Katie Benner, Tom Dotan, and Eric Newcomer look back on 2021 in Techmeme headlines for our final episode of Dead Cat for the year.
We discuss some of the biggest stories of the year:
* In January, Microsoft said Russian hackers accessed some of its source code and the U.S. government pinned the SolarWinds hack on Russians.
* In February, Elon Musk drove Clubhouse listeners (and journalists blocked by Marc Andreessen) to YouTube as they tried to listen to the live interview on the platform. It would represent a peak moment of cultural relevance for Clubhouse.
* In March, Stripe’s valuation climbed to $95 billion. (And we talked about Stripe’s critics on Y Combinator-owned Hacker News and the coverage of Stripe’s hiring practices in Protocol.)
* In May, Antonio García Martínez declared that Apple had fired him over the culture war backlash to his book Chaos Monkeys.
* In June, the New York Times wrote about tough working conditions at Amazon. Later this year, a tornado would rip through an Amazon facility, killing six and raising further questions about how Amazon protects its workers.
* Also in June, Andreessen Horowitz launched its much-discussed Future — a publication that hasn’t yet taken Silicon Valley by storm but has put every venture firm on notice that they need to think about getting in the content business.
* We talked about Robinhood’s IPO in July and the rise of meme stocks.
* And we discussed how big tech executives don’t seem to want to worry about the present. Jeff Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO in July as he spends more time on Blue Origin; Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rebranded his company to Meta in October; and Jack Dorsey left behind moderation challenges at Twitter in late November and then renamed his financial services company Square to Block, hoping to emphasize the company’s crypto ambitions.
Finally, Tom, Katie, and Eric offer some predictions for what 2022 holds, though no one seems quite sure after this strange year.
Techmeme!
My favorite tech headline aggregator, tweet tracker, and conversation setter — Techmeme — has been generously featuring me on their home page as part of a round-up of interesting tech newsletters. So I wanted to return the favor.
I check Techmeme literally every couple of hours and rely on it to do my job. And in a genuine coincidence, Techmeme served as an easy-to-navigate archive for this week’s podcast.
It’s a free news aggregator for tech industry folks that’s updated constantly to show the most important tech stories of the moment and the commentary surrounding those stories. They also publish a daily newsletter with stories from the past day, which is useful if you forget to visit the site.
Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe
00:00:06
Welcome. What I did was I went on to
00:00:14
technium a few minutes for we started recording and I looked
00:00:17
at the top, couple news stories on the 1st and the 15th of the
00:00:21
month so I figured I could get like, whatever the biggest story
00:00:24
was beginning in the middle and then kind of scroll down to see
00:00:27
the long tail because usually they'll be like a big story and
00:00:29
then it Much of follow-ons. So that that was my process.
00:00:33
Okay, and I should disclose the top.
00:00:37
I this process is not very scientific and I missed a bunch
00:00:40
of things in it. That probably would be
00:00:41
considered the biggest stories of the year, which to me were,
00:00:45
but what I will not bring up our the meme stalk, AMC, GameStop
00:00:50
that whole thing which happened this year.
00:00:52
And if you even remember that, that was a thing.
00:00:54
At the beginning of the year, I didn't get the capital riot.
00:01:00
Or Facebooks non role role in the organizing of that AT&T
00:01:05
spinning off were media and merging it with Discovery and
00:01:09
then Facebook name change to Metta.
00:01:12
We're all things that I just remembered having happened this
00:01:15
year but did not pick up in the technium, okay?
00:01:18
So just want me to go through the list and we can just Riff
00:01:20
on, whatever, whatever I come up with.
00:01:22
Yeah, this is great. I mean, wow, this is most
00:01:24
productive 15 minutes. Yeah, right, well, I'll tell you
00:01:27
what, I was not doing the thing that I get paid.
00:01:30
For okay. So so the thing that so, its
00:01:37
first of the year, biggest story cyber hack sources,
00:01:41
investigators are checking, if solarwinds was hacked via its
00:01:43
offices, in check, Geo, Poland and Belarus where the company
00:01:48
moved, much of its engineering. So basic there was this giant
00:01:51
hacked. You remember this?
00:01:52
The solarwinds hack maybe Katie you do because that might have.
00:01:54
I do remember this? Yeah amazing.
00:01:58
Yeah, but if you would ask me what year, I And I don't know
00:02:01
that I would have said this year.
00:02:02
Yeah, it was a long time ago. Long ago.
00:02:05
Right? It was a huge hack though.
00:02:07
And I think Microsoft was like compromised.
00:02:09
Our does it. Yeah, I think Russia was
00:02:12
obviously involved. And so there was like, a lot of
00:02:14
hard talk between the incoming Biden Administration and Russia.
00:02:19
Anyway, no one really remembers it now, but that was the biggest
00:02:22
story in January January. Well, one of the reasons it was
00:02:26
a big deal is because solarwinds was a subcontractor.
00:02:30
Basically two big tech companies.
00:02:32
So by hacking solarwinds it was like the hackers were able to
00:02:36
get into lots of different companies and it reminded the
00:02:39
federal government. A lot of other people that we
00:02:42
should be paying attention, not just to Microsoft and Google,
00:02:45
but all of the companies that they use to keep our data
00:02:48
secure, especially when the clients or people like federal
00:02:52
government agencies, right? Who are who were hacked by a
00:02:56
solar ones, right? And it's what I feel.
00:02:58
Like we've reached a point where there are so many Things to be
00:03:00
worried about when it comes to the safety of our shit.
00:03:04
That I don't feel like my major hacks get a ton of play anymore.
00:03:07
Yeah, because they happen so often sort of like, oh, what's
00:03:10
the big deal? But the thing is, is that, I
00:03:13
mean, yes, they happen all the time.
00:03:15
I can totally understand why people are having a hard time
00:03:17
like getting it getting interested in yet another hack.
00:03:21
But what they show is that big tech companies are now part of
00:03:25
the National Security apparatus. So if you think about our
00:03:29
national Abilities. Yes a vulnerability.
00:03:32
Like yes flying a plane into a large building is still a
00:03:37
vulnerability that we're working hard to make sure it never
00:03:40
happens again and yes, other sorts of attacks are
00:03:43
vulnerabilities that we want to never happen.
00:03:45
Here attacks on the subway etcetera, plate, things we've
00:03:47
seen in other countries, but hacks of major corporations and
00:03:51
of our critical infrastructure, our banking system are now also
00:03:55
National Security issues, but they're so sprawling.
00:03:58
Like the To surface is so huge. It's literally every person who
00:04:03
uses the internet who works for a major corporation that there's
00:04:07
no way the government can plug the risk in the way they can
00:04:11
with say planes flying into a big building.
00:04:14
And so now it is literally up to Corporate America to take care
00:04:18
of our national security. Okay, so January fit, I don't
00:04:22
know why this one caught my eye but Cameo hired like 10
00:04:24
different, Executives to work. There Cameo huge, pandemic.
00:04:28
Winner was raised. Raising, you know, hundreds of
00:04:31
millions this year. I think.
00:04:33
Anyway, that was a thing, right? So it's like Cameo clubhouse,
00:04:37
right? Well, guess the clubhouse
00:04:38
because that's funny. So February 1st, Robin Hood
00:04:42
raises 2.4 billion from shareholders.
00:04:44
Just have to raise, a Robin Hood raises, a shitload of money.
00:04:47
They're obviously one of the big stories this year as we move
00:04:49
into the mean stocks thing and they also go public later in the
00:04:53
year. So that was a big thing
00:04:54
beginning of February. So yeah.
00:04:56
So I had line from Ben Thompson in strata Curry.
00:05:00
Clubhouse which centralizes creation and consumption into a
00:05:02
feedback loop will do for audio. What Twitter stories and
00:05:05
Tick-Tock did for text images and video?
00:05:08
Yeah. Sorry.
00:05:08
Ben didn't happen II? Do like, I mean, that already,
00:05:14
it's like clubhouses the story for the year.
00:05:16
I want to dig into that. I mean because it is quite it
00:05:20
has sort of the It's not quite a meme stock, but there were a lot
00:05:24
of influencers or rushing on their thinking, oh, I can sort
00:05:27
of, have a land grab, we had sort of Andreessen Horowitz,
00:05:31
trying to make it happen, it right.
00:05:33
It fit with the pandemic in that, we were all excited about
00:05:37
it because we were bored at home and we totally forgotten what
00:05:41
real life Joy was like. And so happy to have sort of
00:05:45
this simulacrum of it with these.
00:05:47
We're all weird. Audio chat rooms.
00:05:51
I do think Clubhouse is a pretty, I mean, was it all time
00:05:56
in the pandemic? I mean, was it mostly this year,
00:05:58
like, the, the the rise of Clubhouse, it launched before II
00:06:03
think it was in. Yeah, I think it was basically,
00:06:06
the short of this winter or like just before the springtime,
00:06:11
right? When people started talking
00:06:12
about the fact that Clubhouse wasn't going to make it because
00:06:16
the minute we could get out of our homes and do something else
00:06:19
we would. And so, you saw people being
00:06:21
like, That's ridiculous. Like, this is the most
00:06:23
compelling audio, but then by April, it was sort of less
00:06:30
exciting to be on clubhouse. I think I deleted the app.
00:06:33
So this was the fall of Clubhouse.
00:06:35
The rise of Clubhouse was 2020. Exactly.
00:06:39
I think it's a very it was the Omicron of trends like I think
00:06:43
it Rose and crashed fairly soon after right now.
00:06:47
Like it did. I remember when things were
00:06:49
getting real? Hot was like when What's his
00:06:52
name? Shriram and his wife were
00:06:54
hosting a weekly room in the evenings and that was when suck
00:06:57
showed up. And I think right?
00:06:59
Ilan showed up and when was that I want to say beginning of this
00:07:03
year or something like Elon Musk, or right?
00:07:06
So he would show up in member. There was a little fight from
00:07:08
the journalist that were like Marc Andreessen banza, Elon Musk
00:07:12
bus Clubhouse. Limit fan stream to YouTube was
00:07:15
February 20, 21. This is a this year story, I
00:07:17
write winner this year. We were going ballistic over.
00:07:21
We saw it Peak like in february/march.
00:07:24
Yeah, but basically by May when people were about starting to
00:07:28
get vaccinated and they were let out of their homes, people had
00:07:31
stopped using it and then by June.
00:07:33
Remember the month, June, when the pandemic ended and we were
00:07:37
all happy. Nobody was on clubhouse in this
00:07:40
year. And that was kind of the end
00:07:41
Clubhouse. This is the your Clubhouse.
00:07:44
That's the most compelling so far.
00:07:45
All right, keep going. Yeah, okay, back to that.
00:07:47
Sure, as story about Lyme raising money, Honey, I'm going
00:07:52
to skip that slime scooter company.
00:07:54
This scooter is good skier. I mean it's hard.
00:07:56
It's not a good story the year because it feels very like
00:07:59
pandemic asterisk, like they were falling.
00:08:02
But then right, who knows? It's fine.
00:08:04
They're still around, which is more than I think, a lot of
00:08:06
people were expecting. I took one yesterday.
00:08:10
This is now getting into March. Every Apple Store in the u.s. is
00:08:13
open for the first time, since March 2012, he starred in offer
00:08:16
in store shopping. Well, yeah.
00:08:18
Okay, March. Yeah.
00:08:22
Stripe raises 600 million from Sequoia and others that
00:08:24
evaluation of 95 billion dollars becoming the most valuable
00:08:27
private company. In Silicon Valley, stripe is
00:08:30
going to go public, what next year.
00:08:32
Eric, that's the plan I ever. I mean, it's one of these
00:08:35
companies. People always say next year, but
00:08:37
I do think that's likely. I mean, Chris sacca told me an
00:08:40
interview. He was getting offers on
00:08:41
secondary for, like, 200 billion.
00:08:44
I mean, I think the story, You could say that it 2021 was not
00:08:53
the year of stripe because that's what stripe wanted.
00:08:56
I mean they get some news coverage with like Fast grants,
00:08:59
they're doing more charity stuff, but in some due to some
00:09:02
degree I think stripe is enormous company stripe is
00:09:06
enormous company for how little it gets covered.
00:09:10
Like I mean I would write well that's because think about what
00:09:12
they do. I mean that is not a compelling.
00:09:15
It's a Selling company. And that it makes a lot of
00:09:17
money, but in terms of finding a narrative, right?
00:09:20
I mean, I'm one of the people who should be writing about it
00:09:23
more, I think it's a big company but it is sort of like what's,
00:09:27
what's the exciting story to write about striae sky's the
00:09:30
limit on valuation. They're disrupting VC, they've
00:09:33
got celebrity, you know, CEOs, right?
00:09:36
They do. Oh, that's right.
00:09:37
This film has a really nice. Yeah.
00:09:40
I like them or anyone, you know? I mean they're, you know,
00:09:44
they're Charming. Irish Brothers.
00:09:45
They Are they very much are lovely?
00:09:49
Yeah there was a mini. There was a mini stripe.
00:09:52
It's funny that the stripe takedown occurred.
00:09:54
I think I just like Hacker News. Someone complaining was they got
00:09:58
there was one, they got offered a job basically by a recruiter
00:10:03
and then it got rescinded and their accusations that stripe
00:10:06
handled sort of, you know, had poor treatment of recruiters
00:10:11
some Outlet. Like I think I might've been
00:10:13
protocol stood up some of the accusations ins and one of the
00:10:16
Collison's went on Hacker News to respond but to I just think
00:10:21
it's an interesting case study because it's almost engineer's
00:10:24
have such strong opinions and like true hardcore, Silicon
00:10:27
Valley people. What was the what was the take
00:10:30
down? What happened to them?
00:10:32
Yeah, I miss that but they don't treat recruiters very well.
00:10:34
Well, this guy said got recruited by stripe and then
00:10:38
they didn't give him the job like he was sort of ghosted and
00:10:40
it was just a poor experience. And then in the comments section
00:10:44
of that, News Post. There were accusations that
00:10:48
stripe. Also like said they were going
00:10:50
to acquire companies and then didn't and it was just generally
00:10:55
an argument that stripe has this very glowing reputation but
00:10:58
actually the founders are sort of Ruthless that was but I don't
00:11:04
know the truth of it but it was an interesting just like stripe
00:11:07
is a YC company and then Hacker News, which is owned by YC was
00:11:12
sort of the most aggressive anti stripe.
00:11:15
Unity. I've never heard of anybody
00:11:18
running at enormous company and making it successful, who wasn't
00:11:23
to some degree ruthless like which of the seat, like, right?
00:11:27
Anyway. Yeah, it's also there like a
00:11:29
giant backbone. Payment infrastructure, provider
00:11:31
for the internet? Like you got to be kind of
00:11:33
Ruthless, you know? It's anyone.
00:11:35
Okay, Amazon April 1st says it expects.
00:11:38
Some employees are coming back to the office as early as this
00:11:40
summer and most of its half will be back in the office.
00:11:42
This fall, very funny. There should be some analysis of
00:11:45
the Of management just based on how wrong and their predictions
00:11:48
of returned to the office were like some of these companies.
00:11:52
The fact that they're like, telling people they're going to
00:11:55
return to the office when anyone looking at.
00:11:58
It would know they're not coming back on the dates.
00:12:00
They were setting. Like it's just like the best
00:12:02
proof point of who's like, a totally incompetent manager.
00:12:07
I mean, April 1st, they were rolling out.
00:12:08
The vax has at large, you know, it was, you know, this is
00:12:13
Amazon. No, I'm not saying specific to a
00:12:15
Azana. We're just saying like all
00:12:17
these, all these places that were like, oh yeah, we're
00:12:20
definitely going to be back on X date and then it would get so
00:12:24
close and then they'd wait like a week away and they'd be like,
00:12:27
yeah we're not we're not running back then.
00:12:29
It's like what how do you make all your other decisions?
00:12:32
I will say it felt very strange as a reporter reporting on it
00:12:35
because you know, you want to make everything about like.
00:12:37
Oh here's what the big company is making its employees do and
00:12:40
really like their we're all subject.
00:12:42
We're all reading. The same news were subject to
00:12:44
the same whims of the Chris, as anyone else.
00:12:47
So it, they were strange stories to write generally, because
00:12:50
there would always be tons of grumbling.
00:12:52
Like I wrote a lot about boober and they're and they're back to
00:12:54
office plans and it was like oh why is Uber forcing people to go
00:12:57
back three days a week? And they had to change it to be
00:13:01
more flexible and in the end all of its just been thrown up in
00:13:03
the air right but it does seem like anyone that I mean you know
00:13:08
God God willing. This thing does wind down, I
00:13:11
don't know if the like extremists on coming back to the
00:13:13
office will ever win. I Really think it's a lost
00:13:17
battle April 15th us sanctions Russia for 2020 election
00:13:22
interference and the solarwinds hack blacklisting 10 tech
00:13:27
companies. Okay, we talked about that.
00:13:31
Okay, for some reason I jumped all the way to June 1st just as
00:13:34
an aside. I feel like you could do this
00:13:35
whole thing and you it could have been 2020 and I would have
00:13:39
no, I'd like be okay. That was a sheer, I have no
00:13:41
sense of time. I just wrote a bunch of holiday
00:13:44
cards, you could Like we could do the whole episode.
00:13:47
It's like, oh shit. I was this was 2020 90.
00:13:50
Now my oh, wow, okay sure. I just want to throw it all
00:13:53
these holiday cards. I wrote saying here's to a great
00:13:56
2020 was right. Yeah.
00:13:58
Right. It's like first of all it was
00:14:01
bullshit garbage as a hall like it happen bitch.
00:14:04
I know side to throw all of them away it was just totally
00:14:07
forgotten. Yeah I know I think we will look
00:14:09
back at 2021 as a completely forgotten year like thank well
00:14:13
2022. Well yeah because it you know
00:14:15
like this Slight bit of hello all the memories we made in
00:14:17
2021, that were so good. Yeah, well, there was that month
00:14:20
member will least 2020 was unique, right?
00:14:23
It was like the early, I hope, everyone had a good June.
00:14:26
Yeah, I was, I that was when I had my vacation I could see like
00:14:30
the waves slowly you know, in the distance and the Horizon
00:14:34
like making its way towards my life.
00:14:37
But for that moment it was fine, I jumped to June for some
00:14:39
reason. When I did this a lot of the
00:14:41
world skipped over the spring went right to the.
00:14:42
Yeah, I don't even as we were getting the vax.
00:14:47
Antonio Garcia Martina said he did quote not part ways with
00:14:50
apple was fired in a snap decision.
00:14:52
And apple statement on his exit is defamatory and false.
00:14:55
You guys remember that whole thing?
00:14:57
Yeah. Well, that's another.
00:14:59
Yeah, I got cancelled culture. Another, they've got like much
00:15:02
like Clubhouse. It felt like it was going to be
00:15:04
the biggest thing, and I was like, who gives a fuck that gets
00:15:06
us back Clubhouse, Wolk. Wolk - and Clubhouse are very
00:15:09
interrelated, like both, why reporters don't like it.
00:15:13
Why people don't go it. Sure member that was We need to,
00:15:16
we need to moderate Clubhouse and Taylor Lorenz, like got all
00:15:20
the injuries and partners pissed at her because she missed
00:15:23
misquote Edition Horowitz. Oh my God.
00:15:25
Yeah. Oh, that's right.
00:15:27
A lard. Yeah, that was like the worst
00:15:30
truly. I'm sorry.
00:15:32
I just like, when I think about the things that are destroying I
00:15:35
just like, oh, can't like I'm just glad that.
00:15:38
We don't hear a lot about Clubhouse.
00:15:40
Cancel culture, and the teller Lorenz Andreessen Feud anymore.
00:15:46
And like frankly if you told me those things happened in 2020, I
00:15:50
would have been like sure 2019 whatever.
00:15:52
Yeah. It's a long time ago.
00:15:54
Yeah this one definitely feels like a million years ago and I
00:15:58
thought just to editorialize for a second here.
00:16:00
Really stupid move by Apple like like this was people complaining
00:16:04
about a line that he had written in a book like six years ago.
00:16:07
Oh, you're something that people liked in wrote positively about.
00:16:11
I mean, I know some of the reviews mentioned the sexism but
00:16:14
it was he being a kid. Used of being sexist himself or
00:16:17
just being dutifully being a scribe.
00:16:20
And he describes his girlfriend in a sexist way as girlfriend in
00:16:25
a book that he wrote like seven years ago.
00:16:27
Well so long you know like I'm not that's not that's not
00:16:31
something is going to keep me up at night.
00:16:32
I'm so sorry. Yeah.
00:16:34
Well you just got you just got kicked out of the slack Apple
00:16:38
Community because that's where all this went down and then they
00:16:40
all leaked it to The Verge. Slack is a slab, slack is a
00:16:43
monstrous company. That's what we learned.
00:16:46
In 2020, whatever the frick this year is whatever this year is we
00:16:49
learned slack is terrible. Slack is bad for people.
00:16:52
It's bad for companies. The only person slack is good
00:16:55
for is maxed Annie the right, the media's the media reporter
00:17:01
at The Daily Beast. You dogged slack reporter.
00:17:04
Yes slack slack Sleek to him so he can help help, cancel people,
00:17:08
independent of whatever Max's particular view.
00:17:11
It was a fantastic reporter and I think we I think Should hire
00:17:15
him. I think we should hire Max
00:17:18
Danny. I've been on record saying that
00:17:19
so many times if only so you can cover some other companies other
00:17:23
than the New York Times. Yeah, I mean, the New York Times
00:17:24
dominates the media be like, I mean, it's a headache.
00:17:27
Probably, you guys should just have all the top one, many hired
00:17:31
Ben Smith. I mean, it's not that was
00:17:33
helpful true. Yeah, we're taking them out one
00:17:35
by one. Now, that I work at a place
00:17:37
where people leak the slacks from, I find it to be a strange
00:17:41
posture. It's like, oh, it's probably
00:17:43
getting out there. I just Imagine how mad I could
00:17:46
be at somebody. Yeah.
00:17:47
Like I would never be so mad that I'd be like, you know what?
00:17:50
Fucker, I'm gonna screenshot your slack, the chaos monkeys
00:17:54
guy. I mean, the other thing, and
00:17:56
this has been said, but the chaos monkeys guy, you know, is
00:18:00
probably has more reach. Now, he has a sub stack.
00:18:03
He's totally in the opinion game or as if he was at Apple, he
00:18:07
would have not been out there with like the views.
00:18:10
These people hate like, it's sort of the, you know, reaction
00:18:14
Is equal and opposite reaction. Are he?
00:18:17
Are he and the girlfriend still together?
00:18:19
I don't think they were together at the time.
00:18:21
Probably not. I don't think, I don't think so.
00:18:23
Yeah. Okay.
00:18:24
So and have you ever ever, ever before heard of a sexist,
00:18:28
mandating. A woman has ever happened
00:18:30
before. I hope not.
00:18:32
Oh my God. I mean, obviously, I know
00:18:35
nothing about the actual concert.
00:18:37
How else do they get girlfriend? That's part of negging.
00:18:40
You gotta commit. I know nothing about the actual
00:18:43
controversy, so somebody's Gonna be like, well, Katie actually,
00:18:46
it wasn't about the fact that he was saying sexist things about
00:18:48
his girlfriend. It's about the fact that he was,
00:18:50
you know, he was burying bodies in his backyard and then I will
00:18:53
feel bad because that my friends that is illegal.
00:18:56
But if I think the idea. Yeah, well, look, if our
00:19:01
listeners have a problem with that, this is Katie's fault.
00:19:03
She could be the one canceled on it.
00:19:05
She, I am waiting about Tom's description.
00:19:09
Katie is like, oh, I'm I'm right if someone gets cancelled.
00:19:13
When really, the reason they're getting Canceled his for, not
00:19:16
the thing that's being said public, right?
00:19:18
That's the position. You and you alone, subscribe to
00:19:21
you're like you're like real politic of cancellation.
00:19:25
Like it doesn't matter. I just have no idea.
00:19:28
What was? I don't know.
00:19:29
It's a publicly. I think that Tom's description
00:19:32
of what was said Papa. Yeah, sounds very silly to me
00:19:35
because I, I guess like he just, if he were the only sexist
00:19:39
person to ever get a girlfriend and then describe her, like an
00:19:42
asshole. Wow, right.
00:19:45
Wow. And yeah next you can tell I've
00:19:47
also covered finest. Yeah.
00:19:49
LinkedIn data shows Austin. As a top beneficiary of
00:19:52
tech-related migration in the past 12 months, followed by
00:19:54
Nashville. Miami was number 11 by net
00:19:57
migration rate. Given I am still The Story of
00:19:59
the Year, definitely not Austin. Well, Miami began at the end of
00:20:02
last year. This I remember well, that that
00:20:05
the whole Miami as the siphon of Silicon Valley Talent was like a
00:20:09
December 2020, thing it continued on through this year.
00:20:12
I think maybe he's still going on.
00:20:13
I unfollowed all of Really done Miami so funny.
00:20:18
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I mean like the San
00:20:21
Francisco, the Silicon Valley dispersion, you know, San
00:20:25
Francisco supposed downfall as the capital of tech that is that
00:20:29
that has been a big story this year.
00:20:31
The Miami Herald. Emailed me to ask me for my take
00:20:34
on Miami. Oh my goodness.
00:20:36
You are being asked for your takes now.
00:20:38
Yeah, I'm a pundit silent. I said, Miami definitely
00:20:42
captured the Silicon Valley Zeitgeist this year.
00:20:44
Even if There's two. I don't want to read myself.
00:20:46
I can't. Well don't don't scoop yourself
00:20:48
error. Yeah, I don't know if they're
00:20:50
ever going to run it. They probably they probably
00:20:52
emailed you because you were bitching about public trans.
00:20:54
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
00:20:56
I just I replied like instantaneously like, you know,
00:20:59
you know that's that's how you become agile of quote folks.
00:21:02
As soon as someone asks you just fire off, you don't look for
00:21:05
data. You don't think about it, you
00:21:06
just write an email right away. I love those people, right?
00:21:11
I depend on. You can tell the reporters were
00:21:13
working hard there. The girl talk about fucking
00:21:15
anything right? Yeah you should have some
00:21:17
completely wrong headed like completely.
00:21:19
Just have no knowledge of Miami infrastructure and be like I
00:21:22
think it should be more tunnels in Miami more and deeper
00:21:26
tunnels. It seems it seems a major
00:21:30
oversight by the Miami Chamber of Commerce to not invest in
00:21:33
hyper Loops everywhere, okay? So that was, that was a big
00:21:36
story and not Austin, Austin not.
00:21:39
He's cares about the data. It's it's whoever's loudest on
00:21:43
Twitter shaping the narrative. This is about like the
00:21:45
narratives of 2021 and definitely the Miami people own.
00:21:49
The awesome people eat, which makes it more pathetic for the
00:21:52
Austin people if they actually had data on their side.
00:21:55
So I need to be better about their propaganda.
00:21:58
I really, I think New York is going to come out the best of
00:22:01
this, but I live in New York that was it, that was a thing
00:22:03
to. There were people that were
00:22:04
moving to New York, that talked a lot about that and as the
00:22:07
reasonable alternative to Silicon Valley, I have no
00:22:11
thoughts so oig and I got some good.
00:22:16
Interviews with around 200 people show.
00:22:18
How am this was a New York Times investigation, 200 people at
00:22:21
Amazon's Warehouse employment system, under strain before the
00:22:23
pandemic burn through workers and created a huge confusion.
00:22:27
There were a couple of great stories that the times put out
00:22:29
around then about the treatment of Amazon warehouse workers in.
00:22:33
I think, New Jersey and now is before the tornado and people
00:22:36
died. Yeah.
00:22:37
Right is mean, Amazon is such a huge employer.
00:22:40
I do not to give them any defense on this, but there is a
00:22:43
degree to, which Just the scale at which they're employing
00:22:48
people creates so much. You know, so much bureaucracy,
00:22:52
and problems and negative stories.
00:22:55
Well, I think the, I mean, we're still, I don't know what the
00:22:57
latest polling shows. I assume public sentiment is
00:23:00
still strongly in favor of Amazon, but it must have turned
00:23:05
a bit this year, like the numbers have to be sinking.
00:23:07
I mean, but the thing is Amazon also drives up wages and a lot
00:23:11
of places that it enters, you know, there is definitely a
00:23:14
case. That regular American both for
00:23:17
the products and for the jobs in some cases likes Amazon.
00:23:21
I mean, the flip side is Amazon, seems to turn through a lot of
00:23:24
people, so maybe I don't know. Yeah, we need data, but they say
00:23:27
she wants to test positive for you look.
00:23:29
Depressed, Amazon was a huge story, Amazon's working
00:23:34
condition, I mean, Amazon's working conditions.
00:23:36
Right? That's not going to go away.
00:23:38
Did Jeff Bezos change? Yeah, that happened this year.
00:23:41
So I know that one, too. That he stepped down or now,
00:23:44
instead of stepping down, Down. That's huge.
00:23:45
He's it though. I mean, it's I mean, obviously,
00:23:47
like Andy jassy, he'll get a couple profiles written about
00:23:50
them and people are starting to Source up and figure out how to
00:23:54
characterize him as a tech personality but is amazing.
00:23:58
People don't seem to have like I have no idea what that Andy
00:24:02
jassy narrative is I mean they've been interesting pieces
00:24:06
written. You know, ruthless nice-ish guy
00:24:09
is the Via, but I typically get. But yeah, it's I mean, as long
00:24:14
as Bezos, Sitting there as the executive chairman, it'll be
00:24:18
hard for it to be his company and I think in the Public's just
00:24:23
because Bezos is the second richest person in the world.
00:24:27
I think people like any random person, you ask me, like, who's
00:24:29
the head of Amazon? They'll say Jeff Bezos.
00:24:31
You got to really be in the know, right?
00:24:34
And even if you are then the clever take, could still be Jeff
00:24:38
except so yeah. Disney was similar for a while
00:24:42
with tigers chairman and You know, no one really has thoughts
00:24:46
about Bob check back anyway. So this was mid-june also
00:24:51
Andreessen, Horowitz launches future immediate property that
00:24:53
will focus on informational and editorial consecrated by
00:24:56
full-time staff and outside contributors.
00:24:58
So that was a whole thing for like a week or so, like the
00:25:02
creation of the Andresen media site and the fact that it was
00:25:05
going to disintermediated us. Well, yeah, it was one of my
00:25:09
biggest stories of the Year talking about and it was my
00:25:12
biggest story. So what happened to it?
00:25:13
Does anyone read this thing? No, I just I mean you know
00:25:16
sometimes I'll you know if you put a URL into Twitter you can
00:25:20
sort of see what the engagement is.
00:25:21
It doesn't feel like it's definitely not penetrating my
00:25:26
conversations and I don't see that it sort of typical piece
00:25:30
getting a ton of Engagement. I mean I I do think just like
00:25:35
the Mandate writing about the future limits.
00:25:37
You know people are very interested in the present and
00:25:41
there is a reason that the media investigates thing.
00:25:44
Things and asked how things are going, not just sort of opines
00:25:48
about the future. So I mean, I think they're still
00:25:51
figuring out how their editorial voice connects with an audience.
00:25:56
Do you think it needs to be widely, read for it to be
00:25:58
successful? I mean, I guess my one take on
00:26:01
it at this point or my one perspective on it is that the
00:26:04
media overreacted to what they were trying to do that.
00:26:07
There was this idea that there was going to be a war.
00:26:09
No, but I do think they want like they set themselves up for
00:26:13
being good at this. I mean, they are I really do
00:26:15
think like Margot was shifting her Focus to editorial like when
00:26:20
that's all true. They want to take it very
00:26:22
personally. So I think they want to succeed,
00:26:26
right? Certainly by the standards of a
00:26:29
venture firm. They're good at what they do.
00:26:30
I mean I love their blog posts about their companies like
00:26:34
people listen to their podcast. I don't.
00:26:37
Right. Right.
00:26:40
Okay. So that that was a thing in June
00:26:43
and then moving to July Why Robin Hood files for
00:26:46
long-awaited IPO says, it will set aside 35 percent of shares
00:26:49
for retail investors. We've kind of talked a bit about
00:26:52
Robin Hood already. Yeah, Robin Hood.
00:26:54
I mean, that gets, I think that's up there with Clubhouse
00:26:57
and I mean in story of the year because it captures the meme
00:27:00
stock, sort of high pi po that sort of took a dive.
00:27:06
It's dabbling in crypto. It does a lot of Dogecoin you
00:27:10
know, big regulatory questions with the slow SEC.
00:27:14
All right. Let's keep moving through.
00:27:16
So we talked about Robin Hood while you were out Katie, that's
00:27:18
fine. Good kid.
00:27:20
The Robin Hood. That's a big story 2021.
00:27:22
Yeah, I'm looking for a story that like, grabs a bunch of the
00:27:25
themes at once. Okay.
00:27:26
Well, here's here's an interesting one on that because
00:27:29
it's from August 1st. Many viewers are experienced the
00:27:31
Olympics primarily through Tech talk with some of the most
00:27:34
watched videos, not coming from NBC, but from the athletes
00:27:36
themselves, do they Olympics happen this year?
00:27:38
Yeah. So that's part of it.
00:27:39
Like I didn't remember that at all.
00:27:43
I didn't watch it which one? 20/20 it was like the Olympics
00:27:46
with no audience because Japan was dealing with Summer
00:27:49
Olympics. Yeah, that was this summer.
00:27:52
Yeah, because they postponed it for you to post this and people
00:27:56
are going to be like none of those things you talked about
00:27:57
happened. Is she like I do and some of it
00:28:00
really sincerely not just as a put on like a sliding.
00:28:04
You guys are hard to believe that it happened this year.
00:28:07
This is serious. I'm turning to the internet
00:28:10
right now. There was an Olympics in Japan
00:28:12
this summer while I was in Maine.
00:28:14
There was a This in Japan. There is skateboarding in it.
00:28:17
Michael Phelps. Did not participate.
00:28:20
What else happened in this Olympics with this year's 2021?
00:28:23
Yeah, because they postponed it from 2020 because we were all in
00:28:25
clear, right? Oh my God.
00:28:28
Yeah there, but there were like, just family in the audience.
00:28:31
It was, it was Haunting. It was a nightmare.
00:28:33
They did it, but Japan was dealing with.
00:28:36
It's worth. O is so weird.
00:28:37
Yeah, I mean what, that's a perfect one to Gaslight us with
00:28:41
also because it's their Spurs to be in 2020, but then their
00:28:45
postponed. Yes.
00:28:46
The date is still the 2020 Olympics.
00:28:49
To when you look at it online is the Japan 2020 Olympics.
00:28:52
Right? Well, that's funny one.
00:28:53
Yeah, maybe that's just really jamming your system.
00:28:56
Just like telling you over and over again, welcome to 2021
00:29:00
showing of the 2020 Olympics live.
00:29:04
Now that's a glitch in the simulation.
00:29:06
I was like yeah 57 gonna go clean.
00:29:08
So I'm going to go ahead and edit that know.
00:29:10
There are probably a percentage of people that had like Strokes
00:29:12
every time that logo came up. We call this the tiny 20 bucks.
00:29:18
I don't remember anything from it.
00:29:19
I didn't know you sure. This Olympics totally fell
00:29:21
apart. Like okay, the fact that we all
00:29:23
got the like, you know, Matrix glitching Olympics is one thing
00:29:27
but also that it was experience your Tick Tock which, you know,
00:29:31
the rise of tick-tock and how it's infected both of.
00:29:34
You not me has been a huge story.
00:29:36
It is here. Oh, yeah, it's destroyed me.
00:29:40
It's huge in music. It's huge music and culture.
00:29:43
Well, yeah, but it almost It feels I mean it hasn't brought
00:29:46
down the government yet. But like, you know, like Rosa
00:29:49
recently a talk assimilated to our culture, much better, it
00:29:52
wasn't like but the tick tock meme as a threat became a big
00:29:55
story in 2021. I just know this via, I mean,
00:29:58
it's definitely a threat to our mental well-being, right?
00:30:01
No, but also there's now the store.
00:30:02
You know the stories will come out about like oh this Tick Tock
00:30:05
meme is, you know, this school had to shut down.
00:30:07
So the last week there was a story about Tick Tock meme p.m.
00:30:10
like you know, national school shooter day or something.
00:30:14
Which I don't believe turned out to be true.
00:30:17
Not that there weren't School shooters but that there was like
00:30:19
a trending Tick Tock meme with that.
00:30:22
But there was another story similar to that a few months
00:30:26
earlier which was like national slap at teacher day which was
00:30:32
there again, it was apocryphal but their YouTube had these
00:30:35
things before. I mean Tide Pods no none of its
00:30:38
new. I'm not saying it's Unique to
00:30:40
Tech talk. I'm just saying that as a
00:30:41
company and as a piece of technology.
00:30:44
In a medium it now crossed into the this thing that your kids
00:30:48
are on isn't just a distraction and annoying.
00:30:50
It's a threat and it's a place where they're going to organize.
00:30:52
And it happens with every social media platform and happened with
00:30:55
Snapchat to, as I go bullying is taking place on Snapchat.
00:30:58
So, so that it seems like 2020 was the year that Tick Tock kind
00:31:02
of became it entered that phase of its life.
00:31:05
Trent 2021 was, yeah, 2020 became huge right because we
00:31:09
were, you know, my first year we're traps, we're watching
00:31:12
people, dance to Megan this Talia.
00:31:13
And then next next, Here for tick tock is it gets more
00:31:17
criticism? It's big.
00:31:18
It's like we obviously the Wall Street journal's already
00:31:21
investigating and but right well next year will be like the I
00:31:24
don't know, Tick Tock midterms or something, I don't know.
00:31:26
God, I disagree. That Tick Tock would be the
00:31:30
story of 2021 because I feel like it mostly is the same thing
00:31:35
as like teens. You crazy thing, and Tick-Tock
00:31:38
itself isn't really doing that much to amplify it, it's just
00:31:42
very good at Discovery and makes it easier.
00:31:44
To like, come to this stuff, but I don't see it as like a game
00:31:49
change and that's that's that's stuck in general.
00:31:52
Yeah, and I see Tick-Tock generally as being pretty Pro
00:31:57
moderation and wanting to keep right a glossy image.
00:32:00
So maybe they fuck up a few things.
00:32:03
I've been talking to your friends at Sequoia.
00:32:09
No, I mean, seriously, I don't get on that.
00:32:13
I wish the Chinese I don't talk to the Chinese Sequoia people,
00:32:16
very much and the pretty distinct firms.
00:32:21
So that was Tick-Tock so September 15th.
00:32:23
Here's the first Facebook piece here.
00:32:25
Internal documents Facebook's own research.
00:32:26
Found that a 20-18 change to encourage positive interactions
00:32:29
have the opposite effect Zuckerberg resisted, any fixes.
00:32:32
So that's the one, you know, Facebook Paper story that I
00:32:35
pulled from this obviously that's one of the biggest
00:32:37
stories of the year. We've talked about it too much
00:32:39
on the show. We're having deep on ya for our
00:32:43
next episode. Okay?
00:32:44
I want to talk. Talk about it went deeper than
00:32:45
one more time. You don't want to hear, what
00:32:47
Eric and I and you have to say about is what you're saying.
00:32:49
We're going to solve this Facebook issue, we're going to
00:32:52
really first of all, she's gonna tell us why this stuff all
00:32:57
mattered when we've become Facebook nihilus at this point,
00:33:01
and I don't know, save it, save it.
00:33:04
I only have so much left of me on Facebook.
00:33:07
After being sued by the state of California Activision.
00:33:09
Blizzard is sued by a group of representing employees.
00:33:11
LED you to try to prevent them from organizing.
00:33:13
I mean, that story is not really about Out the thing that the
00:33:15
Activision Blizzard story became which was the you know, apparent
00:33:21
sexual assaults, that happened at that company and Bobby codex.
00:33:24
Knowledge of it is Bobby kotick. Lucio that company?
00:33:27
Yeah. Yeah, he's not been pushed out
00:33:29
yet amazing. Amazing.
00:33:30
People were basically saying it was like sure thing.
00:33:33
You lose his job over that. I mean, that's about as close.
00:33:36
Yeah, I don't get it. It doesn't make sense to me, but
00:33:38
and a good exam we talked about this a bit last week with with
00:33:41
Richard, but like if Activision was in a different sector that
00:33:45
the broader public cared more about this would be a way Huger
00:33:48
story, right? The CEO of the company was aware
00:33:51
of like rapes that happened on company time.
00:33:55
Allegedly. Yeah.
00:33:56
And I was like, you better fact, check that like, allegedly, this
00:33:59
is what other people are reporting.
00:34:01
So that was that Activision 1, October, Senators, grilled
00:34:05
Facebook exact Antigone Davis about Instagrams impact on teen.
00:34:08
So, that's more of that, you know, Facebook Paper story
00:34:11
October 15th, which downplays last week's hack said I had
00:34:14
minimal. Twitch had a huge fucking hack
00:34:16
this year. That no one's talking about
00:34:19
anymore, but it was the worst hack in the company's history
00:34:21
and that's another example of a social network, whatever you
00:34:24
want to call it. That doesn't get nearly the
00:34:26
level of coverage. It deserves considering how
00:34:28
Central it is to so many people's lives and I don't know
00:34:33
what the outcome of it is. Yeah, it's huge didn't like the
00:34:36
like core technology guy hacked to though?
00:34:38
Yeah, the level. Somebody could have copied the
00:34:41
whole thing. Yeah, I don't remember the Affix
00:34:45
of it, I'm numb Dax you know like yeah I I don't know what
00:34:50
even to I mean the most hat caring person on the podcast
00:34:54
right now is on a phone call. So we've already talked about
00:34:58
hacks November 1st. This is from our Mark Germann
00:35:03
chip shortage hits Apple at the worst possible time, out of the
00:35:05
holidays and met an apple are set to be.
00:35:07
So that's the story of the year, not being able to get
00:35:09
PlayStation 5. I don't know how we can open
00:35:11
that up. The fact that I these
00:35:13
next-generation system, The route.
00:35:15
I can't even buy one of them with my hard-earned money and
00:35:18
then inflation's probably gonna end up dry.
00:35:21
Yeah, that's the story the year right there.
00:35:23
Right. Right.
00:35:24
What our capitalist system is failing, the consumerism that
00:35:28
this whole thing was built on and our moment of need, when
00:35:31
we're having to go back into the pandemic that I am playing
00:35:34
mobile games, is just write a big problem.
00:35:37
Now, my PS4, I'm tired of it. I wanted a PS5, I'm not even
00:35:41
looking anymore to see when it's an option to get.
00:35:44
Oh yeah, I've Get up and and all all all these stories about like
00:35:47
that one reporter who's made his whole career now just like
00:35:51
helping people find the council consoles.
00:35:54
He's like the biggest reporter of the year, you know how I
00:35:57
missed this who's that? He's been profiled and like the
00:35:59
New York Times and BuzzFeed celebrities like, DM this guy
00:36:03
asking him like how they can get their hands on a PlayStation
00:36:07
five like that's pretty. This is the guy, you know, like
00:36:10
I mean it hasn't been like you don't when it we like Meet the
00:36:15
chattering class is obviously don't like, sit around talking
00:36:18
about it too much, if they really wanted one, they have the
00:36:20
money. Maybe to pay for it.
00:36:24
You'd have to pay like double. I don't know.
00:36:26
I mean, just double. That's surprisingly small, but
00:36:29
yeah, I refused on principle even, I feel like, even if I had
00:36:31
unlimited money, I mean, if I had on limit but like I'd have
00:36:35
to be pretty rich to just pay double the price.
00:36:38
Something's worth at what should be a findable?
00:36:42
I don't know. I'm disconnected from the person
00:36:44
whose Willing just be like, whatever I'll buy it.
00:36:48
Yeah, I'm not that guy but yeah our are the capitalist supply
00:36:52
chain hit a snag this year and that to me the reason the story
00:36:58
was good, not the port and the ship.
00:36:59
You know what about the ship is that on your list?
00:37:02
It's not on there but that's getting our entry point into it.
00:37:05
Yeah, well that wasn't a come-on tech meme.
00:37:07
I mean, I don't know if the tech angle is there, right?
00:37:09
I know, but I do think that's another way that like not being
00:37:12
able to get our consoles fits in The generals supply chain
00:37:16
breakdown. I mean, that shit was just too
00:37:18
fat for what our infrastructure allows for.
00:37:21
It was like a gust, you know, is the I don't think it was the
00:37:24
captain's fault. It was sort of like weather
00:37:26
condition, it wasn't and the moon I think, is the Moon's
00:37:30
fault. But but no, I mean, look, the
00:37:32
supply chain that became a thing that people were talking about
00:37:35
this year which is not a good sign ever for capitalism when
00:37:38
people are starting to think about like the sausage parts.
00:37:41
And yeah I mean we had Ryan. What's his name from Flex Port,
00:37:45
Peterson Peterson becoming a mini celebrity because he took a
00:37:50
tour of the Port of Long Beach and was like the why don't we
00:37:52
stack the shipping containers on top of each other and he got
00:37:56
like 20 million retweets and the mayor of Long Beach was like
00:37:58
yeah let's do that. I've always wanted to with that
00:38:02
story, I like Ryan so I don't want to I don't want to knock
00:38:05
him for it at all and, you know, he's just he's just a man out
00:38:08
there, you know, throwing out ideas but like I would be
00:38:11
interested in better coverage of that particular episode.
00:38:14
Because I would bet there are people in the supply chain world
00:38:17
that are just like to that had nothing to do with it.
00:38:20
Like, like first of all, that wouldn't have had any normal
00:38:23
effect on the supply chain in the way that it would have
00:38:25
changed. All the problems that we have
00:38:27
and like this is just very I would like to know factually.
00:38:30
I mean, I'm yeah the see if it's just seemed like a delet on kind
00:38:33
of let's card, not to cheer for Ryan.
00:38:35
I mean, he's the right Summits are just like do it, make it
00:38:39
happen but there is yeah, I mean, I think we both yeah, the
00:38:43
world's often Not that simple. Like usually there aren't sort
00:38:47
of easy solutions that can change things right.
00:38:50
There are lots of people who spend their entire careers
00:38:55
working on these particular things and try to make, you
00:38:57
know, like Grease the gears of capitalism in the supply chain
00:39:02
that, I just think it just strikes me that often in tech
00:39:05
people think like, oh, an outsider's perspective is really
00:39:07
going to shake things up and it's like no there's a lot more
00:39:10
to it than that on the flip side.
00:39:11
I mean, I don't, I actually I'm on, I'm on the text.
00:39:14
To this. I mean at the end of the day,
00:39:16
Elon Musk is running a very successful like Space Program.
00:39:20
I mean, the most impressive Logistics comes from Amazon, you
00:39:24
know, at the end of the day, the sort of we can fix it sort of
00:39:28
private sector, mentality is better than the government and
00:39:32
and I mean, yeah. So now I believe in Ryan more
00:39:35
than okay. My intuitions about though, I'm
00:39:39
not, I'm not going to be anti Ryan.
00:39:40
I just think that episode could have been more investigated
00:39:43
rather than just, Tweeting him another.
00:39:46
This is a good topic but it should be its own episode.
00:39:48
I like the topic. Yeah, November 15th, I look at
00:39:52
Constitution Dao or Dow, which is in 3 million Constitution
00:39:56
die, which is taking in three million crypto and bit of, for
00:39:59
the US Constitution printed in 1787.
00:40:02
And that's part of the headline. But I don't think, I mean, that
00:40:05
was good because the finance guy, that was a fun story.
00:40:09
The Citadel guy, beat them out and it seemed I saw a story that
00:40:13
said Is Like, Son, texted him, Dad, you got like, we just saw
00:40:16
the headline. It's classic like, big money
00:40:18
beats, you know, the little guy old school Finance versus it's
00:40:26
Ken Griffin. It's a tall old school Finance
00:40:28
beats. You know the nft world.
00:40:31
That's it's not political. Yeah, I like that one.
00:40:34
Yeah. Look, the specifics around
00:40:36
constitutional doubt. Like that was afford a story.
00:40:39
It was kind of fun. I don't know what the larger
00:40:41
meaning of it was, right? I don't know.
00:40:44
The Constitution down, I like it, just because, yeah, I know,
00:40:48
I know, I just liked it, because what?
00:40:49
Will clearly become a theme. Next year, is the widening of
00:40:54
stances of the pro and against Webb, three crypto, whatever you
00:40:59
want to call it. That like people are more and
00:41:01
more entrenched or getting more and more entrenched in their
00:41:04
perspective on whether or not this is real or this is a scam
00:41:06
or a Ponzi or whatever. And I think you really saw it
00:41:10
coming to the mainstream in a way it hadn't in 2021.
00:41:14
That's why I liked it on there. Yeah, I know.
00:41:16
I mean, that's a great. I'm trying to think of a better
00:41:18
nft Sort of want. And I mean, the problem is some
00:41:23
of the stuff is just like, oh the prices soared but like,
00:41:26
crypto Punk's are all, you know, they've been around for a couple
00:41:29
years. I mean it's there any number of
00:41:32
stories there was no one single one that I think like rocked you
00:41:37
know the markets are people individually but that will
00:41:41
probably come. But this was that I mean this
00:41:43
was just like a fun couple the episode that's a good one and
00:41:46
then December 1st, we got Kevin ruse and is calm.
00:41:49
At the at the times that I liked Jack, Dorsey joins other Tech
00:41:52
leaders who seemed to have grown tired of management or platforms
00:41:55
mean increasing political controversy and hard to fix
00:41:57
problems. So that's the, you know the
00:41:58
Dorsey stepping down from Twitter thing and generally like
00:42:02
Tech leaders retreating into you know, the metaverse or other
00:42:07
kind of future projects that are further remove, you know, it's
00:42:12
dr. Manhattan.
00:42:12
Going off to the Moon. Yeah, so did Jeff Bezos
00:42:17
announced last year and The step know he announced this shit.
00:42:21
I think it'll happen this year. Okay so we've got Jeff Bezos.
00:42:25
We've got Mark Zuckerberg, renaming the company and Jack
00:42:28
Dorsey leaving Twitter, right? Yeah, I do think that's a good
00:42:33
candidate sort of the sort of reimagining restructuring of the
00:42:38
biggest tech companies with. So that these these guys can
00:42:43
think about sort of more fun stuff and not, right?
00:42:47
Social media moderation And yeah, and whatever cloud
00:42:52
services? Yeah, I mean, it's yeah, for
00:42:55
Bezos, I can get it because Amazon is an increasingly
00:42:59
political animal. I mean, it's like, it's a
00:43:01
punching bag now and that's going to be less fun for him.
00:43:03
He doesn't want to have to be called in front of.
00:43:05
There's also just bad for the company because he's a Target,
00:43:08
you know? And I'm right.
00:43:09
Yeah, he's a celebrity, if you can personify it it's much.
00:43:13
It's much more powerful. Yeah, and my bet is that there
00:43:16
is a probably a gulf between the way people feel about Jeff
00:43:18
Bezos. The way they feel about Amazon
00:43:20
like they like it in their packages delivered in two days
00:43:25
they like the one in maybe some of the shows on Amazon Prime,
00:43:27
but they think Bezos is bad for the generalized reason they
00:43:30
don't like billionaires and so yeah, that isn't Fun for him.
00:43:34
But yeah, I think like the tech backlash, whatever you want to
00:43:37
call it. Hit a point this year that I
00:43:39
think it really did start affecting the CEOs and they made
00:43:44
changes to deal with that sort of saw like the online Of course
00:43:50
becoming reality that's near the end.
00:43:53
I mean the last thing I have here is leaked memo Google tells
00:43:57
employees. They must comply with vaccine
00:43:59
policies by Jan 18th or lose pay, and eventually be fired.
00:44:03
I don't know. I just sort of included that one
00:44:05
because no one knows, I really like vaccine minutes or yeah.
00:44:09
Well, the vaccine mandate is its own thing.
00:44:11
I don't think it'll be that much of a problem in Tech but but
00:44:15
just the fact that we end this year completely unclear as to
00:44:19
whether And life will return to anything close to normal.
00:44:22
Everyone's living in a panic vaccine works, the vaccine
00:44:25
works. I mean I feel fine or probe acts
00:44:29
here not just Pro undersells. It like, I mean, is there any
00:44:33
ambiguity to that? Like, I don't know.
00:44:35
I mean, did you see Trump by the way, say that he got a booster,
00:44:38
he was being interviewed by Bill O'Reilly, got a booster and then
00:44:41
people started booing. I mean like there's no real
00:44:44
controlling that crowd at this point, you know?
00:44:47
It's like lettuce isn't that supposed to be?
00:44:49
His specialty like how he lost because he's afraid of them.
00:44:52
He like they're terrified of these people at a certain level,
00:44:55
you know. It's like it's one that you can
00:44:57
whip people up into a frenzy to get elected.
00:44:58
But, you know, that's a certain level of.
00:45:01
I do things like the case against Constitution, dour and
00:45:04
ft stuff. Being the biggest story of the
00:45:07
year is just, it doesn't have like a political component which
00:45:10
would broaden it. I do think the Robin Hood.
00:45:15
The meme stocks. There's such a political they're
00:45:18
still like the regular guy and sort of the don't trust
00:45:23
Authority. We can I don't know that that
00:45:27
has that strain. I do I Clubhouse obviously most
00:45:31
Americans. I most Americans have no idea
00:45:33
clubhouses. So in a, in a sort of broad
00:45:37
sense, it is in no way the story of the year, but as a framing
00:45:41
device, Four people in Silicon Valley for what happened this
00:45:47
year. I think it's interesting, also,
00:45:49
because there's a strong promise that it won't be a story of
00:45:54
2022. So it does make 2021 feel sort
00:45:58
of stand on its own. I don't know what you're
00:46:01
thinking at the clubhouse, specifically.
00:46:02
I mean, just Clubhouse is a narrative.
00:46:05
I mean, clubhouses, like represent.
00:46:06
I mean, they could have sold to Twitter, right?
00:46:08
I mean, that was, there was a point in time where they could
00:46:10
have offloaded this thing, but not as a business I mean as a
00:46:13
business. Yeah.
00:46:14
I mean even if it's sold for 4 billion dollars like who cares
00:46:17
about that? I think just the idea that like
00:46:20
for a moment, it felt like it was almost like pre-med a verse
00:46:24
or was like how do we all live online together right?
00:46:28
In the lockdown? I can I can follow that logic.
00:46:30
If we're going to view clubhouse as a metaphor for this
00:46:34
increasing reality that we need to connect, we're going to be
00:46:37
connecting virtually as a matter of safety and habit, I don't
00:46:42
know if Clubhouse it Elf is the best version of that, but
00:46:47
there's clearly a bet on the, you know, from from the top down
00:46:49
in Tech that the future is going to be some sort of virtual
00:46:53
interaction with people, and that's normal.
00:46:56
And although, like we've talked about on the show, I don't think
00:46:59
we're not there yet, and there's a huge amount of drawbacks that
00:47:03
should we ever return to normal? I just don't think is going to
00:47:06
be as big as people expect it to be, at least, unless it gets way
00:47:09
cooler, which it clearly isn't yet, but But yeah, I it came in
00:47:15
to a point where it's being widely discussed and there's a
00:47:18
huge amount of money put into it.
00:47:20
I'm not that psyched for it. I saw like there's some analysts
00:47:24
report over the weekend that said that like apples a our
00:47:27
device is going to come out as soon as next year and people are
00:47:30
getting hyped about that. I'm first of all, I'd be
00:47:33
surprised if it does come out next year and I be fully
00:47:35
prepared for it to suck to me. I mean the metaverse is just a
00:47:40
matter of timing, I mean I don't know that will be in there.
00:47:43
Made the argument my strong position that I have not wavered
00:47:45
from is just the metaverse just has to be better than work where
00:47:50
I do think we're going to be mostly remote at work.
00:47:52
People are going to need a place to collaborate.
00:47:54
It's better than just like going from browser to browser that
00:47:58
that will happen. That will be the metaverse.
00:48:01
And people already spent hours a day on gaming will instead of
00:48:04
operating systems, we have sort of a connecting Universe between
00:48:08
games, I think very likely and then framing it as a debate
00:48:12
between Her outside is a total mistake.
00:48:15
Given we already spend tons of time in front of screens and the
00:48:18
metaverse just needs to replace a subsection of that time.
00:48:23
And the quality, the question is just when a single company or
00:48:26
entity can sort of build that how it works out,
00:48:29
technologically, and whether the graphics and then obviously the
00:48:32
interface. So, there are lots of questions.
00:48:34
Thank God, you saved us from this.
00:48:35
I'm like, oh, tiger Global is the story.
00:48:39
I mean, Amy was we can, you know, you can have cake Clark on
00:48:41
here. You guys can battle it out.
00:48:43
Listen 2020. Wait 2020 is you know the year
00:48:47
of SoftBank in 2021 was the year of tiger Global and that's how
00:48:51
every American clearly organizes the world from Unity, right?
00:48:56
No I can't wait to go see my parents in a couple days and
00:48:58
talk about tiger with them and whether you know, do should they
00:49:02
be investing alongside SoftBank, everything, you know?
00:49:05
Yeah. You know, it's like she can they
00:49:08
really do series. A what what happens if like if
00:49:12
tiger is not Willing to sort of Steward.
00:49:14
These companies is like a sort of a board member then are they
00:49:18
just relying on their early investors to supervise them.
00:49:22
Are they only getting in the, you know, the B and C to your
00:49:25
company's because the a to your company.
00:49:27
So you know we you know what's sad is that we're probably more
00:49:29
qualified to talk about that than we are about the metaverse.
00:49:33
Oh yeah. That's my real job.
00:49:35
Yeah. I mean not really mine but right
00:49:38
but definitely not the met over so I have no business spouting
00:49:42
off on it. But I guess we sort of end the
00:49:44
year in a place arguably worse off than we were at the start.
00:49:48
We have back now. You know, I take that back we
00:49:50
have vaccines we're just looking at the news and seeing a line
00:49:53
going vertical and it gets in and gets a scared.
00:49:56
And the thing, we thought wasn't going to happen or we hoped was
00:49:59
going to happen garak, got covid.
00:50:09
Looking at a 20 22 CES. Looks like it's happening, but
00:50:13
no one will attend. So it'll just be like the best
00:50:15
CES ever. Write a theoretical CES.
00:50:19
Just, I don't know. That's, that's going to be
00:50:21
haunting, but I'm trying to think like of the stuff that
00:50:25
happened. This Lear, what we could even
00:50:29
begin to predict will be the case in 22?
00:50:33
I don't know. Eric, where are you?
00:50:34
Like it sub? Stacking to pull more writers
00:50:36
away from from there. Are there Media Company homes?
00:50:39
Is that on its way up still, or has it and pass it?
00:50:42
Maxed out and it's now just going to be why I think the, the
00:50:45
sort of angler like building bigger media companies is an
00:50:50
interesting theme. I mean, I assume Iglesias.
00:50:53
Medical ACS will keep sort of expanding his Empire?
00:50:58
I just don't think I mean sure it's a media story but I think
00:51:01
it's a small small Story. I mean the broadening would be
00:51:05
sort of I mean I do think you know more visibility into how
00:51:10
many likes solo entrepreneurs there are in the economy overall
00:51:13
and how that's affected the workplace.
00:51:16
I mean that's that's a huge theme.
00:51:18
I mean, to me, I guess my first question would just be like How
00:51:24
big I mean we're in exponential growth right now of the
00:51:26
pandemic, like if this holds, you know, all of a sudden like
00:51:31
the insta carts that everybody, you know, is getting a second
00:51:34
wind and like the airbnb's were happy for people to travel get
00:51:37
hurt. So I do think there's like, is
00:51:39
this a whole nother sort of pandemic period if that were the
00:51:44
case? You know, that would have big
00:51:46
effects. I'm sort of skeptical, right?
00:51:48
I think we're going to go back to normal pretty quickly.
00:51:53
Second half of January or whatever, as a total nany,
00:51:56
peace, just knowing people's willingness to, like, do this.
00:52:01
So, in that case, I don't know. I think to me, my bullish
00:52:04
prediction is still like crypto crypto bull, you know, just like
00:52:10
crazy crazy excitement there. There's just so the funds
00:52:14
getting raised are so big that there's money, that's going to
00:52:17
keep that show going. Even if the prices fall, I think
00:52:20
there's just a ton. I think it'll A crypto year.
00:52:24
Yeah. And I guess the ongoing battle
00:52:27
or maybe fake battles kayfabe between web to and web 3 will
00:52:32
kick into a higher gear or something.
00:52:34
I don't know. It doesn't really seem, they're
00:52:35
really sides in any of this. I don't want to spend too much
00:52:39
time on that, but it's like, yeah, these just feel like
00:52:41
ancient grudges that are being dredged up via the topic of
00:52:44
crypto that they're all friends, girlfriends.
00:52:47
I mean, obviously, there's some year will be the year of
00:52:50
implosion, right? Like, I mean, We are seeing like
00:52:53
these big Executives sell off a lot of their Holdings if we had
00:52:58
a big correction. Thanks to you know Keith or boy
00:53:02
was saying, you know, I think we're at a top.
00:53:04
I mean if interest rates go up and that really hurts you know,
00:53:08
the economy and the stock market fell, then it could be the year
00:53:12
of, you know, the rivi insertive Tesla Reckoning which would be a
00:53:17
huge story, right? If we saw the enthusiasm come
00:53:20
out of some of the electric car maker, Jurors and self-driving
00:53:24
cars and all, and we haven't really felt like the true Pains
00:53:29
of, like, ice pack implosion. I keep saying in the newsletter
00:53:33
that I'm bullish now, because most of the time, the economy
00:53:36
goes up. So, it's a bad prediction game
00:53:40
to say, oh, next year will be the Reckoning, but obviously,
00:53:44
whatever your, the Reckoning comes will be a big story.
00:53:48
I think of the electric auto makers whenever that happens.
00:53:53
I generally just like predictions that said, I think
00:53:57
that before we can have that kind of Reckoning, we almost
00:54:00
need more exuberance which we didn't get in 2010.
00:54:04
Not just not just because everybody was clinically
00:54:06
depressed, sorry, this should be more fun.
00:54:08
Like if this is the peak, why isn't it like wildly awesome
00:54:12
yet? Like and I don't mean like, I
00:54:14
mean irrational exuberance in the in in the way that like an
00:54:17
economist would use it and FTS aren't doing that for you but
00:54:21
that's but so I remember in the mortgage market and 2006 right
00:54:27
and seven people were like, this is crazy, but it really took a
00:54:32
year of absolute Insanity like beyond what people could have
00:54:36
imagined so much. So that it's silenced doubters
00:54:40
because it was so insane. That's the kind of exuberance
00:54:43
I'm talking about talking about like Robert Shiller level
00:54:46
irrational, exuberance in the market fine crypto Punk's for
00:54:50
millions of dollars but those are things that Are still not
00:54:53
part of the, those things that part of the broader economy,
00:54:56
right? So, what irrational, exuberance,
00:54:58
if you're an economist irrational, exuberance is when
00:55:00
it isn't just a niche of professional speculators.
00:55:03
But when everybody becomes a professionals, regulator right,
00:55:06
right? It's like, it's like a
00:55:07
load-bearing beam collapses. Not just like, you know, you're
00:55:11
weird a dealer. So, that's why we have it, for
00:55:13
example, seeing the impact of a stock explosion, because Mom and
00:55:19
Pop aren't Instax really. So, when it's just the
00:55:22
professional, Best in Class is getting her rights.
00:55:25
The beauty of wealth inequality. That there's just so much money
00:55:28
that, like, without destroying the economy, they can just
00:55:31
wildly speculative lose money, say that the prediction would be
00:55:35
that we need, sort of it sort of twinned with this.
00:55:38
I think what we will learn to live with the pandemic, even if
00:55:41
it's living on Happily with it, that doesn't mean we'll be
00:55:43
happy. We will learn to live with the
00:55:45
pandemic in some way and that out of that I think there's
00:55:48
going to be like an amount of escapism.
00:55:51
That is really Tense and that will impact market.
00:55:54
So impact behavior in a lot of ways.
00:55:56
And that's when we're going to get that irrational, exuberance,
00:55:58
mmm, because you need the irrational, exuberance mm4,
00:56:01
collapse to impact people. Broadly so 2022 is the real fun
00:56:05
year for 2023 beans. Sort of, I'm not gonna put it,
00:56:09
I'm not going to put months on it, I'm just saying that.
00:56:11
I don't think we had the irrational exuberance level yet
00:56:13
because not enough people are involved in speculative economy.
00:56:16
Right now. It's always why I've been sort
00:56:18
of unexcited by the predictions of a bubble bursting because I
00:56:22
just don't I think there's enough of the structure of the
00:56:26
economy that really makes for, you know, like the bus to happen
00:56:30
to be there yet for me to see like, oh, this Fallout is going
00:56:33
to be huge rather than a littl little implosions that happen
00:56:37
across the landscape. My prediction.
00:56:41
I guess this is just going to come from like where I spend a
00:56:43
lot of my time reporting. I think there will be more
00:56:47
interesting things happening on the labor front, within a lot of
00:56:50
these big companies than we have.
00:56:52
I've expected in a while and I know I've been down on.
00:56:55
Wow, yeah, that's total reverse. I don't think it's going to come
00:56:58
from the ground up. I genuinely think there is not
00:57:01
enough Co Collective action and organization on the part of
00:57:06
drivers to do anything but I think all the stuff that's
00:57:09
happening in Europe with the forcing of protections and some
00:57:14
form of like, Proto unions on the part of these big companies
00:57:18
that it's going to like, infiltrate the US political
00:57:21
scene. And you're going to see a Of
00:57:23
politicians pushing for this on like a federal or national level
00:57:27
and that wouldn't surprise me if you start seeing like the B
00:57:30
Administration and the lead up to like a midterm be in like
00:57:33
let's fuck some stuff up and like force you know like through
00:57:36
executive action Union like protections within a lot of
00:57:40
these big companies. Oh yeah that's a good
00:57:42
prediction. Just to the regulatory regime
00:57:44
finally really fires up. I mean part of it on antitrust
00:57:47
were seen what Europe didn't Europe come down on giphy with
00:57:51
Facebook. Yeah right there.
00:57:52
Yeah, they're nervous about all of that but so to expand that
00:57:56
just like labor, like you're having this driver's seat
00:58:00
position around sort of tech regulation and then sort of the
00:58:05
bind Administration looking for but specifically around unions
00:58:08
to and and like we've seen when it comes to Tech that Europe is
00:58:11
usually out ahead of the curve when it comes to like, you know,
00:58:14
privacy for example like they set more rigorous, You could
00:58:18
argue good or not good standards on it.
00:58:20
And I just think like when you've seen Successful labor,
00:58:24
movements happening this last year with like, the Kellogg
00:58:26
strike, with the John Deere strike.
00:58:29
I'm not saying that there is a real wave happening here, but I
00:58:31
do think that politicians view it as a winning issue and that
00:58:36
it wouldn't surprise me. I would actually no, let me go
00:58:38
further. I think it would be more likely
00:58:40
than not to happen that you see someone within the bite of
00:58:42
ministration or on a you know, National political level
00:58:45
champion this cause and suddenly the you know these get companies
00:58:49
have to deal with it again. Okay.
00:58:51
Interesting too. Because if there is some sort
00:58:52
Out of downturn, the kind of downturn that Eric talking
00:58:56
about, I'm not predicting, I agree with you.
00:58:57
I to be clear, you're and I would take my cues from you
00:59:01
before myself about the natural rhythms of the economy, but no,
00:59:04
but, but someday it will come, but the exuberance does lead to
00:59:08
a downturn that impacts a lot of people.
00:59:11
And so, if this sort of Labor movement is not in place.
00:59:15
If there is nothing, for the people who will be negatively
00:59:20
impacted, you don't have a ginormous Worcester.
00:59:22
Capital to make it nothing but a mere inconvenience, you know?
00:59:27
It will have really interesting ramifications politically,
00:59:31
right? Right.
00:59:32
I guess that's it but within that is we think 2022 will still
00:59:36
be a boomer wasn't if we're not all at zero bond with the
00:59:41
incoming mayor, like then then the irrational exuberance
00:59:45
doesn't happen. I know, I can't believe I didn't
00:59:48
vote. I had so many places.
00:59:49
I could have voted for Eric Adams.
00:59:51
You had so many chances. I didn't vote.
00:59:52
Them at all. And now I'm like the biggest
00:59:54
booster. I'm like, this is gonna be the
00:59:56
best. I'm like, yeah, that's right.
00:59:58
That's it. So, you know, unless all of
01:00:01
lower Manhattan looks like Studio 54, yeah. 2022 is the
01:00:05
year of fun mayor's. We've got a fun mayor in San
01:00:08
Francisco. To she's like, going to
01:00:09
concerts, she's like taking her mask off.
01:00:12
She's like there was a reunions of Bell.
01:00:15
Biv DeVoe or someone like that. It's a fight.
01:00:17
It's the year of fun mayor. Why I do think there is a degree
01:00:21
to, which it's like People have also sort of like, they're not
01:00:24
afraid of like the alleged cancel culture to the extending
01:00:28
existed. I do think there's a degree to
01:00:29
which politicians have now been like, it's not that powerful,
01:00:33
you know, when Governor Northern wasn't taken out by the
01:00:37
blackface incident, I think that was set the he set this.
01:00:40
Mold, that was an early. That was the canary in the coal.
01:00:43
Mine for cancel culture. It's like you know what?
01:00:45
So is this a hard year for Barry Weiss then if like cancel
01:00:49
cultures losing, you know, stop, she's building a university.
01:00:53
That's true. That's her.
01:00:55
She'll teach a course on us. Speak out to my mean, the show.
01:01:01
All right, this is good. All right.
01:01:02
Yeah anyway. Thank you guys.
01:01:04
We should end in some like, salutatory way.
01:01:06
But anyway, it was this was also 2021 was the year that we
01:01:09
started dead cat, and our lives will forever be changed.
01:01:14
I've been so grateful to get to spend.
01:01:15
So much time with you guys on this podcast.
01:01:18
Something that I hadn't had a chance to do since you all moved
01:01:21
away from San Francisco. So it's It's true sincerity
01:01:24
feels very off-brand to me, I don't know.
01:01:26
I'm sorry, sorry, we can cut that.
01:01:29
We've argued, we've argued more on this podcast, we ever did in
01:01:34
real life, which is hilarious. Well, that's the new.
01:01:37
That's the metaverse baby. It's not real life.
01:01:39
It's just like a simulacrum but angrier to a great 2022.
01:01:44
So you guys all they're nice having you here.