Musk's move fast and break things mantra won't work in US.gov

248-year-old democracy is not a tech startup

Opinion 120-hour work weeks, firing government staffers and dismantling agencies? Oh my. The US government under pseudo President Musk is in for a world of radical change.

Let's leave aside what Elon Musk – who some are saying has become the de facto US government ruler – is doing with American policies, as de jure President Donald Trump plays golf and issues frequently nonsensical executive orders. I hate most of Musk's policies, but today my subject is how he is changing the nuts and bolts of the federal government and its approach to technology.

I come at this not from a unique place, but a relatively rare one. You see, before I became a tech journalist who's spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley, I worked as a programmer and system administrator for NASA and the Department of Defense Inside the Beltway. In short, I know how tech works, how tech bros think, and how government tech staffers do their jobs. There's a gigantic difference between them.

For starters, Musk wants to bring the manic tech work style to the government. You can only con tech workers into 120-hours work weeks with the Initial Public Offering (IPO) carrot in their 20s. Thirty-year-old government workers who will never see an IPO are another story entirely.

Tech IPOs are largely a fantasy anyway. The dream of being a billionaire compels people to work themselves into oblivion, but the reality is that only a tiny percentage actually achieve significant wealth via this route. Your best shot is to slave for a company when it's just taking off and then hope like hell it actually makes it to an IPO or an incredibly lucrative exit buyout.

The US government, on the other hand, is 248 years old. I don't see an IPO coming anytime soon.

As it happens, though, you can profit from the government. For example, Musk paid Trump more than $250 million to help fund his political campaign. In return, via the non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk has since gained unprecedented power over the United States for an unelected person. This is hardly a route that a NASA software developer or a Veteran Administration's pharmacist can take.

On the other hand, if you're a young workaholic working for Musk, like, say, 25-year-old Marko Elez, who's now in charge of the US Treasury payment system, you'll do just fine. Ordinary government employees? Not so much.

Besides simply being unable to work seven days a week even if they wanted to, millions of federal employees face layoffs or buyout offers, with DOGE seeking to eliminate "redundant" roles. Career officials opposing these moves have been sidelined or forced into retirement.

Unfortunately, the government needs day-in, day-out humdrum workers. As Musk takes Trump's idea of getting rid of employees into practice, they'll find there's a lot less fat than Republican propaganda would have Americans believe.

In particular, this fire or retire-them-all approach Musk is pushing will lead to the best and brightest leaving the government. I've seen this playbook in action before, albeit on a much lower level, when I was in the government. It didn't work well then. It won't work well now.

Musk, like Trump before him, also doesn't have a clue about how the government works. Yes, you can dictate "Make it so" but this isn't Star Trek. Well, not the Enterprise Star Trek, anyway. The government moves more like Star Trek's Lower Decks Cerritos on a bad day.

If you've watched the show, though you'll have seen that comical blunders and all, the crew get the job done. Yes, there are government employees that need to be fired, but many others are essential to getting the necessary work done.

It's exciting, or terrifying, to see Musk making government changes, but Musk and company aren't taking time to consider what these changes mean. For example, Musk claims "corruption and waste is being rooted out in real-time" when he shut down funds sent to Lutheran Family Services, which provides elder care in South Dakota and support for Afghan refugees who worked with the US army during the Afghan war, among other services.

A few minutes of study would have revealed that this group should not immediately be defunded. After all, even if you disagree with their humanitarian policies, South Dakota is a solidly red state that voted for Trump with a 63.4 percent majority. Is it really a smart move for Republicans to get on the bad side of their older voters?

Musk's overhaul reflects an ideological push to shrink government but destabilizes institutions reliant on expert, experienced oversight.

Even if you disagree with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who accuses Musk of running a "shadow government" and calls DOGE's actions a "hostile takeover," I think anyone can agree that while "move fast and break things" may work in technology, it doesn't work well for governments or democracies. ®