The important thing about 18F is that it was a dream.
Last weekend, 18F, the office I worked for at the US General Services Administration, was eliminated. All 100 or so individuals on staff were fired at midnight (12:02 to be precise) Saturday morning.
18F was a place where people worked. Those people helped other people do their work better. Sometimes they helped large groups of people save money. Some of those people worked to help small groups of people with impossible or herculean jobs. But the important thing about 18F is that it was a dream.
Often, 18F helped people focus on outcomes when the system wanted them to focus on check boxes. (It was also a place to learn that sometimes you have to find a way to do both.) 18F was a place that made a positive difference in how people in the federal government delivered to the public. But the important thing about 18F is that it was a dream.
The people who worked there had the courage to believe in the beauty of the dream. Their customers did too. So did their peers. And so did the giants on whose shoulders 18F stood. Dreams only work if people believe in them. So, the important thing about 18F is that it was a dream.
The future will not belong to the cynics. The future will belong to those who have passion and are willing to work hard to make our country better. The future will belong to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
— Sen. Paul Wellstone
Apologies to Margaret Wise Brown.