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“How Does Government Listen to Scientists? is a book that she wrote distilling her years of experience in science policy. It helped me make the mental switch from being an academic, and kind of an idealist about how politics works, to the realities of working in policy. She explains that by the time a problem lands on the desk of government, it’s because no one else can solve it. If the free market could solve it, it would; if industry could solve it, they would, and they’d be benefiting commercially from it. So anything that lands on the desk of government is fundamentally unsolvable—and possibly expensive too. When you’re a policymaker, you have to understand that you’re going for the ‘least worst’ outcome, that there’s no outcome that is going to satisfy everyone, and that you’re working in an environment where some form of failure is almost certainly guaranteed. It’s different from being a scientist, where you might have the hope of being able to fulfill a particular vision or create something you are confident is going to be good in almost every aspect.” Read more...
The best books on Tech Utopias and Dystopias
Mahlet Zimeta, Philosopher
