Jennifer Pahlka
Author of Recoding America; founded Code for America and was US deputy chief technology officer from 2013 to 2014.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Jennifer Pahlka did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Our reading
Rising AI capability is undermining the assumptions that justify slow, manual government processes.
Their wordsAI creates a crisis by making the assumptions on which government operates untenable.
↗The Crisis We've Been Waiting Foreatingpolicy.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsCrises aren't defined by how bad a problem is. They're defined by when the bad outcomes hit people with the ability to make a stink.
↗The Crisis We've Been Waiting Foreatingpolicy.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThings government has long explained as difficult, expensive, or slow are going to look increasingly like choices.
↗The Crisis We've Been Waiting Foreatingpolicy.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 12 days earlier
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Their wordsWe now know that fires are necessary for healthy forests, that a century of fire suppression in the West has been disastrous.
↗Weekend short read: Fire is a metaphor, until its noteatingpolicy.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsThe difference is mostly the delay, which stems not necessarily from the regulation itself, but from the incentives in the machinery that administers it.
↗Weekend short read: Fire is a metaphor, until its noteatingpolicy.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 days earlier
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Their wordsour lawmakers tend to stop paying attention once the political work is done.
↗Checking in on Outcomes Reviewseatingpolicy.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsthe time to make that point is not during a televised hearing when everyone is trying for a viral clip.
↗Checking in on Outcomes Reviewseatingpolicy.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
Well-functioning systems succeed through continuous debugging rather than perfect initial design.
Their wordsWhen things work well, it's usually not because they were designed perfectly, but because they are constantly being debugged.
↗Checking in on Outcomes Reviewseatingpolicy.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 13 days earlier
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Our reading
Philanthropy can never operate at the scale of government, no matter how well-funded it becomes.
Their wordsEven with the influx of funding that may come with the AI companies' IPOs, philanthropy can never act at the scale of government.
↗Thinking the unthinkableeatingpolicy.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordswe've both come to believe that when transformation fails repeatedly, it's time for something different, and one of the tools that leaders need to add to their tool belts (and probably use a lot more frequently than they do today), is starting fresh, creating new entities (agencies and departments, for example) and either endowing them with new authorities or transferring authorities from legacy institutions to the new ones.
↗Thinking the unthinkableeatingpolicy.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThere is suddenly political will and leadership on these issues, which makes change now possible, but the administrative state is not going to reform itself.
↗Thinking the unthinkableeatingpolicy.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 weeks earlier
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Their wordsThese wins are not proof that the system works; in fact, they are clear evidence that the system only works when it is circumvented.
↗North Carolina’s bold move on civil serviceeatingpolicy.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsWhile I don't think compensation is the core challenge of civil service systems, of course it matters.
↗North Carolina’s bold move on civil serviceeatingpolicy.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsEvery state, and the federal government right along with them, is about to be asked to do a lot more than keep the lights on.
↗North Carolina’s bold move on civil serviceeatingpolicy.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 4 weeks earlier
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Their wordsGovernment is where the literal money is (money that could often go much further if we fixed what's wrong with government), but it's also where the impact is. And it's where the legitimacy is.
↗Philanthropy’s Willie Sutton Problemeatingpolicy.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsWhen government can't act at the speed of the technology, the consequential decisions still get made, but by the companies building it rather than the public's representatives.
↗Philanthropy’s Willie Sutton Problemeatingpolicy.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsTransformation comes from fields with a plan, not projects with potential.
↗Philanthropy’s Willie Sutton Problemeatingpolicy.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 weeks earlier
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Their wordsIronically, an effective digital service can provide just enough success to excuse the lack of true reform.
↗The Digital Service Was Never the Pointeatingpolicy.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
A digital-service team embedded in an unchanged agency produces no lasting change once it moves on.
Their wordsA digital service team that works with an agency that continues to hire and manage for the same jobs they did last year, and structures the work in the same way it did last year, is just a tourist.
↗The Digital Service Was Never the Pointeatingpolicy.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
Being skilled at tracking project requirements doesn't make someone skilled at product management.
Their wordsBut being good or even excellent at that does not automatically make you good at understanding user needs and making informed judgement calls about what features will meet those needs and how they should be designed.
↗The Digital Service Was Never the Pointeatingpolicy.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 5 weeks earlier
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Their wordsAI is not only an exogenous shock that government will have to absorb. It is also moving the bar on what counts as acceptable service in the first place.
↗A (shorter) Three Horizons Framework for Government Reformeatingpolicy.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThe forty-page PDF used to feel intolerable. The well-designed web form will start to feel that way too, and faster than the last transition did.
↗A (shorter) Three Horizons Framework for Government Reformeatingpolicy.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsExtending the lifespan of a brittle system just means the system eventually fails more spectacularly.
↗A (shorter) Three Horizons Framework for Government Reformeatingpolicy.com 3rd of 3 in this piece