1. Telling subordinates that if things go bad it's their ass is the best way to make sure nothing gets done.

2. One of Obama's key management failures was his total unwillingness to be embarrassed at any moment by any subordinate.

3. In the short term, it does help you. And it helps you with PR in general. But in terms of governance, it is a catastrophe.

4. Short-term, fewer errors. Long-term no one does anything creative or interesting, and you drive away creative and interesting people.

5. Trump is engaging in the same management by 'no bad coverage' style.

6. "You don’t want to be the person who sold him on something that turned out to be a bad idea." So then, no ideas. No work gets done.

7. Only person safe to do anything is Jared Kushner. A lot like Tim Geithner. He was Obama's blankie during the crisis.

8. FDR had his subordinates doing crazy things all the time. Disagreed with them publicly. Liked mistakes. Thought bad press was funny.

9. You have to be willing to be embarrassed to actually accomplish big things and govern. Otherwise you are the mercy of the mean girls.

10. Key point. Fed from 1929-1933 paralyzed by fear of doing the wrong thing. But wrong thing was paralysis.

11. Trump and Obama actually have similar management styles. Consequence is entrenched power centers rule, inaction is the default.

12. Different power centers. For Trump it's ICE, banks, religious right. For Obama it was banks, liberal professional class techies.

seems you left the military and defense contractors off of both lists

those are two different groups

"Two different groups?" Come on, Matt. But a nice thread anyway.

In fact millions of people serve in the military because they believe in public service

Contractors too, though that has become far more financialized

To say that the military contractors and the military are two different things side-steps the reality of the situation. But, good thread.

That's why I did.

Great thread!

"for every complicated problem, there's a simple solution — and it's wrong" --h.l. mencken

"vote hoover" - h. l. mencken

a new thought in regards to your tweets. Seem 2 B trolling but maybe Twitter is where you workshop ideas, like an open mic nite. Not a fan

Prefer your long form thoughtful reasoned articles over whatever you're doing here on Twitter. Now, back to how DT and BO are so similar.

sorry, I'm not here to please

It's funny, because Trump's electoral success came from being willing to take huge risks amd eat the consequences

yes it's really interesting

Obamacare, stimulus, CFPB, Dodd-Frank, Iran deal, opening to Cuba, gays in the military, Bin Laden raid...

Agree

My understanding is that FDR would get multiple people working on the same "secret" project to see what people held back or missed.

I was waiting for the dig at Obama... phew! Worried it wouldn't come.

So you were "waiting" for exactly one minute after he started the thread?

yes! it was a horrible, horrible minute.

maybe you just posted a horrible, horrible tweet

Well that is probably because of the horrible horrible experience of that horrible horrible minute! I was overwhelmed!

I don't want yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs. —Samuel Goldwyn

that's a great quote

If you’re Bannon, why bother. I don’t understand. Seems unnecessarily stressful with no payoff.

YEP!

well there was the one time breitbart edited a video of lady and they canned her

that is how corporate America runs. esp. in Wall St. Remember the London Whale? Bruno Iksil lost his job, not Jamie D.

yes, and corporate America is stagnating

agreed. and it wont change if the incentives/accountability for sr. mgmt dont change. Wells Fargo board is another example

lack of competition means ego rules

Great thread by @matthewstoller. A few thoughts from me—

In general, fear of small mistakes will just lead to large, catastrophic ones (including inaction when action is called for).

In “Antifragile,” @nntaleb illustrates this convincingly across a wide variety of domains. True in gov’t and elsewhere.

A minor example: I run a weekly podcast that requires me to discuss things I’m not expert in. I routinely make mistakes. I have to.

If you find yourself never making small mistakes then it generally means you’re being too cautious. Very good heuristic.

All my mistakes order on burning everything down. 😐

Also, that thinking increases temptation to take cheap shots at other side for inconsequential mistakes, which usually backfires.

Very, very true.

Every episode we've done should be subheaded: "Sorry we were wrong. We're trying to remove it."

Antifragile is one of the best books I've ever read. Sits on my A-list shelf, and is ragged with dog ears and highlighter.

Read about Indian Defence Min AK Antony's tenure. To save his face, he didn't purchase anything at all. 😂😂