www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb... DOGE’s new plan to overhaul the Social Security Administration is doomed to fail Modernizing the SSA’s technical infrastructure is not a novel idea – and such modernizations have a poor track record. - ThreadSky

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powerpeecee.bsky.social • 4 days ago

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/doge-social-security-plan-fail-code-rcna198866

DOGE’s new plan to overhaul the Social Security Administration is doomed to fail

Modernizing the SSA’s technical infrastructure is not a novel idea – and such modernizations have a poor track record.

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powerpeecee.bsky.social•4 days ago

Elon Musk has turned his attention to the Social Security Administration, the latest agency that his team of novice programmers has invaded for the apparent purpose of hobbling it.

powerpeecee.bsky.social•4 days ago

Wired magazine reported last week that the Department of Government Efficiency plans to replace the mainframes that power the agency’s mission and rebuild their functionality on new servers in a new programming language — with just a few months’ work.

powerpeecee.bsky.social•4 days ago

Assuming Wired’s reporting is accurate, we know that such an effort will surely fail. The track record of decades of modernizations of thousands of software systems, in both the private and public sectors, makes that clear.

powerpeecee.bsky.social•4 days ago

This isn’t even an interesting-yet-flawed idea. It’s a hackneyed, clichéd bad idea that could only sound compelling to novice software developers.

powerpeecee.bsky.social•4 days ago

It’s like cooking a Thanksgiving turkey in 20 minutes by putting it in a blast furnace, or choosing to get measles instead of getting vaccinated against it: it sounds most convincing to the layperson who asks the fewest questions.

powerpeecee.bsky.social•4 days ago

The SSA delivered $1.3 trillion in benefits to 70 million beneficiaries in 2023, a testament to the quality of its infrastructure. The software that drives the SSA is the most critical part of that infrastructure.

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