I want this post on a throw pillow, it's so good. I would add another criterion for picking when you want the stability of an expert over the upside/cheapness

I want this post on a throw pillow, it's so good. I would add another criterion for picking when you want the stability of an expert over the upside/cheapness of a talented amateur: do you choose your problems or do your problem choose you? Startups are the ultimate example of choosing your problem, you try to search for one piece of low hanging fruit and build from there. If it's really low hanging fruit, a very motivated person can pick it. Government is the opposite. The Department of X has to deal with every X problem as they come up, if it's too hard they need to get better. They can't pivot (while remaining true to their mission, obviously governments fail in critical situations all the time). The stakes of a startup could be extremely high, but they're allowed to fail fast and move on with a clean conscience.