The subtle art of f***ing up

As we said in the intro, this will be the last Curiosity for a few weeks. To send us off, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed he was added to a group chat about military strikes in Yemen that included information about weapons, targets, and timing. 

The full piece is well worth reading, including the revelation that an apparently acceptable emoji response to bombing a country is 👊🇺🇲🔥. 

It’s not the first government bungle to hit the news this year. A few weeks ago, it was revealed Health NZ was using a single Excel spreadsheet to track $28 billion of public money.

And honestly, this is all so relatable. Who hasn’t accidentally sent a message to the wrong person? Excel still helps run more companies than many would care to admit it. 

These mistakes are potentially catastrophic, and definitely shouldn’t be encouraged. 

But could a lesser degree of human fallibility begin restoring a sense of connection and trust between governments and citizens? Perhaps not to deliver public policy priorities, but at least to not become an administrative Death Star.

In an era of collapsing faith in institutions, that may not be the worst thing. Add it to the manifestos.