Sometimes I still find myself in awe that after eons of the drama of the human species, a long story of advancements and setbacks for human progress, we can now comfortably say we live in an advanced society.  One of the most important aspects of an advanced society, which we are fortunate to have, is a large number of thinkers and researchers dedicated to studying policy.  We have thousands of experts studying how to make policies serve society most effectively, asking what's wrong with them and how they can serve society better.  Most of these experts are incredibly smart, and they demand that arguments be supported by facts, rather than dead-end appeals to ideology.    

Despite the infinite complexity and breadth of policy issues, coming up with the optimal policy solution is the easy problem.  The way to study the problem is pretty clear: it should be studied like any scientific discipline: rationally, skeptically, and methodologically.  It's usually possible to identify what policy will best ameliorate a given societal problem just by subjecting all policy ideas to a rational, focused debate.   If you have enough scholars and experts setting their sights on a single problem, they will be quick to call out bullshit and they won't hesitate to concede a valid point from the other side, and a good policy will emerge.  Of course, there are some policy areas where reasonable experts disagree, but in most policy areas, such as health care reform or stimulus spending, there is widespread agreement as to the general approach that should be taken.    

 The hard problem is making the legislative process work more like the academic policy discussion process.  As you know, members of Congress regularly tell lies.  They lie about their opponents legislation, they make up numbers, they lie about basic facts (e.g. climate change), and they lie about who's responsible for what, and they call each other names.  They are constantly committing crimes against reason, and they are rewarded for it.  Politicians have little incentive to debate policy honestly and with focus, and they have every incentive to simplify complicated subjects.  The result is very poor legislation riddled with terrible ideas and senseless compromises that cut the teeth out of good ideas. 

So I would love to hear some ideas on how to address the hard problem.  The way I see it, good ideas are worthless if they're ignored, and they usually are, so fixing the hard problem is arguably the most urgent problem facing our country.