7 min read

Chaos and Creation

Chaos and Creation
Chaos Theory and the Double Pendulum, Cristian V., CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Trump administration continues to roll along this week, creating chaos and tearing down long-established structures. Aspects of that are good — reexamining long-held practices and long-lived organizations is good if done with a clear goal. It is not evident that Trump has a goal beyond chaos and self-enrichment, but we will have to let this play out.  

At the end of this note, I will go through the most recent EOs and what I find positive versus what I find concerning, but I’d like to start with a couple of stories that help me make sense of the chaos and help me move ahead.

When you find yourself in the maelstrom

Early in my career at Microsoft, probably in about 1991, the company blew up the organization I was in, the Network Business Unit. Significant organizational and strategic shifts were not unusual at the company at this time — the industry was moving fast, the company was moving fast, and organizations got blown up or redirected all the time.  The OS/2-Windows split happened during this timeframe, and there was a lot of organizational change and stress.  Working in the systems software groups at Microsoft at this time was hectic, intense, exhilarating, fast-paced, and a little nuts.

As part of the Network Business Unit reorg, our small team of 6 was moved to the Windows team, where we went to work for Brad Silverberg on a future peer networking product.  I remember my first meeting with Brad.  He was responsible for the upcoming release of MS-DOS 5.0, the forthcoming release of Windows 3.1, and all subsequent versions of MS-DOS and Windows.  He was busy with the products that generated a massive part of Microsoft’s revenue and profitability.  He was upfront with me — he had little time to spend with our team, he was working on critical and stressful projects, and he hoped we knew what we were doing.  

I left his office feeling a little dispirited.   No one wants to hear “I have no time for you” from their manager.  But as I walked back to meet with the team and convey Brad’s message, I started to see the light.  By the time I sat down with the team, it was clear.  “The rest of the organization is super busy, which is great because it means no one is going to f^&k with us.  If we bear down and make progress while no one is looking, by the time they start paying attention, we will have gotten a ton done and have a great head of steam.”

And that is what we did.   By the time Windows 3.1 was out the door, we had made good progress on our product and were able to get it to market not long after Windows 3.1.   And as it turns out, Brad did have time for us, and we all learned a ton from working in his org.  And we learned a great lesson — when there is chaos around you, you have to step back, be very clear-minded and focused, ignore all the forces pushing you in random directions, and drive towards your goal.

Pissing in the punchbowl

Trump and Musk are tearing down long-standing government structures and agencies.  Trying to shutter USAID.  Discussing shutting down the Education department.  Trying to starve other programs of legally-approved funding.  Firing swaths of people across many agencies that ever had anything to do with issues he doesn’t like.   Trump and Musk are very good at destruction.

In 1995, we were in the homestretch of the Windows 95 project, and we became aware that Intel was trying to get PC OEMs to ship some kernel-level signal processing functions with a miniature little OS and scheduling kernel.   None of this had been tested with Windows 95, and we were concerned about it introducing bugs or stability issues into Windows PCs.   So, we went to work and informed Intel and PC OEMs about our concerns. Eventually, Intel agreed to stop pushing this effort.   After a final meeting with Intel, I recall celebrating a little that we had managed to shut this effort down, and Paul Maritz pointed out to me that “It only takes one person to piss in the punchbowl to ruin it for everyone.”

Criticism and destruction are relatively easy.   Creation is hard, very hard.  It is appropriate to criticize long-standing government programs.  But as we criticize, we should have our eyes on the goals and have a proposal for a new path as well.  If you don’t like what USAID is doing, what is your objective for foreign aid, and what should we be doing instead?   If you don’t like DEI programs, what is your proposal for addressing the inequalities of opportunity in our society?   Whether in business or government, criticism and destruction are inadequate; we need to create and lead as well.

I realize my small experiences don't scale up to the magnitude of the challenges facing our country, but they help me cope and move ahead. If all you have time for is the stories, stop here!   The rest of this letter is a continuing dive into the latest EOs and my view on which are OK versus which should be challenged.

The last week’s EOs

The Trump administration continues to crank out the EOs at record pace.  

Some of them are good or at least reasonable:

  • Assessing FEMA.   Sure, we should regularly assess FEMA, just as we should any federal agency.  We should also take a hard look at expected demands for disaster relief over the next 25 years and ensure we have the FEMA we need in place.
  • The Iron Dome for America.   I am not sure this is our scariest threat, but who can argue with this?
  • Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday.   Sure, we should absolutely celebrate this. The Garden of Heroes stuff seems a little weird, but "weird" doesn't cause me much concern.
  • Combat Anti-semitism.   This order does several things.  First, it reiterates support for Executive Order 13899, which says, “Look, we will extend the Civil Rights law to cover anti-semitism, even though it doesn’t really cover anti-semitism and we have no legal basis for doing this.”   Which is fine, fighting hate is good.  It also orders a complete canvas of all anti-semitism cases on college campuses and k-12 in the wake of the Hamas attack of October 2023.  And encourages the Secretary of State to remove foreign students who were involved in anti-semitic actions.  This is all fine in spirit; the question will be how far the administration takes this to punish people expressing legitimate points of view about Palestinian issues.   
  • Imposing Duties To Address The Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain In The People’s Republic Of China.  I have no problem with going after China to address fentanyl to address global trade issues.   I’d argue that we need a more comprehensive strategy about China and trade; this doesn’t go far enough.  
  • Limiting Lame-Duck Collective Bargaining Agreements That Improperly Attempt To Constrain The New President.  As a general practice, this is fine.  Will Trump abide by his own rule?

We are shooting ourselves in the foot with some of these; they are making our country weaker or just wasting time:

Some of these are just immoral:

This one is just science fiction:

A bunch of these are continuing attempts to eradicate DEI, with no proposal for how to deal with the issues in our society. It is fine to say DEI has failed, but we need a vision for what to do next:

Finally, we have the school choice EO.  Our public education system has problems, but it is hard to imagine America today without our robust commitment to public education.  A common public school experience has built connections through our society and has encouraged the “melting pot.”  Walking away from public schools does not seem like the answer.