Here is the largest HN thread from the last 3 months (and the 3rd largest in all of the last year):
The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910910 - Feb 2025 (2954 comments)
Other recent large discussions include:
Elon Musk's Demolition Crew - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42968430 - Feb 2025 (304 comments)
DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42951458 - Feb 2025 (355 comments)
Onlookers freak out as 25-year-old set loose on Treasury computer system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42936421 - Feb 2025 (130 comments)
In fact, this is probably the most-discussed topic of the last month on HN; I can't think of another, offhand, that would come close. (Edit: probably the Tiktok ban business?)
Thanks for being even handed and giving folks forbearance.
“We’ve already had four Rust topics this month, better flag any new ones!”
This article is not the same news as the others you’ve listed. It’s disingenuous to claim they’re all the same.
It sounds like they might want to review how they are doing security clearance reviews (assuming they aren't just a blank check for this group) if they're letting folks like this through
These people have zero actual “vetting” but “presidential authority” can just say to give them clearances on the spot which is what happened here.
So they have the legal bit of paperwork but it doesn’t actually mean anything. It was just an override of the regular checks and balances and would you believe it it turns out it’s filled with problems precisely like the process is designed to stop.
Yeah. There are still people that call it "Twitter" in 2025.
This is getting tedious, as are the arguments made to justify flagging the posts. "This has already been discussed." Fine. Start flagging AI posts then. "This has nothing to with tech." But it has everything to do with tech, and one of the most influential players in tech, and how hubris blinds techies into thinking that they have tech answers to all problems (a bit of Dunning-Kruger).
Here are the misconceptions behind the entire idea of DOGE:
* Government waste is assumed as a given. No citations needed.
* Government agencies should be run like a business (or worse, a startup). But government agencies are not businesses. They don't have investors. Their mission is not to make a profit. It is to provide a service and a social good, mandated by Congress. Ideological disagreement with that service or good does not make this waste. The idea that entities like the US Post Office operates at a "loss" is arrant nonsense. The value provided is in the service, without the overhead load of investors.
* "Government bureaucrats" (said with contempt and disdain). Right wing propaganda notwithstanding, these folk are the domain experts in running a government (see point above). The trend of the last decade or so has been to replace many of the lower levels with call centers and/or websites, to the frustration of millions of citizens who require these services.
The tl;dr is that the DOGE ppl don't have a clue. They are operating on false assumptions, and likely are running roughshod over the law. Bulls in a china shop fits here.
