I'm concerned by the relatively small number of people in government who are *incentivized* to improve its operations. It's like we expect government workers - out of the kindness of their hearts - to improve the institutions they run. That seems like a silly expectation and if that's what we believe, we aren't living in the real world. We should expect people to look out for themselves, their family, and their community. When we want more than that we need to figure out a way incentivize it. Btw - you can replace the word "government" in this note with non-profit, business, or any other human institution.

People expect new business projects to fail as often as they succeed — sometimes more often. They expect new government projects to succeed most of the time. That’s a strange double standard. Businesses and governments are both run by people, and people are fallible.