The Myth of the Cracked Coder
‘Move fast and break things’ works well in Silicon Valley. Not so much in Washington.
Today I have a piece in The Dispatch on DOGE, the tech-right, and the belief that sufficiently elite programmers can solve any challenge. Check it out via the gift link above!
In the mythos of the tech world, no figure looms larger than the “cracked coder.” To be cracked is to be absurdly talented, to master the logic of programming, to transcend time and space writing code that sings, and to do so with such speed and efficiency as to defy belief. In Silicon Valley fables, these young prodigies don’t just build great software. They break through systems, leap past obstacles, and rewrite the rules of the world. How is it that some kids can build billion-dollar startups in their dorm rooms? Because they’re cracked.
The legend isn’t entirely wrong. The modern world owes an enormous debt to the tech sector. Genius programmers have accomplished staggering things, driven economic growth, advanced science, and fundamentally changed how we live. But the myth of the cracked coder goes beyond founding tech companies. It assumes that elite coders, by virtue of their raw intellect and technical prowess, can solve any problem. And this assumption, now increasingly embedded in the thinking of major tech firms and in our government, is causing immense harm.
Luke Farritor was recently profiled by Bloomberg News for his work with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—an infamous group of cracked coders who parachuted into Washington this year under the banner of efficiency, disruption, and slashing the size of the government. The profile is largely complimentary of Farritor’s intelligence, describing him as a wunderkind too smart to be contained by traditional schools. He’s best known for his work on the Vesuvius Challenge, where he used cutting-edge machine learning techniques to decode passages from ancient Roman scrolls. But Farritor’s work with DOGE is covered in a critical light, as he was a key player in the efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other agencies.
Bloomberg’s profile of Farritor was perfectly fair. In many ways it was overly sympathetic! The piece goes well out of its way to humanize Farritor and present him as a highly gifted and motivated kid who wanted to accomplish big things. But in response to an article that is moderately critical of his work at DOGE, much of the tech world lost its damn mind. Casey Handmer, a tech entrepreneur and collaborator on the Vesuvius Challenge, threw what can best be described as a hissy fit of posting about how unfair the article was. Lulu Cheng Meservey, a prominent communications executive, laughed at the piece for suggesting that Farritor was not qualified for the job of radically reshaping the government. Other tech commentators called the piece dishonorable, accused the authors of political bias, and dismissed them as jealous and aggrieved do-nothings. The tech right had a multi-day hysterical meltdown in response to an article that effectively said, “Luke Farritor sure is incredibly gifted, it’s a shame that he’s using that skill at DOGE to destroy critical government agencies.”
Why would members of the tech-right freak out like this in response to a relatively anodyne article? Because the experience at DOGE, taken seriously, destroys the myth of the cracked coder and undermines their entire worldview.
I really enjoyed you filling in for Heaton on the We're Not Wrong podcast. It was an unexpected surprise.
Does it even work in Silicon Valley? Or is it more like “flout long-standing regulations and then go argue they don’t apply to us because we’re a rideshare, not a taxicab.”