Jennifer Pahlka
@pahlkadot
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Author of Recoding America Fellow at @NiskanenCenter , @FAScientists , @UChicagoCEG Formerly @CodeforAmerica @USDS @USDResponse Defense Innovation Board
Oakland, CA
Joined December 2006
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“My pitch for this episode is simple: Jennifer Pahlka has written one of the best policy books I have ever read.” - Ezra Klein
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Let me say this with some attempt at perspective. I experienced a home invasion today. Got off zoom calls and went into my bedroom to find a man going through my things. He'd been through the whole house.
I AM FINE. I just want to say something about this. 1/6
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Politicize this all you want. It’s my experience and I will see it through my eyes. We need a government that does what it says it will do. We don’t have that. We have to fix that. I’m fine. But others aren’t. This isn’t okay. END
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I see this as a failure of state capacity on all levels. Perhaps that doesn’t surprise you. The failure to treat a man with mental illness. The failure of first response systems. The failure of law enforcement. 5/6
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I would love to say this without being attacked, but let’s see how this goes. First: Mister Rogers said When something scary happens, look for the helpers. My neighbors helped me. I am so grateful for them. That said, I wish 911 had picked up the first two times I called. 2/6
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I wish Oakland PD had come. It is now 7 hours later and I am still waiting. I don’t know if they will come before dark, but I’m going to stay with a friend tonight, so it’s likely now that I will miss them if they come at all. Sadly, that is expected in Oakland. 3/6
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I wish this man had gotten mental health help. He seemed unwell. I wish he had not touched things that belong to my daughter. It’s just unnerving. She’s not here. We are all safe. But it’s unnerving. 4/6
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Update: Oakland PD did not respond until 1:30 pm today, 48 hours later. They came while I was out. I've let them know I'm now home, but no response.
This is a STRUCTURAL problem. We see it as a resource problem, but it's far deeper. We must start asking different questions.
Let me say this with some attempt at perspective. I experienced a home invasion today. Got off zoom calls and went into my bedroom to find a man going through my things. He'd been through the whole house.
I AM FINE. I just want to say something about this. 1/6
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The best time to modernize essential government systems was 15 years ago. The second best time is now.
The governor of New Jersey just put out the call on live TV that he is desperate for Cobol programmers right now.
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I find this useful.
The Dunning-Kruger Prayer:
Let me be smart enough to know how dumb I am and give me the courage to carry on anyway.
(Thank you
@austinkleon
.)
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Technology modernization without policy and process simplification is borderline useless.
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So, to summarize.
@Equifax
breach happened 7/29. 3 execs sold stock the day after it happened, but didn't tell us until 9/7.
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12 yrs ago today, I filed papers with the state to form
@codeforamerica
. Now, under the amazing leadership of
@AmandaRenteria
, CfA is helping thousands of govts and millions of people. Happy birthday, CfA! Here's to everyone -- so many -- who have made it such a force for good.
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I just went to Kramer's on Connecticut Avenue, looking for a gift. I wasn't looking for my book, but then I realized I should see it on the shelves, and I didn't. I was so disappointed. Then I asked at the counter, and they said it was sold out.
Wut.
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It is the greatest gift when someone says to you, "Yes, you can do this." Especially when the thing you're trying to do is hard. There have been several times in my life when someone said that to me, and it has made all the difference. I wish that gift for others.
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We as Americans should demand a delivery-driven government. What does that mean? It means learning to drive policy and operations around delivery and users, and completing the feedback circuit, accountable to real outcomes. Help us. Start here:
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My daughter is a poll worker in Oakland, my sister is a poll watcher in Ohio, and I'm helping the voter protection team in Texas. The Pahlka women are showing up for democracy.
Not today, Satan.
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1/ Nearly 10 years ago, I became obsessed with creating a new kind of public service and bringing government into the digital age. So I started
@codeforamerica
.
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I decided to get a box of ice cream bars to celebrate my book launch. I took them to the checkout and they wouldn't scan so they gave me to me for free. Free ice cream on a beautiful day in DC! Not sure it gets better than this.
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This one's going on the wall.
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People tend not to believe me when I tell them my husband is basically Martha Stewart, so get this: he is currently re-seasoning our (6) cast iron pans in a six-step that will take several days but as he says "is so worth it."
SEE?
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"Honey, tell Alexa to tell the Nest to turn the heat off!"
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I am honored and excited to be working with the brilliant, public-minded folks at
@NiskanenCenter
. For the uninitiated, Time called Niskanen "The Most Interesting Think Tank In American Politics" It's a great fit for me because...
We are pleased to welcome
@pahlkadot
to Niskanen as a senior fellow to help build our State Capacity Initiative!
Her new book shows why we aren't meeting our policy goals and what to do about it. This Initiative seeks to execute the ideas in her book.
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Yeah, this does not end well. Teachers are buying their own toilet paper and school supplies. A company that already has billions in profit gets $750M in tax incentives in the same district. This cannot hold.
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If you voted in Harris County using drive-thru voting, sign up to stay updated on the court battle, including information about additional steps that may be needed to ensure your vote counted, if that becomes necessary. Go to or text DRIVE THRU to 21333.
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Home after a mind blowing
#CfASummit
, grateful for all the brilliance and heart and courage of everyone who showed up. Thank you!
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It is EXTREMELY encouraging to see the funding for USDS and TTS here. And after all these years of TTS doing a ridiculous reimbursement dance, for them to get to scale platforms like is huge. It will mean better service delivery. 👏👏👏 transition team!
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Happy Friday! Some VERY good news:
@AmandaRenteria
is
@codeforamerica
's new CEO! I am so excited to see her lead the org into it's next era of making much-needed change in how government serves people. Welcome, Amanda!
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"State capacity is the ability of a government to accomplish policy goals." (Wikipedia)
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From
@mattyglesias
: "The federal government doesn’t hire people to do things, it hires people to supervise grants that have rules that purport to require the people who get the money to do things.... 1/2
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What is
@USDResponse
? It’s help for governments during this crisis. COVID-19 is already overwhelming the data, digital, and operational capacities of government in a myriad of ways, and we have qualified people who can step in. Here’s a thread with what you need to know. 1/
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"Every time you add a question to a form, I want you to imagine the user filling it out with one hand, while using the other to break up a brawl between toddlers." - wisdom from
@werkstatte
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My husband and my ex-husband are now half an hour into a debate about whether this cow is abnormally large. It's below freezing with a 25 mph wind out here. How's your day going?
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This will break your heart. Read it anyway.
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You know what's nice? I love my job. We're looking for the right person to take my job, and that's really nice too :), but I still love it. I love the people, I love the work, I love the impact. Don't want to ever take something this amazing for granted.
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Iterative, user-centered and data driven isn't just for tech. Top policymakers and regulators know.
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Content strategists: government needs you now to help respond to the
#Covid_19
crisis. If you can help on a volunteer basis, sign up with
@USDResponse
at We have a lot of requests for your particular skill set right now!
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Today at 2pm ET I'll be giving testimony in the House Budget Committee Democrats' hearing on how Covid-19 has exposed the need for investments in govt tech -- adding my view that the policy and tech must be thought through together.
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Digital services that work for real people shouldn't be government innovation. That's table stakes. But an airport kiosk for borrowing digital books is innovation. And it may or may not work. But good on
@LAPublicLibrary
for trying new things!
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“This salmon had become a metaphor for Silicon Valley itself.” This is hysterical and will cheer you up, I promise.
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There's a HUGE amount of money coming at legacy modernization. How do we spend it right? We're about to have our Kill It With Fire Moment.
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Tomorrow my baby turns 16. There's a huge difference between what this actually represents and what it FEELS like. Actual: I made a human and she survived for 16 years and counting. Feeling: OMG OMG OMG SOMEONE PLS HOLD ME HOW DID I MAKE THIS GLORIOUSNESS ALSO I'M SCARED AAAAHHHH
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"The waterfall method amounts to a pledge by all parties not to learn anything while doing the actual work." Classic line from
@cshirky
coming up a lot in our prep calls for
@codeforamerica
#cfasummit
.
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This the kind of news that hard to explain why it is SO GOOD, so if you don't know
@ClareMartorana
, just trust me. This is like really really-- no, I mean REALLY -- good.
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My new op-ed in
@washingtonpost
, in which we discuss the deep state, kludgeocracy, PRA, NEPA, lawyers, Schedule F, hiring reform, and trusting public servants. Gets a little spicy. LMK what you think!
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I consider it the highest honor that President Obama put Recoding America on his AI reading list despite the fact that the book does not discuss AI! :)
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There are approximately 100m people in the country who will watch the dog if it means getting kids back with their parents.
Here’s the verbatim exchange from today’s status conference in the Southern District of California, via
@JuliaEAinsley
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So I shared the first draft of my book with my editor today.
I feel fine. Totally fine. Yes, I'm really fine. I really am. Why, do I not look fine? I'm doing great. Really. I am.
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I'm headed to DC after a long spell away. I love DC. I will never not love it, no matter what happens. Those buildings are still full of people trying to serve the public. They still belong to the American people.
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I remember thinking when I met Courtney Brousseau (
@cbrewsayso
), while he was an undergrad at Berkeley and starting Code for Berkeley, that whatever the future has in store, we're going to be OK because people like Courtney will lead us. Like so many, I'm heartbroken today.
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I started
@codeforamerica
at 40. Wrote my first book at 50. Hope to do something cool at 60 too, and 70. (At 80 I plan to catch up on all of the episodes of The Simpsons I missed while I was doing other stuff.)
Happy birthday,
@ariannahuff
!
As I celebrate my birthday today, I'm reflecting on how much it’s built into our youth-worshipping culture that we have to do everything by the time we’re 30. But as I’ve learned first-hand, we can build our dreams at any age! 💜
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As we begin to throw vast amounts of money at a persistent tech problem again, just a reminder that technology modernization without policy and process simplification is useless.
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@timoreilly
@AshleyRParker
@karaswisher
DAMN, I'm a lucky woman.
This makes me think of one of my favorite last book lines: "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both."
My husband is not only a true friend and support, but also has a helluva way with words.
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Over the past 7 weeks, I've had the honor of working with the incredible
@CAGovOps
team to help understand why too many Californians haven't received their unemployment insurance benefits, and what to do about it. Our work has now stopped the growth of the backlog, 1/x
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I'm cleaning out my desk at
@codeforamerica
and full of joy and gratitude. But also remembering with love and surprisingly still-present grief a few I loved who were on this journey with me but didn't make it this far. Jake and Carl, I miss you both.
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Dear people who make airplane wifi: Please make this service a little bit better. And then stop before it gets so good that we can do videoconference calls from a plane. Nobody wants that. Thank you.
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This
@codeforamerica
team used clear, simple, cheap text message reminders to get up to 79% more people to show up prepared for safety net appointments in Louisiana. Amazing work!
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"When something bad happens, look for the helpers. You will always find people helping." - Mr Rogers
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@Erie
"Tom’s beloved mother, who died when he was only 23, taught him to always give money to people who asked, because it could be an angel testing him. He always did. In lieu of flowers, please give money to the next person who asks." 😢
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Elected officials and govt leaders worried about websites that don't work: take
@Erie
's advice. Insist on (real) usability tests. Sit in on them. You should be able to use the site yourself, unaided. Normalize this practice. Bugs are normal --the point is to find and fix them!
@chenderson
Councilmember Henderson, on behalf of DC residents, please ask to sit in on usability testing of the new site before it goes live. 3-5 people is all it takes.
Here’s a short write up:
DC already has talent on hand that can do it. If needed, there’s help.
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A user-centered, iterative, data-driven approach as made a big difference in government technology. But the real benefit comes when it's also applied to POLICY. We're calling this delivery-driven policy. And we'd love your thoughts on it.
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Fantastic news that
@mina_hsiang
will be the next administrator of the
@USDS
! She's a powerful and inspiring leader, and the inspiration for our concept of delivery-driven policy at
@codeforamerica
(see ) Huge congrats to Mina, the USDS team, and all of us!
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Many vendors are an active part of modernizing govt to work for all its people. But not all.
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Congress asked the
@InnovationBoard
what the Dept of Defense should do about getting good at software. Our answer is out, and its useful for everyone thinking about software acquisition reform. Also, your move, Congress.
#SWAPstudy
#SWisnotHW
#nerdalert
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Neither party seems all that interested in state capacity, but there is a faction that is: Abundants. New post.
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ToooooooooooooooDAY!
RECODING AMERICA by
@pahlkadot
is out now, a bold call to reexamine how our government operates—and sometimes fails to!
@ezraklein
says, "This is one of the best policy books I've read." Get yours here:
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So many people ask me why someone who could work at Google or wherever would CHOOSE to work in government.
@laurenalisa
explains it so well here. It's not just "giving back." It's what you get, too.
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How about we declare February Public Servant Appreciation Month? So many of them have been working 16 hours a day for close to a year now. I know several who have been pulling all-nighters lately. Their jobs are hard, their tools are often terrible, but they keep going. For us.
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Surely we've now overproduced reusable water bottles (mostly due to the need for a place to put corporate logos) at such a rate that we've wiped out whatever ecological footprint benefit we were going for.
Can we stop now? Pretty please?
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Can we get some serious LOVE for public servants? We routinely fail to appreciate them and their incredibly difficult and important work.
Dr. Fiona Hill is… *amaaaaazing*. She is precisely the sort of person you want in diplomacy.
Ethical, razor sharp, analytical, well prepared, factual, well spoken, complex, and deeply reflective.
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If you're looking for a movie to watch tonight, consider Charlie Wilson's War.
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The best time for me to have read Caro's The Power Broker was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Finally listening to it. And wow! So many thoughts and feelings. Also, still 41 hours to go.
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“I have been marching for women’s rights for 50 years, and it’s sometimes a bit discouraging to be here. But I don’t know what the alternative is. This is democracy. This is patriotism.” - MY MOM, quoted in the NYPost while protesting on Capitol Hill.
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So I have little graphics illustrating some of the core concepts in Recoding America. Should I print some of these up as stickers? Which ones? And which concepts still need a graphic?
(Please don't say policy vomit. There's no way to illustrate that well.)
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ICYMI, here are the 3 books I recommended on the Ezra Klein show this week. The first one has a subtitle so long it doesn't fit in a tweet, but it's called Implementation and it's like one of the stories in my book but from 1973, and told in even greater nerdy detail.
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Soon,
@AmandaRenteria
will go on stage at
#TED2022
to share
@codeforamerica
's plan to reinvent our nation's safety net. I could not be happier or more proud. The team has really earned this. The country really needs it. And Amanda is a dream come true for a mission that matters.
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During covid, plenty of govt agencies stood up applications for programs using low-code/no-code tools like Airtable & Typeform with help from volunteers at
@USDResponse
and others. Those forms often asked fewer questions that were more clearly worded than comparable legacy forms.
The state of Utah replaced its complex UnitedHealth Group operated Medicaid reimbursement system with a four question Google form. And it works.
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Is it possible to work out deep boiling rage through gardening? I'm about to find out, sisters.
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We are all at the same conclusion. Fix hiring. Fix promotion criteria. Invest in people. It is jobs 1, 2, and 3 at this point.
“Our infrastructure for recruiting, hiring, promoting, and retaining them has been sorely neglected.”
I’ve been getting asked a lot what we can do to address the issues raised in
@pahlkadot
’s book, including, as commonly: “What’s the *one* thing we can do?” As she observes in the great thread following this post, “there is no silver bullet;” however… (1/2)
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This is HUGE. Can you imagine how much this needs to change? "Across fed govt, 90% of competitive, open-to-the-public job announcements relied solely on an applicant's answers to a self-assessment to determine whether their experience made them eligible for the position."
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Proud to support
@SenKamalaHarris
"s Digital Service Act to bring government into the digital age and serve all Americans as they should be served, with dignity and respect.
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"I think the question is not whether Facebook is terrible. The question is why do we convince ourselves that a mobile advertising platform is a civic institution?" -
@aschrock
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Why is JPEGS all caps and smaller than PDFs? This is going to drive me crazy.
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I was subscribed to the White House email newsletter in 2013. When Trump took office, I realized I was still subscribed, and decided (after a few months of shock) to keep reading them. I'm glad I did. They do not represent reality, but they do help me understand something. 1/
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