--- title: "Elon Musk’s New Government Department Seeking “Super High-IQ” People Who Will Work for Free" description: "Elon Musk wants \"super high-IQ ... revolutionaries\" to work for his Department of Government Efficiency without pay." date: "2024-11-15" modified: "2024-11-15" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-high-iq-work-free" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "donald trump" - "elon musk" - "the digest" - "vivek ramaswamy" --- # Elon Musk’s New Government Department Seeking “Super High-IQ” People Who Will Work for Free ![Elon Musk wants "super high-IQ ... revolutionaries" to work for his Department of Government Efficiency without pay.]() *\Image: Andrew Harnik via Getty\* ## Pro Bonehead Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy's committee to slash government spending is now hiring — with one catch: you'll be working for free. On Thursday, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency [announced on X-formerly-Twitter]() — which in the ouroborous of American oligarchy, Musk owns — that it would start accepting applications, albeit with some eye-brow raising demands. "We don't need more part-time idea generators," wrote the Department of Government Efficiency in the post. "We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting." Sounds thrilling. But if performing totally unremunerative work for the world's richest man is your thing — and if you sincerely think having a high IQ is worth bragging about — then "DM this account with your CV," the account implored. "Elon and Vivek will review the top 1 percent of applicants." ## Doge Days The Department of Government Efficiency is the brainchild of Musk and president-elect Donald Trump. Its shorthand, DOGE, is a joke referring to the [meme]()-turned-cryptocurrency [Dogecoin](), a longtime obsession of Musk's. Trump [initially tapped]() Musk for an undefined advisory role in his administration in August. The centibillionaire, who backed Trump to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, seemingly ran away with the idea and [tweeted]() an AI-generated image of himself standing behind a podium labeled "DOGE - Department of Government Efficiency," which was apparently enough to will the idea into existence. In November, Trump [formally named]() Musk along with Ramaswamy, a failed presidential candidate and Big Pharma moneymaker, to lead his government spending advisory board. Despite the runaway success of its meme name, though, DOGE won't be an official federal department — unless Congress approves its formation as such. ## Slash and Burn Musk's involvement in the commission is fraught with drama, not least of all because his company SpaceX is among the nation's largest government contractors. Since 2008, the aerospace manufacturer has received around [$20 billion in federal funding](), representing an enormous conflict of interest. That said, Musk has stated that he wants to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, which is more than what the government used in [discretionary spending last year](), and nearly a third of its total $6.1 trillion in [total spending](). His colleague Ramaswamy has previously called for [firing 75 percent of the entire federal workforce](), which would be more than two million employees. As for the head honcho himself, Trump has made it a key message of his campaign to [abolish the entire Department of Education](). So maybe these "high-IQ" volunteers could have some sway. **More on Elon Musk:** *[Back Before Their Bromance, Trump Said Musk Would Drop to His Knees and Beg]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()