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0 pointskamaal1y ago0 comments

>>IIRC they get a 4 or 8 year stint then are expected to leave.

If they refuse to leave they get fired?

>>Part of the DARPA ethos also is that it’s lean and mean. Program managers have a ton of discretion, but they’re not lifers.

Curious what kind of people are hired? Without overarching long term leadership its hard to chart out a continuous direction.

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rayiner1y ago· 3 in thread

I misremembered, the terms were 2 years or 4 years: https://www.darpa.mil/careers/program-manager (Maybe they shortened it.) Sometimes you can stay longer than that, but yes, you’re pushed out. The organization is highly decentralized: much of the substantive authority to decide project direction is invested in program managers. There’s a deliberate effort not to have a central vision which, the reasoning goes, could lead to inertia and stagnation.

PMs tend to be ambitious young PhDs who want to go into industry or start their own companies. The PM on the project I worked on is now principal wireless architect at Google Fi.

thom1y ago

This is very interesting. I know obsessing over Roman history is seen as somewhat fascist-adjacent, especially emanating from tech spaces, but I keep wanting to run a company along the lines of the Republic’s mixed constitution. No king with centralised power (CEO) but elected Consuls with term limits, who have the power to kick off and deliver big projects, aligning teams however they need to. Give every tribe (product, design, engineering, platform etc) a tribune with some degree of veto power. Create a senate with every Senior, who elect the consuls and approve new wars (projects). Employ quaestors across the company to do finops. At the end of your period you get a big triumph if you were victorious, or you get dumped in the Tiber if you abused your power.

adrian_b1y ago

I also believe that certain aspects of the Roman Republic were superior to those of any of the so-called Republics that exist today, all of which do not observe the fundamental rule of the Roman Republic, which was that, there must exist no major management function occupied by a single human, like a president or a prime minister, but in all such roles there must be at least 2 humans, equal in the granted authorities, so that they will control each other, and this rule could have exceptions only in truly exceptional situations, i.e. wars or calamities, when dictators could be appointed.

Despite the fact that the modern republics are supposed to have some "checks and balances" to limit the power of the leaders, I have seen too many cases of presidents or prime ministers who, after being elected using various lies, begin to act like absolutist kings and nobody seems able to stop them, because they claim that they "represent the majority of the people who have elected them" and nobody may limit their power, because nobody is equal to them.

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atonse1y ago

This is (sort of) how many defense contractors already are run. Ones like Booz Allen, which are more like 500 small businesses (each one generally, but not always, mapping to one gov contract) and where the leadership work together but have a lot of self-determination to grow their unit. More like an organism with multiple ecosystems but one forest (like one payroll, IT, and financial system and similar resources) to tie them together.

It had some interesting effects, like how different teams would compete for candidates and give counter offers, all coming from the same company though.

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