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Pat Wagner's avatar

Loved this. Thank you! And thanks for mentioning Popper!

To me, tracking truth is about holding the folks making the decisions personally accountable.

A few years I was contacted by the city manager of a small Western city. The city council had set up a year of one-day retreats on practical topics to improve their productivity and positive impact on their citizens. The city manager said they were interested in a program on accountability since, in their words, "We don't know what accountability is."

So, I came up with a sample agenda with topics and exercises, and a bibliography. (I am definitely old school when it comes to education. Read a book or five, dang it.) Sent it off. Heard nothing. Finally took the initiative to call. The city manager was embarrassed. Personally, she loved my proposal, but apparently I scared the elected officials, and the accountability segment of their program was cancelled.

I have noticed that many people - and not just elected and appointed government officials - find the idea of accountability, including having to justify their actions and be evaluated by their stakeholders and third-party specialists, untenable. And they considered themselves privileged, having achieved an elite level where people should just trust them without any kind of oversight. Actually are insulted if someone suggests otherwise.

By the way, if you want to see a solid model of local government oversight, Denver's elected city auditor, Tim O'Brien and his team are awesome.

https://denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Auditors-Office/Audit-Services

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Salango's avatar

I knew I read about this here first. Futarchy is a really cool idea. And just a few days ago Vitalik wrote about it as "AI as the engine, humans as the steering wheel". Max always ahead of the curve!

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