix" the technology while cutting entire groups of
       | experienced technologists like 18F. To say nothing of the CDC,
       | whose communications are starting to look like a bad, late-night
       | infomercials.
       | 
       | I understand having a problem with a authority that manifests as
       | a distrust of experts, but the combination of ignorance and
       | arrogance is breathtaking.
       | 
       | Hopefully 2026 can be a year of restoring some adults to
       | positions of responsibility.
        
       | beanjuiceII wrote:
       | doge in the end was not allowed to do their work, they tried to
       | fight the swamp but the swamp won. In my sector management fought
       | tooth and nail after doge pinpointed major waste..and we made
       | sure they could not go any further. meanwhile the wheels of waste
       | kept rollin'
        
       | fwip wrote:
       | [delayed]
        
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       (page generated 2025-11-24 23:00 UTC)