In final days in office, Obama's White House uses words of Steve Jobs to woo techies
As the Obama administration leaves the White House this week, one piece of the outgoing president's legacy -- the U.S. Digital Service -- is attempting to woo Silicon Valley techies to work for government agencies. Their recruitment strategy: Using the words of Apple's iconic late cofounder, Steve Jobs.
The U.S. Digital Service is a branch of the White House that seeks to improve and expand the federal government's various online services. It was formed by President Obama in the second term of his presidency, in 2014.
The service launched a new marketing plan this week that includes the words of Apple's Jobs, attempting to bring fresh IT workers to government service. The executive branch's agency chose a clip from a 1994 TV interview, in which Jobs explained his worldview of breaking the mold and upsetting the status quo.
The clip from Steve Jobs comes from a 1994 TV that explains his worldview of breaking the mold and the status quo.
"Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you," Jobs said in the clip used by the U.S. Digital Service. "And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that people can use."
The USDS was founded after the Healthcare.gov crash and refers often to itself as a startup within the White House. So far, the agency has revamped the Veteran Affairs application process, started to digitize the immigration system, and has strengthened Pentagon cybersecurity.
The U.S. Digital Service is a branch of the White House that seeks to improve and expand the federal government's various online services. It was formed by President Obama in the second term of his presidency, in 2014.
The service launched a new marketing plan this week that includes the words of Apple's Jobs, attempting to bring fresh IT workers to government service. The executive branch's agency chose a clip from a 1994 TV interview, in which Jobs explained his worldview of breaking the mold and upsetting the status quo.
The clip from Steve Jobs comes from a 1994 TV that explains his worldview of breaking the mold and the status quo.
"Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you," Jobs said in the clip used by the U.S. Digital Service. "And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that people can use."
The USDS was founded after the Healthcare.gov crash and refers often to itself as a startup within the White House. So far, the agency has revamped the Veteran Affairs application process, started to digitize the immigration system, and has strengthened Pentagon cybersecurity.
Comments
None of the above needs to be true! The agency is part of the Administration which is lead by the POTUS -- the only person in Government who is answerable to all the people of the United States.
"Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you,"
I don't believe that. Do you think Steve Jobs actually believed that? A great many of the things that make up what we call life are the product of one-in-a-million geniuses. Yes, plenty of regular people contributed too, but without people "smarter than you" we wouldn't have electricity let alone computers and the internet, for example.
I interact with federal employees on a fairly regular basis, both those near the top of the bureaucracy and occasionally with political appointees. Some are great, some are terrible, and there are plenty in between. The thing that they all face -- and which may skew the distribution more in the direction of "terrible" than we might like as taxpayers -- is that one of the two major parties in the US is as opposed to the existence of the federal government as some of our nation's worst enemies. Imagine working for a company where a majority of the board of directors hates the company and wants to shut it down. Probably kind of demoralizing, don't you think?
He didn't say "people just like you", but people that are "no smarter" than you. The only difference is how sharp those smarts are. That takes practice. That takes commitment. Smarts is nothing more than tools that we can use to our advantage. Problem is that too many people don't out of laziness or other reasons. That's why those that do are considered "geniuses". And yes, there are also real geniuses that are smarter than the rest of us, but that doesn't make Steve's comment incorrect.
They work in a few buildings in and around the WH complex. They're not anything big or fancy by any means, quite the opposite actually.
There is a TED talk on this subject. Think of it this way, it is peace core for IT techies. They are send to various department within the government to help solve their IT problems. The interesting part is exactly what Job said these folks come with clear minds no predetermine notions of how things should be on government websites. Since their job is not defined, they can come and go as they like and help departments fix things. Their big splash was the Obama Care website. The government paid contractors 100's of million to setup the website who did not have any experience doing it since they were government contractors not large ecommerce company who success and failure depends on their websites working. Obama recruited people from the commercial IT world who has experience with big B2B and B2C websites to fix the issue. We all know the outcome they solved the problem quickly.
That said, his statement also isn't absolute because if you have a below-average IQ from birth, a disease, an accident, or whatever, you then get a situation where the average is smarter.
The Federal government exists because of an agreement between the states and it should only continue to exist if it adheres to the limits placed on it by our Constitution. It was never meant to be one of the biggest employers in the US, riddled with corruption and answerable to no one.