Michael Lewis on the US Department of Energy (highly recommended!)

Michael Lewis, the author of The Big Short, has written a great article for Vanity Fair.

Why the scariest nuclear threat may be coming from inside the White House is a fascinating portrait of the Department of Energy.

If you’re interested in politics, management, innovation, nuclear weapons or environmental pollution, you should read the article now.

I especially liked the description of how the managers appointed by the Obama administration could not transfer their knowledge to their successors. That’s because the newcomers weren’t appointed on time, or because the new political managers simply weren’t interested in learning the complexities of the DoE.

The story is a great case study that contains lessons which are relevant for all organizations. MBA students: read this instead of the Harvard Business Review!

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This post has no connection with my book Bankers are people, too.

2 thoughts on “Michael Lewis on the US Department of Energy (highly recommended!)”

  1. Thanks for sharing. Interesting post by a great author.

    I liked how he argued in the end that too much information can make things ‘messy’ and complicated. And that certain people therefore don’t like an information overload, especially when it contrasts their knowledge base and thus their view of the world. Let’s nonetheless hope that there are enough intelligent and critical people in this time of knowledge abundance who can make sense of this information and offer us a more nuanced view of the world.

    Having said all this, how is that book of yours coming along? 🙂

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