YouSaid · the spoken record

Thomas Friedman

lines on the record: 111
first: 2016-12-19
most recent: 2016-12-19
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

“Don't know. Eat it. I think it's going to be the blended model. There's going to be something like a Facebook where we'll get it from our friends, some of it, and there'll be all kinds of new hot startups like Vox and Recode. But I hope, and I think there will be still a place, just like there's always going to be a place for that teacher in the classroom. I think there's still going to be a place for the New York Times.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Incorrectly tweeted about. Exactly. And so that is such a using incorrect in a while. Exactly. Yeah. That is such a huge source of optimism for me. Because people say fake news, and I want the New York Times even more.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. I'm hoping that there'll be the pendulum will swing back the other way with fake news. You know, in the last month, don't hold me to these statistics, but I think we got over 100,000 new. We did, yeah. Online readers”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“End of our careers, but how do you? Well, I really like my reading habits. I like curated news. I like news that's edited. So I read in the morning, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal. And I also go to Real Clear Politics because I like to make sure I'm seeing news from the far left, the far right, the center left, the center right that I wouldn't normally see in these newspapers. So I really like to get a range of opinions, but I thank God for the New York Times. We don't do fake news. We make mistakes. We're humans. Like any newspaper. But people there come to work everyday committed to writing about the world without fear or favor.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Now it seems really good. Great editor. But I think they're a great editor, a great publisher. I think they have a great editorial page editor. It's a really great technology.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Since then. So I would never write another book In that vein, and this is the last question, how do you look at media now today? You work in New York Times obviously has been under pressure. Financially, still a fantastic publication, one of my favorites. I think possibly my favorite. The Washington Post is thriving under Jeff Bezos now, it seems as if.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's very difficult. Narcissism. Because I believe that you write your column, you write your books. At the end of the day, somebody's going to add them up. I can't go tell you this book is better than it is. Either people are going to buy it on Amazon or their bookstore, they're not. And so to my critics, I say, y'all have fun. But either people are going to buy it or they're not. What you say isn't going to matter. You go back and read the reviews of the world as flat. It sold four and a half million copies in 42 languages since then. So if I got caught up in all those reviews, I would never write another book. So I really go through life where the bit of tunnel vision, a little cotton in my ear, and focus on being the best reporter and thinker I can. And at the end, somebody will add it up.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because you're not really getting a proper survey. It's all the people on Twitter, then all the people on Twitter who have time to do this. And I just think it's a subset. I'm not saying ignore it, but I'm just not interested in it. The way I lead my life is I'm always on to my next book. Catch me if you can. You know what I mean? I've always told the New York Times this. I can spend my day answering email. I can spend my day thinking about the next story. And I'm an old fart enough that they leave me alone to do that. And so that's how I wrote seven books. Anne wrote a column twice a week because I don't waste my time.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It might take your advice. I'm only interested in what people say to my face. Good or bad. And it's not like I don't get criticism or it doesn't filter through. I got a comment section on my column. I can see what people are thinking. But I'm also keenly aware there are a lot of people aren't doing that. And they're reading you and they're appreciating you and they're not caught up in all the dish, you know, because I sit where I sit. Everyone wants to fire at you. But if you take all that in, you start to think the entire world hates me. And it's really unhealthy.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What matters in life is only what people will say to your face. The rest is I can sit back and mortar people, fire off blasts on Twitter”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because you're well known. And says, you know what, Mr. Friedman, I read the world as flat. And because of that, I changed my job. I changed my career. That person to me represents a million tweets. Right. You know what I mean? There are so many trolls out there, so many people who aren't really engaged. And, you know, all that matters in life, in my book.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Many people can't resist. I can't resist. I engage all the time. Well, I'm in a little slightly different because you're a columnist in the New York Time. You're a really lightning rod. I mean, everybody is tweeting at you. I'll tell you what I found in life here. I have my own Nielsen point ratings. If I'm walking down the streets here in San Francisco or an airport, what really matters to me is somebody stops, does a double take, turn around,”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I really know who my friends are, and they're not a thumb up or a thumb down. The people I want to be in direct contact with, I will. So again, blended model. I use the cell phone to make it better for me to be in touch with my good friends around the world. But I'm not on Facebook. I don't participate in Twitter. If you're tweeting about me. And they are, Tom, just FY. Oh, believe me. I can see from the comment section, I'm just not interested.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would know Snapchat from a Snickers Bar. What's wrong with you? Exactly. I actually don't look at Twitter. I'm on Twitter. I have followers. But if you want me to tweet something about your show care, call me and my assistant will do it. I do not know how. I don't look at Twitter. And I don't have a Facebook page.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let me tell you about my own life. So I talk the talk of globalization and technology, but I do not walk the walk. I'm a late adopter of everything”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Almost completely immersive. Elon Musk talks about neural networks that we get plugged into, so we become the computer. Can you talk about what this could mean? Like, what has to happen if that's the case? Because it's inevitably headed that way.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because everything is relative. So let's finish up on social isolation when you talked about that idea. People do, they're constantly staring at their computers. They're constantly staring at their phones. You go anywhere, anywhere. Nobody engages no matter what you are. And it's a trope, but it's a very true trope that people really don't. You can't get people to look up. You can't get people to put their phones down. It's an addiction. It's clearly an addiction. You know, you worry about it with your kids. Anyone who has kids thinks about it. How do you solve that problem? And what do you think about it? I mean, on one hand, it's amazing. Like it's astonishing that you could pull anything down from anywhere in the world from a single device you're holding. And it's moving to VR. It's moving to stuff that's going to live on our bodies. It's going to become more immersive with time.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, since I had an argument with Jack about, I think Trump put up an actual lie on Twitter, and I was like, it's the lie, it's provable lie. And he's like, well, you know, everyone has a chance to have their opinion. I was like, no, they don't. Like it was really an interesting”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He understood it, and he wanted to form a board basically, which we talked about how to bring editorial judgment to these things.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. You've got to step up to it. You know, one of Steve Jobs was a friend, and one of the last conversations I had with Steve was about this issue.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Say whatever I want. It's our newspaper, too. And if we've built enough trust with our readers around the world, then we're going to have those. And we're not giving it over to you. Want to mail a comment in? God bless you. You want to send a letter to the editor in, I'll even read it. But we are built on real journalistic values. So these companies have to.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, Facebook got We'll rely on the algorithm. Can I call bullshit? Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? We don't let our readers write the front page of the New York Times.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, they hate to intercede. They're always talking about not wanting to intercede. I mean, Facebook got rid of its people staff because they got pressure from conservatives and said, we'll rely on the algorithm.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, just only recently, you know, the internet is an open sewer of untreated, unfiltered information. And if you don't have citizens, kids, and neighbors who have the built in filters to understand, which a lot of them don't, that's going to.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Here you have ISIS using. You know, there was an interesting article in the Atlantic this month, The Weaponizing of Social Media, how they created fear online as they moved into Mosul and places like that. And a lot of it was fake. A lot of it was like, you know, it feels like Nazi propaganda, essentially.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nobody can stop it necessarily, and everyone's got to have their own wall and their own protector and their own firewall and police force and whatnot. And so what the chapter is about, again, gets back to the human thing, why the most important things in life are all the things you can't download. The things you have to upload, the old fashioned way, one human to another at a time with strong values, good community, good parenting, good religious values.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And when we're all doing business now in a realm where we're all connected and no one's in charge, well, you get some really aberrant behaviors. You now get fake news. You get Russian hacking. You get banks being hacked. And I think what's really unnerving to me is that we are seeing so much now move to this realm and we're understanding. Now, wait a minute, nobody's in charge. And therefore, how?”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's very scary, and it's why I have a to me the most important chapter in this book is the one called Is God in Cyberspace. It really is raising the values question. What came from 20 years ago I was selling Lexus in the olive tree, and a man stood up at a theater in question time and said, is God cyber? And I went to my rabbi, and I got an answer. I put it in that book. But then I started asking that question again, why care? Because what we've learned, what's basically happened since I wrote that book 20 years ago. Everything's moved to cyberspace. Now, where we find our dates, it's where we find our friends. It's how we communicate, how we learn, how we do commerce. So everything's moving to a realm. Where I say we're all connected, but no one's in charge.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Be Richard Jerusalem. Was it a seminal book for me to read? I remember it. I want to get a sense. Let's start with that where they do have these tools to reach people across the world. They have digital tools. Where does that end up with this at this point?”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I want to end up on two things. One, social isolation, which I think you talked about the disease of social isolation. And then lastly, I would be remiss if I did not talk about the situation in the Mideast and with ISIS and others. This is something you've written about your great book.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. So, first of all, it weeds out a lot of people who aren't serious. But the most important thing is if you go to their site, they have a button up in the right-hand corner, I think, of their platform. It's called the coach button. And it gets pressed more than anything. Coach, what should I wear to my interview? Coach, what if I'm going to be late? Coach, what do you think the first question is going to be? And so when you blend these human to human things. With technology, then I think you get the ideal result. You get the best of both. When you try to entirely replace humans, I think you get aberrant behaviors.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I'm going to go back to the blended concept. If it's all algorithms, I don't think it's going to work. So I profile in the book learnup.com startup by Alexis Ringwald. Some of my friends read Hoffman have invested in it. It's very interesting. It's for employment. We've been talking about work. So one of the biggest employment challenges we have is these big retailers, old Navy, Walmart, whatnot, they get overwhelmed. Their HR systems with applications. So Learnup came along, they create a platform. You go to LearnUp. I want to apply it Old Navy, but you have to take a test. That's like a two-hour test beforehand. Do you know how to fold a shirt? Do you know how to operate a cash register? Do you know how to deal with a customer? And only if you complete that whole exam.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The same thing with healthcare, the same thing with a lot of these apps that start to really diagnose and using AI, using algorithms to do that. What do you think is important for technology to do going forward as a group of people?”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Where do you see hope? Because this is a hopeful book moving through healthcare. Because, you know, whatever you think about Uber, the idea of transferring transportation is a big one. It is not a little one”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, we were talking about Uber before. You know, Uber had surge pricing in the middle of a terrorist attack in Sydney. That's when you just let the algorithm do it. We are letting algorithms do things that human beings should be doing. And by the way, there's work there for human beings. So how do you change them?”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The responsibility of our time. So that is bullshit. I have a column. It has hundreds of comments every time it comes out. But you know what? If somebody goes in there and puts something fake about me, we actually have an editor, actual person. Who will prevent that comment from going up, scaling, and going global? And we have to pay that person. I don't know, probably 50, 60, 70 grand a year. In total compensation. And that's what makes the New York Times. So when Facebook and Google and all these people say, Oh, we're going to let the algorithm do it. I tell a story in the book how YouTube was running Miller Beer ads on ISIS videos. Of course, they weren't doing it deliberately. The algorithm was doing it.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is utter bullshit. Let me get this right, you platform So, you want all the New York Times readers. Oh, you want all the New York Times advertising, but you don't want to have the New York Times editors.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so it's a really interesting thing of abrogation of responsibility that technology has for the impact of its tools like isolation, like feeling weaponizing of social, all kinds of stuff like that. How do you solve that? Because technology really still acts like a 14-year-old, a particularly spoiled 14-year-old boy.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wherever it is. One of the interesting things recently has been around fake news, as you know. Big controversy, perhaps a little hype, but at the same time, a lot of the companies that are involved in it try to abrogate their responsibility. They go, oh, I'm just a platform. It's not me. Oh, it's a gray area. They have all kinds of excuses to be stupid when usually they pretend they're the smartest people on earth.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In every way, which they tend not to do, which is really interesting If you don't want to go to Washington, but you better be involved in San Francisco, Palo Alto Alto, Mountain View, wherever it is.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that critique I not only endorse, I have led it in the past. This kind of libertarian bullshit that just keep the government out of my life. Where do you think the roads, the plumbing, the wiring, the educating? Of your workers happened. So I have an allergy to that point of view. If you are, if the community is the right building block of the 21st century, then you have got to be a part of it.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's an interesting thing because technology has sort of been dinged and I think deservedly for not being part of the civic community here in San Francisco. One of the issues is how little. Back in the day when Wells Fargo or the banking institutions ruled their leaders were part of the civic society. Part of the city. Technologies just aren't. They live in their tower”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wherever I go in this country, I find crazy, amazing adaptations going on in terms of our social technologies. They just need to be scaled.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let me just say where I do think governing should be the healthy community. I think that the healthy community can be close enough to people. People can reach it. It can reach them. And it's flexible enough. And that's why I profiled Minneapolis, what's going on there? 2.9% unemployment, you know, almost 20 Fortune 500 companies. And one of the ways it runs so effectively is they've got something called the Itasca Project. And once a week, the leaders of the community, philanthropic, business, education, government, they meet. They decide on what the priorities are in a very apolitical way. Their symbol is a dining room table and everybody gathers around. And they govern that place in a very adaptive, fast way for the benefit of a lot of...”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. But if you stand back and see what it's actually done, so I want technology to do what technology does. I don't want them to run safety nets. I want the government to be doing that. But in what I argue in my book is that I think the federal government is not the proper governing unit of the 20th century. We need them for army and for central bank. And I don't think the single family is either because I don't think the federal government or the single family, particularly because many are single parent, can actually adapt capacity for an age when we're seeing a change in the pace.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I want technology to do what technology does, which is keep expanding our capabilities. Because when you do that, you expand not only the capabilities to sell a book or to search, but you also expand the capabilities to teach, to learn. To lift people up faster. I mean, let's remember this era of globalization, this terrible, ugly monster, brought more people out of poverty than any era in history of mankind. So it happens. Many of them were in Indian China and not here. And I take that very seriously.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Where do you think technology is right now? I asked this question of Jack Dorsey, and he felt that we have to start giving back, we have to start paying attention. He comes from St. Louis, the St. Louis area. And he feels that we've done a lot of one way communication with a lot of people and haven't been listening. That would be like him to think like that. But in a lot of ways, Silicon Valley has been the driver for the economy. And in this, some of the indications from the Trump administration are very hostile to technology. It feels hostile. It attacks Amazon. He's attacked Apple. He's attacked pretty much everyone. Pretty much. I mean, he has one advisor, Peter Thiel, who's, you know, again, he's not reaching out to the real leaders of Silicon Valley, although Peter's a very powerful one.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we have benefited. And we have benefited, and this growth and these opportunities have enabled and empowered so many people. And because you didn't take advantage of it, because you didn't go to school, because you dropped out, because you didn't rise to the occasion, because you got married before you could raise kids or even had a job. You made bad choices. We're supposed to cut off everybody else. Is that what we're going to do? And so to me, it's not one or the other. I sympathize with a lot of people. My book is full of ideas for how to bring them along. But a bit of realism here. Thank God for Amazon and for Apple and for Google and the opportunities they've created precisely to educate more of these people, more people who need these opportunities, to give them more ability to start a business. I think we've gone too far.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was a really interesting. That's why I say I'm angry also if the people are angry Mostly for yourselves at this point.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The JD Vance got out of. They had very bad habits Challenge these people. That's an interesting thing, and I think we'll talk about that next. But I was having dinner with the CEO of eBay last night, and he was talking about this. Why is this country theirs? Why is it mine? It was a really interesting. I'm angry also that people are angry. You know, sort of the attack at the elites. The elites are, like, a lot of Silicon Valley people, yeah, I know, we haven't done it. I'm like, you also have created most of the wealth, mostly for yourselves at this point. But what was interesting was that sentiment. And secondly, he was telling me he was over in Australia and got into a kerfuffle with the PM there because they were trying to put taxes, import taxes on a lot of things, a lot of eBays, anything that came in and everything in Australia is imported. And he's like, there's all these entrepreneurs in Australia. How are you going to do that? It was a really interesting.”
2016-12-19 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Tom Friedman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT