15k = AMA
This week, in honor of reaching 15,000 followers on Bluesky, We the Builders hosted our first AMA. It was full of fun and sarcasm, but we also talked about a lot of serious things that we want to share with you. So without further ado:
Business First
QUESTION: What project are you MOST proud of that USDS worked on? They’re all wonderful, but what’s your fav?
ANSWER: By amount of impact, it's the COVID work overall. So much of the reporting and testing infrastructure was overseen by us. Personally, I always loved the 0-5 Project because it gave us tangible items to help parents of young children. In firefighting, the Afghanistan evacuation and infant formula shortage were both notable rapid responses. And for sheer force of will, I love Direct File. Helping IRS and the whole country believe that we can make an amazing service in government. Also the data structures are really fun.
QUESTION: How are you doing? How are you taking care of yourself during this regime?
ANSWER: Cry a lot. Eat cobbler. Go for runs. Play with dogs. I have alarms on my phone to remind me drink water. Same for my nightly meds. Otherwise it's lots of books, lots of working, staring at walls, and trying to stick to a somewhat normal schedule so I don't spiral into the doom-o-verse.
QUESTION: When the adults are back in charge, realistically how long would it take to undo the damage of the Dogebois? Are back doors able to be closed or is it moot that there will ever be a secured network?
ANSWER: It depends on the damage to the systems (I'm hedging a bit). We've been talking about the damage as "incalculable" at this time. And amount of time? ughhhh a few years to a generation, depending on the damage and the teams that are there to repair and the level of the sensitivity of the system. And then how are we building it better, how are we making this not happen again.
QUESTION: Hi and thank you for doing this! Can Americans feel assured that all our history is safeguarded somewhere and even if in other countries ? I fear this admin is trying to literally erase, ctrl alt delete it!
ANSWER: We do know that many efforts are underway to preserve data. Some of us (many of us?) are even doing it. What we're calling "endangered data" is a big concern for us
QUESTION: What's the best thing we can do to protect our devices and data?
ANSWER:
1. Password manager
If you're feeling paranoid:
1. Get a VPN (We like Proton)
3. Change your mindset about who you share your data with. Your data is precious. Take care of it.
QUESTION: Can you hack Signal?
ANSWER: The encryption algorithm is solid. The network graph for each user is more vulnerable. It connects back to a real person, often via phone number. But hey, if you're in this regime, you will use a knockoff clone from Israel that downloads data to god knows where. Signal does secure sender so the sender of a message is also encrypted meaning only the recipient(s) can see who sent a message BUT the more people in your signal groups the less safe they become. Keep your groups small and practice zero trust.
QUESTION: How secure is the census data? Would you personally answer all the Qs on the survey?
ANSWER: Honestly, we haven't heard a peep out of Census. Given the track record of the rest of DOGE's activities, I would be mistrustful, but I have no concrete info at this time about Census.
QUESTION: I assume that there are off-site backups for the systems that DOGE has been fucking up. Do you know what the storage policy would be for them, like how long they are retained? They keep saying they're "deleting" things and as a programmer, that idea makes me INSANE.
ANSWER: Data backups are supposed be held for 3-6 years. Should be offsite that someone wouldn't necessarily see or think to delete. Theoretically, if it's stored long enough and there's a change in regime soon enough, we could restore from those backups. Lotsa ifs in that response, though. We still gotta be vigilant.
Get to know Alt-USDS
Favorite Bird: Pileted Woodpeckers
Favorite Tree: American Chestnut
Favorite Ninja Turtle: Donatello
Favorite Anime Film: Pantheon
Favorite Season: Autumn
Favorite Star Wars Movie: The Empire Strikes Back
Favorite Video Game: Baldur’s Gate 3
Favorite Beer According to the Season: Winter: Stouts & Porters; Spring: IPA & Lager; Summer: Kolsches; Fall: Doppelbocks & Oktoberfests
Favorite Pen: Pentel EnerGel Liquid Gel 1.0 in green
Pizza Toppings: Olives & Jalapenos
Grover or Elmo: Grover
Crosswords or Sudoku: Sudoku
Current Books: Number Go Up by Zeke Faux, Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, and Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
World Series Pick: Orioles
Do you have questions? Send them to us at submissions@wethebuilders.org!
About this newsletter
This newsletter is posted by the We the Builders team and will be published on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We stand for an effective government that serves its people and we won't rest until the government is rebuilt, and built better.