"Moment of Zen" The Bureaucracy War: Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar and Senator Mike Lee (UT) - Hill & Valley Forum 2025
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May 10, 2025 
Join Senator Mike Lee, a Utah advocate for regulatory reform, and Shyam Sankar, CTO of Palantir and expert in defense innovation, as they call out the stifling bureaucracy hindering America's defense. They argue for a shift in power dynamics to revitalize competition and innovation. Hear them discuss the urgent need for 'heretical' leaders to break through traditional barriers and suggest reforms like the REINS Act. Together, they emphasize the importance of embracing unconventional ideas to keep pace with global AI advancements.
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Bureaucracy Kills Innovation
- Innovation in defense became stifled by prioritizing process over content and managers over engineers.
- Bureaucracy kills breakthroughs by enforcing mediocrity to avoid any failure.
Permission Grantors Stall Progress
- Bureaucrats act as permission grantors, freezing innovation by withholding approvals.
- Reform like the REINS Act is critical to make regulations subject to Congressional approval and restore innovation.
Competition Spurs Innovation
- Admiral Rayburn ran four competing submarine missile programs to foster innovation.
- Competition among programs accelerated breakthroughs, unlike today’s single monopoly approaches.