You Would Have Failed
Elon Musk and the other DOGE folks might learn a lesson from history. Sometimes it’s smarter to ask the natives rather than assuming they have nothing intelligent to say.
When I was younger I read an excellent book called “A Bridge Too Far” by Cornelius Ryan. It’s a great book and I highly recommend reading it. There’s also an excellent movie of the same name. The book is a brief, well-written history of one of the worst debacles the Allied forces suffered in World War II. A military operation called “Operation Market Garden” was intended by the Allies to be a decisive thrust through the Netherlands to take the war right to the border of Germany. You can see all the details in the Wikipedia article I’ve linked.There was one anecdote mentioned in the book which really has stuck with me over the years.
Supposedly one of the Dutch generals said to Field Marshal Montgomery “You would have failed.” When asked what he was talking about the Dutch general told them that the final exam in the Dutch War College was basically “How should you attack Arnheim?” which was what the Allies were doing in Operation Market Garden. Basically there were two options worth considering. Flank Arnheim and attack from multiple sides or try to move all your troops along a raised road into Arnheim and attack that way. The Allies decided on using the raised road approach—which was the incorrect solution to the War College’s “How should you attack Arnheim” exam. The Germans sat on either side of the raised road and as soon as they disabled a couple of vehicles on the road, it was effectively impassable. But no one—not Montgomery nor any of his subordinates bothered to consult the Dutch generals or the Dutch resistance fighters about how to attack Arnheim and about German troop strength. It was (and is) an arrogant move that caused a lot of unnecessary carnage and which could have been avoided if anyone had thought to ask the natives for their opinions. It probably also helped to prolong the war; I’m not a historian so that’s not an opinion I’d be prepared to vigorously defend.
How does this relate to Musk and the DOGE folks? Musk, much as it appears he did with Twitter, seems to have come in with the assumption that the people doing the job currently are not worth asking about what they might do to make things better. Now I don’t know anything about the people in these federal agencies that he’s taking his magical chainsaw to but I am willing to bet there are at least one or two of them who might have some worthwhile ideas about where money could be saved and where things might be made more efficient. But once again, Musk, like Montgomery, isn’t bothering to ask the natives. And Musk, like Montgomery is demonstrating a breathtaking level of arrogance. The truly smart person knows how little they know and hence they ask for help. Not Musk. Apparently he considers that he’s a genius and the rest of us are just plebs who are in his way while he’s busily trying to fix the world.