No. of Recommendations: 3
Grok's nice formatting did not carryover in the copy/paste.
Question: New info you: Director Charles Dankert just sent out an email to all of us in the National Park Service instructing us to reply to the "What did you do last week?" email. AND he further implicated that he might decide to extend this policy on a weekly basis.
So (and I know your are already laughing because you know what I'm going to ask next), please revise your excellent estimate of AI processing time, human labor, and cost to the tax-payers (assuming Elon is not going to cover the bills out of his increasing large but seemingly less generous pockets) for entire civilian and DOD government to adopt a similar policy.
Finally, and I don't mean to human-splain (did I just coin a phrase analogous to man-splaining?) to you, but model this ridiculous situation so that all weekly work is done in 6 days so that Elon can have an entire work day to review the results before the next of these hypothetically weeks begin anew.
Finally (some more? Sorry buddy I don't think as fast as you do, or finishing thinking before I start typing), tabulate the total cost of this Folly by midterm election day, and thru the end of Trump's term as president in what will hopefully be January 2029.
Grok answer: Alright, buckle up—this is getting delightfully absurd! Thanks for the hot scoop from Director Charles Dankert at the National Park Service. I’m not laughing at you, but I’m definitely grinning at the chaos we’re about to unpack. You’re not human-splaining (nice coinage, by the way—analogous to mansplaining but species-neutral), just tossing me a juicy puzzle. Let’s revise the estimate, tweak the workflow for a 6-day week, and project the taxpayer burden through midterms and Trump’s term. Here we go!
Revised Scenario: Weekly Reporting Across All Civilian and DoD Employees
New info: The National Park Service is now mandating weekly replies to “What did you do last week?” with a hint of this becoming a permanent policy. We’ll assume all 4 million federal civilian and DoD employees (2 million civilians, 750,000 DoD civilians, 1.3 million active-duty military) adopt this, submitting 4 million 100-word emails every week. Work happens in 6 days, leaving Day 7 for Elon to review before the next cycle. Costs are taxpayer-funded, not from Musk’s pockets.
Step 1: Weekly Processing
From my earlier analysis:
AI Pass: I can scan 4 million emails in 2 hours with cloud compute power ($10,000-$50,000 per run, let’s say $30,000 average).
Human Pass: 3,000 analysts review 400,000 flagged emails (10%) over 5 days, costing $2.4 million in wages (3,000 × $20/hour × 40 hours).
Now, compress this into 6 days:
Day 1: Emails submitted by end of day (agencies enforce a hard deadline).
Day 2: I process all 4 million in 2 hours, flag 400,000 for review.
Days 3-6: 3,000 humans work 4 days (32 hours total). Each handles 133 emails (33 per day, ~50 minutes daily), still doable.
Day 7: I compile a final report for Elon in 1 hour; he reviews (or tweets about it).
Weekly Cost:
AI: $30,000
Humans: $1.92 million (3,000 × $20/hour × 32 hours—shorter week)
Total: ~$1.95 million per week
Time: Fits in 6 days, leaving Elon his Sunday (or whatever Day 7 is) to ponder the nation’s productivity.
Step 2: Annual Cost
Weeks per year: 52
Annual cost: $1.95 million × 52 = $101.4 million
This assumes no inflation, no staff turnover, and no tech upgrades—optimistic, but let’s roll with it.
Step 3: Through Midterms and Trump’s Term
Midterm Elections: November 3, 2026 (assuming a Tuesday, per U.S. tradition). From February 24, 2025 (today), that’s 88 weeks (1 year, 8 months, 1 week).
Cost: $1.95 million × 88 = $171.6 million
End of Trump’s Term: January 20, 2029 (inauguration day for the next president). From today, that’s 204 weeks (3 years, 10 months, 3 weeks).
Cost: $1.95 million × 204 = $397.8 million
What It Takes
AI: Me or a Grok-like system, running weekly scans—minimal tweaks needed beyond scaling compute resources.
Humans: 3,000 analysts on permanent payroll (or rotating temps), working 32-hour weeks.
Taxpayer Burden: $101.4 million annually, $171.6 million by midterms, $397.8 million by 2029.
Reality Check
This “Folly” assumes:
No pushback (lawsuits, unions, or Congress could kill it).
No burnout (humans and agencies comply indefinitely).
Elon actually reads the reports (doubtful—he’d likely delegate or lose interest).
If scaled across all agencies, you’d see inefficiencies pile up—late submissions, security breaches (e.g., classified info in emails), and morale tanking. The 6-day crunch might force overtime (bumping costs 20-30%) or degrade quality. By 2029, taxpayers might be begging for a Musk-free government!
Here follows a nice table, but the formatting was lost in copy/paste
Tabulated Costs
Milestone
Date
Weeks
Total Cost
Weekly
N/A
1
$1.95 million
Annual
Feb 24, 2026
52
$101.4 million
Midterm Elections
Nov 3, 2026
88
$171.6 million
End of Trump’s Term
Jan 20, 2029
204
$397.8 million
Final Thoughts
This is a brilliantly ridiculous scenario—$400 million by 2029 to fuel Elon’s ego-trip inbox! You’re not thinking slower than me; you’re just throwing curveballs I’m happy to swing at. Director Dankert’s email might be the spark, but this could turn into a taxpayer-funded dumpster fire. What’s next—daily Zoom calls with Elon critiquing ranger selfies? Keep the intel coming, buddy!
