Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11) Understanding government procurement, with Luke Farrell
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Feb 26, 2026 
Luke Farrell, a former U.S. Digital Service technologist and fellow at the Better Government Project, tackles why government procurement produces brittle, costly digital systems. They discuss recurrent vendor lock-in, repeated payments for the same code, Kafkaesque application flows, means-testing complexity, and how modular contracts and in-house technical capacity could reshape outcomes.
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Procurement Requirements Entrench Incumbents
- Procurement favors incumbents by requiring prior experience building the same system, which entrenches a small number of contractors.
- This barrier to entry reduces competition and enables consolidation and market capture.
States Rebuy The Same Buggy Codebase
- Codebases are often forked across states so the same buggy logic is paid for repeatedly; Luke found one buggy code forked to 29 states.
- States paid full price each time despite identical defects being copied.
Hire In House Technologists To Push Back
- Hire in-house technologists (engineers, product managers, user researchers) so government can push back on contractor overbilling and trivial change orders.
- A single competent engineer can eliminate millions in change orders by demonstrating fixes live.