I was thinking about how intractable some of the problems we face are and how nice it would be if there a government office to help us with them. Then I realized there would be a form you would fill out. To be truly governmental, the form would:

1. Have vague, misordered questions.
2. Not give enough space to write an answer.
3. In the insufficient space, have lines that were too close together for normal people to use.
4. Have weird codes in a different font at the header and footer.
5. have vague, misleading and insufficient instructions about what would be done with the information on the form and would would do it.
6. Have part labelled FOR OFFICE USE ONLY filled with boxes of unknown, but vaguely threatening fields.
7. Give absolutely no assurance that the information would be kept confidential.
ProblemReport_24Jan2009