For Government

Government plays an important role in the lives of citizens. The government provides services, protects the people, keeps society safe, and maintains an organized structure. To do that well, there are near endless priorities, and always limited resources to do so.

​

To use a meta-problem to help government more effectively solve problems, we are often looking for win-win opportunities. For example, holding people in prison is costly both for the individual and for society. When we re-evaluate our goals, we may realize there are alternatives (at least some of the time) to past choices that allow better outcomes.

​

Designing effective policies can be very tricky as there are often unintended consequences that come with a policy change. In recent years, there have been many attempts to tweak incentives to better align with our goals. For example, Medicare's Hospital Readmission Reduction Program is designed to compensate hospitals less if they discharge a patient who ends up back in the hospital less than 30 days later. The goal is to encourage discharging patients, but only if they are actually ready to leave the hospital.

​

Using the math of optimization, we can often spot opportunities for abuse before actually releasing a policy. We start by thinking about different agents (groups) in the system, and what goals they have and decisions they can make. Given a complex system, a meta-problem for government is likely to have desired behaviors from many different groups of people, not only for the government itself.

​

If you have questions for how you can use the meta-problem to help your government serve citizens, click on "Contact" and send them my way.