All of Matthew Benjamin's Comments + Replies

Just finished this book by Kate Bingham, a venture capitalist who was head of the UK Vaccine Task Force which invested and got companies to build their supply chains in the country, then was crucified by the media for her efforts. Similar themes to you - gov naivety, lack of technical knowledge, obsession with process over outcome, the optics over the details. I recommend it https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63124712-the-long-shot

Patrick McKenzie AMA

Matthew Benjamin2y1

Thank you!

"My most preferred world vis the public sector for the rest of my life is I occasionally send them paperwork and money and they process that paperwork efficiently"

This sounds very Stripe-y to me!

Patrick McKenzie AMA

Matthew Benjamin2y2

I feel like this answers my question quite well!

Patrick McKenzie AMA

Matthew Benjamin2y2

Hi Patio11,

With regards to "nerdy writing on the internet", there seems to be some sort of loose consensus that moving slowly is a policy choice and that there's lots of relatively cheap ways we could improve the lives of many, many people.

There's also been a parallel convergence within the policy space of the great power of cash benefits, culminating in the COVID relief bills and the fully refundable Child Tax Credit. This follows the same "we can do better" theme as the above consensus, but instead ends up talking about theories of poli... (read more)

4patio112yI think that there is a nuanced discourse to be made about tech and power, but a comment field is likely not the place to do it. I will note that tech has no small amount of power, that traditional power centers are not uniformly thrilled about that, and that tech's response to that has not been to stop doing the things that make tech powerful, like e.g. building things people find useful, getting them to use those things, and exercising responsible discretion as to decisions made about how those things should interface with broader society. Speaking only for myself, for most of my life, I did not want power and (mostly) do not want power. There was a brief period during which the prevailing allocation of power between duly constituted authorities and myself was actively killing people, and during that period my duty was clear. My most preferred world vis the public sector for the rest of my life is I occasionally send them paperwork and money and they process that paperwork efficiently. There are other potential future worlds; I predict I would enjoy them much less.