Dan Wang

The fundamental tenet of the engineering state is to look at people as aggregates, not individuals

Though the lawyerly society corrected the problems of the past, it has produced two pathologies that weaken the United States today.
The first is an elevation of process over outcomes. In American government and society, designing new rules and committees have so often become the substitute for thinking hard about strategy and ends.

the lawyerly society, a more rigorous process is the solution to any number of quandaries. To deal with a new problem, it designs another procedure, which usually entails longer bureaucratic deliberation, greater public discussion, and more intensive judicial review.