:INFO
The Book About Government That Made Me Grateful for Bureaucracy
Michael Lewis is interested in the gap between what people think a thing does and what it actually does. The Fifth Risk is about what the federal government does: the weather forecasting, the nuclear weapons management, the food safety systems, the loan portfolios, all the machinery that runs without anyone paying attention. It is also about what happens when the people taking over do not want to understand any of it. I read it before the events it predicted and that did not help.


:NOTE
This book reads differently after watching the agencies it describes be dismantled.


:QUOTE [quotetype:plain, subtitle:Michael Lewis]
The fifth risk is project management. It is the risk of not knowing what you do not know.


:JOURNEY
Reading The Fifth Risk
5 Nuclear revelations
4 Food safety matters
4 Life and death data
5 Direct and urgent

:CHECKLIST
What I Learned From The Fifth Risk About Federal Government
[x] The weather forecasts that protect lives come from government scientists not apps
[x] The Department of Energy manages the nuclear stockpile, not the Defense Department
[x] Student loan portfolios held by the government are larger than most people realize
[ ] Loan guarantee programs for small businesses are more consequential than they appear

:POLL
Did The Fifth Risk change how you think about federal government competence?
Yes, I underestimated what it actually does and how much depends on it
Somewhat, I knew some of this but the specifics made it more concrete
Not really, I already thought about government in these terms
No, I think Lewis overstated the risk in this case