YouSaid · the spoken record

Noam Cohen

lines on the record: 93
first: 2017-12-18
most recent: 2017-12-18
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And I said, Do you want me to say, oh, too bad for you? Because you can't. Guess what? Let's stop talking about people's breasts. How about that? How about we start with that and we move on down the list? But it's funny because that's immediately the first reaction from a lot of people here, which is interesting to me.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I was going to say, why did I write this book that kind of talks a lot about women and the kind of anti-misogy inherent in libertarianism? I was raised by my mom, passed away while I was writing this book, was a judge, and she was the kind of person who would always say to me, why do women wear her jobs? Men should have blinders on. I mean, she was always sort of teaching me the, you know, the other side of that equation. So when people give you that pushback, it's just absurd. I can't tell you.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I do think Trump, I mean, when I'm being optimistic, I think Trump is like inoculation that maybe it is like, because we can't get rid of Trump for the sexual harassment because he's our king. We don't have a system for getting rid of him. We can get rid of everyone else, though. And maybe that's a reason to be hopeful.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't really get it. Well, Pope Luggs, I think that maybe people are waking up because of the events. I think Hopeful, because I do think there is another narrative. I guess I'm hopeful, you know, that a narrative that could be more humane and humanistic and not quite as cutthroat. And maybe I'm hopeful because I have ever talked to you that I do believe there are cycles. And you may push back against that, but I do think that there's been an ebb and flow, and we are definitely at the height of a kind of a robber barren era. And it did lead to the progressive era after that. Yes, 100%.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Am I being classist or something? But part of why this book was the topic so interesting to me is that these are all college educated, you know, presumably studied humanities. You're talking about, yeah, when people go to the wild west and they have no education, they're out there trying to make it work. And I mean, you sort of think, why are they proposing such a harsh world? They've had the best of America. They aren't, you know.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Going to I guess you would say, wouldn't you say? I totally know what you're saying about America, but there's always been up and down. You know, there has been the New Deal. There have been the great society. Very rare. Very rarely the Progressive Era. No, I totally get it. And usually it is only when things get so extreme that we do have a reaction. So that's another reason. If you want to take the long view of history, that we should be reaction to this.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I thought society I want to live in. I literally just talking about someone. It's like, how can you change the DNA of a whole country, which started in that way? Reed is just reflecting, I think, how our country started. We're coming here. No one's going to help us. We're going to beat the environment. We're going to beat the Indians. We're going to beat this.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And he talks about it, like no one's going to save you, not the government, not your employer. That's part of the harsh libertarian worldview and market view that I'm really talking about. So I understand why Uber and Lyft have great potential, but I don't think that's a really workable society I want to live in.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, but I just think one of the, I mean, Reid Hoffman was on your show. I was listening to that. I mean, you know, I kind of, even though he's considered a progressive, I make him a real focal point because I think when he wrote a book called The Startup Review.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Say, if I could say respectfully do the math, respectfully. So besides governmenting, what do people have to do? Let's finish up on that. What is a person that does say no more? Yeah, I was just mocking that.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Guilds get it. At least it's a sci fi reference Yeah, because I think it can be very, and I think they are always exuding that. It forces you to be very negative to say they want to help you, and I'm saying it's actually all fake. And who wants to be accusing people? You may ask me about it as Mark Zuckerberg lied. I don't think he's lying. I think he's.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's actually a cookbook. It's a cookbook. You have to be, yes, ever. I made that joke to them. These are the people to serve man. And a couple people get it. The olders, the olds get it. At least it's a sci-fi.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And they always are always acting so pleasant. And like you're saying, so genial, and like we're just trying to make the world. I mean, I begin the book with that idea of saving the world in this Twilight Zone episode.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You have created an atmosphere of fake news. You've created, you know, and listen, you can lump Fox News in there, you can lump a lot of things that have led to the thing, but it's a continuing diminishment of intelligent conversation and debate among...”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, no, I think it's a question of someone was like that, and I was like, no, I just don't. I'm tired of you tramping over everybody's things and taking all the money. You know what I mean? It's like at some point what you've gotten with Trump should not be a surprise of the populace and the people being upset. You're part and parcel to the entire thing, whether you think so or not. I think I do. It's not that corrupt Democratic Party. It's not that nobody likes Hillary Clinton. It's that you have weaponized social.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, gold. Yes, gold. I do. And I guess I'm always trying to stress that I do love these services. And yeah, I think it's easy, especially now where there's such a, right, the tendency, there's so many kind of, it's the cool, the latest thing to say is to be this kind of a scold. And I guess I wanted to sort of focus on the libertarian idea, something I could bring unique to the table and maybe the history. But I do worry about being perceived as a scold.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're chasing. Yeah, they were chasing for sure. Find them to be adults when I do. I've seen people point out that I don't deal with Apple, and Steve Jobs is not in this book, and I guess I do think of Apple as a hardware problem and has different kind of concepts. It does seem like Apple for almost strategic reasons is acting like the adult for sure in all of this. I do think it's a lot to ask a company or anybody, right? Isn't there some quote that's hard for someone to see something that affects their own income? It's like very hard for, I don't think Microsoft, if they were chasing and see why they made the world better by stepping back, it does take someone, the government or someone to make them do it. I do. Do you ever feel like...”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, the government came in. That's why they were chasing. Yeah, they were chasing for sure. Saying they were brought to trial. But it did create a change in that company for sure. It has to happen or is there some adultness that happens? I mean, I think of a company like Apple, I find them to be adults when I deal with them. And it's a different mentality. Is it just a question of people pointing out?”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It wasn't even like opening the idea that you, you know. Yeah, why are that providing it for me? They're used to everything. My other joke was that San Francisco, I say it all the time, is assisted living for millennials, essentially. They create these comfort zones and then do not recognize that everyone doesn't live in them.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like you're running, like it's a Distancing themselves. Yeah, which Own it, which I have a friend who works at Google and she was telling me how she likes they were explaining the whole idea of these Google Facebook buses. I was down in Mountain View and she was saying how she went on the bus and was like, why is there no coffee? I need coffee in the morning. She's like, oh, I guess I should make it myself and then get on the bus. She wasn't even like open the idea that providing it for me.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really disappointed Phrasings Yeah, yeah, that's just. It's letting me down. You're running the place, right? Like you're running, like, it's a really interesting dynamic that you do get these sort of delicate flour paper mache and made of paper mache personalities. I feel badly. Distancing themselves. Yeah. Yeah, which is, I was like, don't you run the place? Own it. Sorry. Owen it. Which is interesting. And I do think it's part of the juvenile toddler culture they build. I mean, they were joking about Donald Trump's White House being adult daycare, but sometimes I feel like Silicon Valley is adult. I think it's very...”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I really am. No, I thought. Facebook had like this thing where I'm really disappointed. No, she's like, I'm very disappointed. And that phrasing is also kind of like your mother or something. It's just very, I wish the world, I have such better hopes for the world. It's letting me down.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Their own homemade kombucha? Do you think they're thinking about it for a second? And then they feel badly. That's one of the really interesting things is I'll have so many meetings recently and it's like. We feel badly I'm like, fuck you. I really am. I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. I think they have more history with how it's abused, obviously, Europe and what importance of protecting your data. I do. I wonder whether, it might be kind of a hopeless quest, but also I do think this kind of cult of efficiency is part of the problem. And I was talking with a friend that sometimes the Bible kind of has this idea of gleaners where you're supposed to harvest your field once and let people glean off of it. Agnes Varda did a nice movie about this idea documentary. And it's something a little obscene about always think everything the most efficient way. And again, not think of the social cost or the ties that bind us together. So I do think at some point you'd hope that these respected leaders of these very important companies would see that themselves. So maybe that's also realistic.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yours. And maybe you can give it Yeah, Murray, I just interviewed Marguerite Vestager from there, and she's amazing about that. She's way ahead of it, and they would accuse her of being anti-innovative or mommy state or something like that, and she's just being reasonable about your data. Right, I think they've more than more.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I mean, I think it is a lot. It's funny when you ask about conclusions. I've seen a couple other books, The Critical Silicon Valley, and they often fall back on you have to value your time more. Don't let them... Take sucker time. And again, that's also really hard to ask of people. I think, you know, so I guess it would still require regulation, but something that would kind of empower people and kind of respect, create a zone of respect around people. So again, I guess it can't even be a transaction where they can say, look how much great stuff you get for us mining your data, but really saying we can't mine this data. It's yours. And maybe you can give it and can selectively give it, I guess, if they, I don't know, but so that might be a way of doing it. But I also do think regulation.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it is. You do get benefits, and it just reminds me many years ago when Steve Case was giving a presentation when he was running AOL, which was the big company at the time, is that he said, oh, we make $75 off of each user or something like that. There was some number, and I put my hand up. I said, when do I get my half? Like, where's It's me. You're making your money off of me. You're strip mining. Right, that's exactly the right word.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They do. They keep banging at me to do it. They've been asking me a lot. And I was really like, why do they keep asking when I said no for the, because they were hoping I'll change my mind? I'll give in because it's the convenience of it.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. You have to make the choice. You have to make a choice. You have to make a choice. I think what happens is it's so onerous and so complicated to make a choice is exhausting. They make it so exhausting for you. And it is. It's like checking your credit rating or anything like that. You just did. It's one thing you just don't bother with because you get so much convenience on the other side. They make it so convenient for you on lots of, like the whole, you know, it's interesting Google Mouse is just saying, can we take your map history? And initially I was like, it'll be easier. And I'm like, no.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And making that the priority that you should have, like the way I was talking with a friend who's a doctor, you know, the way your health records are yours, why can't your data be yours? I've seen that people are now focusing much more on data. There was an article in op-ed in the Times about how we could tax them the data, the money made from data. But I think that maybe that'd be a better narrative, I would ask you to sort of talk about it in terms of personal... Giving individual rights. I want to know what Google knows about me, and I want to decide if they can have it. And if I do like the fact that Amazon can recommend things to me, then I'll be fine with it.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I wonder. I was like listening to my publisher's new press, and they had Michelle Alexander, who wrote The New Jim Crow was there with Brian Stevenson. They were talking about the power of narrative. He was talking about in social justice and the power of narrative, how the Civil War was won by the North, but the South won the narrative of it. I was thinking about the narrative in Silicon Valley needs to change. That's kind of what I'm trying to do. And maybe I always sort of talk about more regulation, and maybe the better way to think of those, why can't we have a very individualistic view that says people control their data?”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, how do we fix this? What is the solution? You know, I was thinking for a couple of these different things. Is it just, let's just regulate them. Yeah, I feel like we're going to have to sue you. But see me, there's no political.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and then we see the cost of it. And I guess the political advertising story was also very scary. I think about children advertising too, something I just think about because I've noticed with my daughters when we watch YouTube. And it's just, we used to have a system that said this was like a sphere that was protected. And I guess YouTube would say, how would we know? Or, I mean, maybe adults watch Peppa Pig too. I don't know. But it just seems like, again, we're kind of abdicating any responsibilities. Those kind of things frighten me how...”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. And so why was you? But it's like half the time they're denying. And he says in the book that, you know, zero to one that you have to kind of deny because people don't like monopolies. But that monopoly power to me is very scary because it just limits all of our ability to have other choices. Sometimes when I'm radio shows people who question me and say, well, why would anyone do it differently than Facebook or Twitter if they were rivals? But it's like you want different versions and you don't want the same consolidations. That's one thing that really worries me.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, sure. I mean, most worried about, I guess I do think the monopoly power to me is scary. I just think that competition is good. And I do think it's funny that people haven't really focused on Peter Thiel, like in his book, it's kind of hiding in plain sight that he talks about that every company should want to be a monopoly, that you don't want to be a competing.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. And then, I mean, but it's also the thing about that kind of pollution idea is that it only triggers, you know, it doesn't immediately obvious that's a problem. The first few times you pollute. Fine, you kn”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's how it's explained that problem. Yeah, that's the social wrecking ball part. There are these social costs that they are just shifting away. And until I think the Russian meddling in the election, we as a public weren't really seeing it. The way that you could pollute a river and not care until it affects the drinking water. Then you suddenly like, wow, I think the bill.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, I mean, to me, that's a very scary document because he's a little parenthetical thought that we have to think about all the people being displaced by this. And we need more education and more training. And then he goes on from there. And it's like, I guess the way I think of it is the wrecking ball part is that it's almost like these are... Companies that are polluting all the benefits from Amazon and Google and Facebook, we can see all the detriments, the pollution from it, we're all paying collectively. And that's a real problem. That's always been a problem with companies that are unregulated. Again, that's not unique to them. No company wants to be regulated, but we need to find a way to pay for all the social costs. Right.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The idea of scale is just so scary because it really makes it not human. And I talk about AI in the book because this is a very weak kind of AI is used for these kind of things doing very trivial kind of sorting and not the human sort of sorting of what is good. But it's so big.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think what, and again, what's scary to me about that is this idea that the free-for-all and the Wild West, and again, maybe that was something that the early internet was great about it, that it was this place where you could experiment, anything could go, but turning our country into the Wild West is really scary. I'm not like, you know, there are always various factors, but think about it even with gun control and the way that that's kind of become this, people, half the country or more look at this world, like, what is going on? There's no rules. I mean, it's taken this extreme attitude about Second Amendment 2. My gun, I can do what I want, leave me alone. I mean, it's just, I feel like it's seeping out into our country where we're just losing any sense of the ties that bind us and standards and values. So I think this idea that who would want a world where what's published has no one's thinking about it. There's no one vetting it. No one, even they are moving on, or I guess are going to now try to start vetting it. But the other kind of dangerous thing is the scalability you talked about growth.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's sort of like saying, I have this bar where everybody gets killed, and it's not my fault, it's just a bar. Well, it's your bar. And you created the bar and you made the rules and you don't make sure people don't come in with guns. And you know what I mean? It's kind of an interesting thing. So talk about that idea of their lack of interest in being called a media company if they say it enough times, they won't be one.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Place of ideas. So So, talk a little bit about the influence that they're having. One of the things that I'm always struck by is, and we'll talk about more about solutions in the next section, but when they talk about social media, they don't tend to focus on the media part. It's trying to say they're not media companies. Right. They are media companies. They're a different. Yes, you and I say, of course, they say absolutely not, we're platforms, we're benign platforms, we're just where people are. And to me, as I've said, a million times over the past year, that abrogates responsibility that they have. And they need to take up as the owners of these platforms.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's amazing. So I don't mean to realize that, but I think Twitter has the same kind of extreme views where they won't regulate and won't kind of kick people off for hate speech. I think the second thing at Twitter embodies is that the false incentives, right? Someone writing a piece of New Yorker in the editor sent me this New Yorker.com sent me this tweet that talked about how that Mark Zuckerberg was on a call, right, an investor call to say, we care so much about this manipulation, I want to tell my investors we're going to lose money over it. And someone just wrote it on Twitter, well, doesn't that mean that you made money from it in the past? You have to take that. So, I mean, I think Twitter has these huge incentives, people are saying to have more bots, is to have more traffic. And that's what's scary when the profit motive is affecting our speech.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, Twitter, right? Again, that's one where I feel like I also don't want to come off as a luddite. I think about look at how Twitter in the positive way, like with the Me Too movement, it's really kind of amazing how it's given the support system.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. I mean, and I think that's the kind of what I'm saying the libertarianness is leaking out to the world because, yeah, you feel like weird having to make that argument to people that there isn't absolute free speech. But of course there isn't. There should be limits on political advertising because, I mean, there are a million things you think of, not even a fire in a movie theater. Some people say that's just really like an alarm, but just there should be codes of conduct and also they're private companies. They can make it civilized women and minorities aren't scared away.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I do think that Google seems to be kind of hiding behind Facebook and letting Facebook taking all the bullets. And why not do that? But I think they're in the same kind of issues and the same sort of hostility to regulation and the same kind of ideology. Let's say Facebook's ideology is that connecting people is an inherent good. Google's like if freedom is an inherent good. And I think we're learning that, again, it's a libertarian kind of argument that all speech is good or that the idea, let's say the European idea of the right to be forgotten is not important, where to me it makes perfect sense. It definitely violates this idea that all speech should be shared and everything needs to be known, but it's like a value. It's a human value that's higher. So I feel like they don't really respect that. And that's, again, a libertarian idea that I think we need to fight against. It makes sense in the computer lab, I think, but not in the world.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, and I think they really give them credit or lack of credit for producing this entrepreneurial spirit and making everything be judged by how much money it can make. And I think it's the same thing as these Silicon Valley companies, that there's just a good feeling about them. They're successful. Sunny, people are having fun. I mean, it's kind of, you are a little bit of a downer to go like Stanford's actually scary. It seems like a great place is making the world better.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, I do know this history, I'm sure, as well as I do that I was struck how idealistic they were at the beginning. And I do make a lot, and I was talking with John Markoff about the Sioux, that early paper, Appendix A, and it's like, that's very well known that this paper they wrote when there were still students that said advertising was antithetical to really fair search and how it had to be kept transparent in an ivory tower and to see how they were converted from that very idealistic viewpoint to this incredibly practical money-obsessed version through, I would say, Stanford and the influence of Stanford. That's another thread of my book. I feel like that's a real gap in the writing as a historian, let's say someone who studied history at school, there really isn't a good critical history of Stanford, and it's so important. I was asking librarians at Stanford, is there just a critical history of it? Not yet.”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We know best. We'll tell you. We'll tell you what's interesting and stuff like that. Let's go through all the other companies, Google. So they are like, this, they're older now, but they still had the same sort of. Break everything, and who cares the cost, kind of mentally”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think Total it right and I do think he you know the other thought that kind of looking in the history of the book kind of covers is this idea that computers are a closed world so you know the first program that like Mark Zuckerberg wrote was about it was a Julius Caesar program I think when you're in control of your screen you kind of have these magical powers up as down whatever you the rules are and the scary thing what I'm trying to say the scary thing is when that mentality which might work for programming becomes like part of our world so Mark Zuckerberg actually thinks up is down for us is a little scary and that's also true with Sergei Brim Barry Page they're more low key but it's the same kind of”
2017-12-18 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Noam Cohen, author, 'The Know-It-Alls' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT