Watch this developer accurately recreate the $47k TSA app in 10 minutes

I’m going to ask a favor of you, dear reader: I’d like you to watch the entire 11:27 video above, which shows you just how silly it was that the TSA spent tens of thousands of dollars on an app.

If you’re unfamiliar with the situation, it’s come to light that the TSA — as part of a larger deal with IBM — paid a solid $47,000 (though some estimates wrongly put the app’s cost into the millions, the TSA claims it cost it about $47,000) for an app that randomly points left or right. It’s meant to filter travelers through two lines at airport security checkpoints.

The app is also nothing more than a randomizer that goes one of two ways. That’s not hard to code. At all.

In Android Studio, YouTuber Chris Pacia quickly coded the very app the TSA spent so much money on, proving that government contracts really are the honeypot everyone dreams of.

Just think: if he were awarded the contract for that app, Pacia would have an hourly rate of about $282,000.

Amazing.

Again, the app was part of larger deal between the TSA and IBM, but damn is that a terrible ROI. A bit of common sense would make the app superfluous.