1 00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:08,080 Speaker 1: All Zone Media. Hello and welcome to Better Offline, Cool 2 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:20,400 Speaker 1: Zone Media's happiest podcast. I'm your host ed ze Tron. Well, 3 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:26,680 Speaker 1: as I've run through in the last two episodes, managers 4 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 1: have poisoned taxability to innovate with a degenerative capitalism known 5 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:33,640 Speaker 1: as the rot economy, pushing growth at all cost metrics 6 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 1: on companies you love will isolating and removing those that 7 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:39,600 Speaker 1: don't agree. And by the way, they're the same people 8 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:43,360 Speaker 1: who actually build things and make good products and use 9 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:47,840 Speaker 1: them as well. Nowhere is this more obvious than Meta, 10 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:51,519 Speaker 1: a company with leadership completely removed from any meaningful interaction 11 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:55,720 Speaker 1: with their products or any value to society. Since two 12 00:00:55,720 --> 00:00:59,240 Speaker 1: thousand and nine, Facebook's core products have reliably become more 13 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 1: profitable and exactly the same rate they decay, with every 14 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 1: founder behind every product that Zuckerberg has acquired, including Instagram, Oculus, 15 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:11,840 Speaker 1: and WhatsApp, leaving the company and almost immediately talking about 16 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:14,760 Speaker 1: how much they hated working there. According to a New 17 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:18,039 Speaker 1: York Times piece from twenty eighteen, Kevin Sistrom, co founder 18 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:21,120 Speaker 1: of Instagram, only chose to quit the company after Mark 19 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:24,480 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg became jealous of the app's success, Taking the spotlight 20 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:28,000 Speaker 1: away from that of Facebook itself, an appy kind of 21 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:32,160 Speaker 1: stole from the Winklevosses. Sistrom allegedly didn't really want to 22 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,400 Speaker 1: leave Facebook, but felt that Zuckerberg was depriving Instagram of 23 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: resources and now and I quote seemed to want Instagram 24 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:41,560 Speaker 1: to use its momentum to help the big Blue app, 25 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:44,440 Speaker 1: which is an annoying way of describing a situation that 26 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 1: feels a convenient time to reveal that this was a 27 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:52,240 Speaker 1: Kara Swisher piece. Despite Swisher's bloviating, it took tech Crunch's 28 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:56,000 Speaker 1: Josh Constein to reveal the real reason that Sistram had left. 29 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,680 Speaker 1: Facebook had replaced Instagram's VP of Product Kevin will who 30 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: everybody loved, with the former VP of Facebook News in 31 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: May twenty eighteen. You know that great year for news, 32 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:13,680 Speaker 1: and that man was named Adam Masseri. He would take 33 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:17,360 Speaker 1: over and over the next six years he would absolutely 34 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:21,679 Speaker 1: destroy everything that Sistrom and his co founder Mitchell Krieger 35 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: had built. According to Constein's reporting, Sistrom had also clashed 36 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:30,240 Speaker 1: with Chris Cox, Facebook's chief product officer at the time. 37 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:35,040 Speaker 1: Constein described Masseri as a Zuckerberg loyalist who was and 38 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:38,040 Speaker 1: I quote, disappointed that he didn't get the head of 39 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 1: Facebook gig that went to Will Cathcot, who now heads 40 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:46,080 Speaker 1: up Whatsam. Over time, Massi and Zuckerberg moved to erode 41 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: Sistrom and Instagram's independence from Facebook, and eventually, I guess 42 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:53,919 Speaker 1: it all became too much to bear. Sistrom was there 43 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:57,200 Speaker 1: to oversee the most damaging change to Instagram, though, which 44 00:02:57,280 --> 00:03:01,079 Speaker 1: was the introduction of the algorithmic feed in Due twenty sixteen, 45 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:04,680 Speaker 1: two years before he left. That horrified users who feared 46 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:06,840 Speaker 1: that they would now not see posts from their friends, 47 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:10,880 Speaker 1: a thing that almost immediately happened on both Instagram and Facebook, 48 00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 1: which made a major change to its newsfeed algorithm in 49 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. Wait, wasn't that when Adam Masius? Oh my god. Anyway, 50 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:24,480 Speaker 1: a few months later, Instagram would try and clone the 51 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: functionality of Snapchat, a company that has had quite literally 52 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,360 Speaker 1: one profitable quarter in its history, with the release of Stories. 53 00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:35,600 Speaker 1: By the way, that's exactly what it was called on Snapchat. 54 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:39,080 Speaker 1: They just didn't anyway. This move was illustrative both of 55 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 1: the lack of creativity within Instagram and Facebook, but also 56 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,400 Speaker 1: of its future direction, with Story serving as yet another 57 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:48,360 Speaker 1: touch point for advertisers, and yet another thing that Mark 58 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:51,960 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg would rip off from people who actually build things 59 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:56,680 Speaker 1: and have ideas. One Systrom left, Masseri became the head 60 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,680 Speaker 1: of Instagram, turning it into one of the most profitable 61 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:03,080 Speaker 1: business units in history while destroying its basic functionality is 62 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:05,480 Speaker 1: an app that showed you photos and videos from people 63 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:08,480 Speaker 1: you chose to follow, doubling down on the algorithm's ability 64 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:12,080 Speaker 1: to interrupt and annoy you and stop you from seeing 65 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:14,880 Speaker 1: things that you want to see, pushing ads and sponsored 66 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:18,280 Speaker 1: content seemingly at random. But the one thing you can 67 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:21,440 Speaker 1: rely on is it would do it a lot. Since 68 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:25,599 Speaker 1: taking over Instagram, Adam Massei has, with the direct approval 69 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:28,320 Speaker 1: and support of Mark Zuckerberg, turned the app into a 70 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 1: glorified ad network, devoid of any ability to innovate with 71 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:35,440 Speaker 1: products like IGTV and Threads. By the way, not the 72 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:37,719 Speaker 1: social network. It was a camera app built to compete 73 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:41,000 Speaker 1: with Snapchat, which has also been shut down. Neither of 74 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 1: them found traction, and every change under Massi seems to 75 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:49,280 Speaker 1: be a direct copy of either snap or TikTok. It's 76 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:52,800 Speaker 1: also important to remember and know what Adam Massari is. 77 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:56,600 Speaker 1: Adam Massari is not a creator. He's not an engineer. 78 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:00,080 Speaker 1: He's not a founder. He's a designer that found his 79 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:04,760 Speaker 1: way into product manageer, escaping the doldrums of actually doing things, 80 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:10,520 Speaker 1: into the beautiful pantheon of wearing suits and yelling at people. Okay, okay, 81 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:12,640 Speaker 1: I don't know if Adam yelled at people, but he 82 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:16,400 Speaker 1: definitely annoyed them. And in late twenty twenty, he made 83 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:20,159 Speaker 1: arguably the worst change to Instagram yet, launching Reels, a 84 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: fifteen second video format for Instagram built to compete with 85 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:29,080 Speaker 1: the ascendant rise of the extremely algorithmic TikTok. Reels quickly 86 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:32,240 Speaker 1: became the dominant form of content on both Facebook and Instagram, 87 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:35,880 Speaker 1: flooding your feed with fifteen and eventually sixty second clips 88 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:39,480 Speaker 1: that automatically players you scrolled by, each one engineered or 89 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:41,720 Speaker 1: paid to get in the way of things that you 90 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:44,680 Speaker 1: actually want to see. And I really want to be clear, 91 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:47,840 Speaker 1: though there are people who are going to say, well, surely, 92 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: surely ed the fact that Reels was such a runaway success, 93 00:05:52,680 --> 00:05:58,119 Speaker 1: Well that's proof that it was good, right, wrong, horribly wrong. 94 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:04,240 Speaker 1: Facebook's algorithm controls everything with Instagram and Facebook. Now, Systram's 95 00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:07,440 Speaker 1: worry and Kevin Systrom, the founder of Instagram. His worry 96 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 1: was that Zuckerberg was trying to just turn Instagram into 97 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:14,560 Speaker 1: an arm of Facebook, kind of a feature app, Like 98 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:17,640 Speaker 1: you went on Instagram to do things with your Facebook account. 99 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: This is exactly what has happened. Instagram is just Facebook, 100 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:25,799 Speaker 1: but with more visual media. It has the same logins, 101 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:28,640 Speaker 1: it has the same problems. It also has no customer 102 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:32,159 Speaker 1: support of any kind, like every social network. But don't worry. 103 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:35,640 Speaker 1: Thanks to Adam goddamn Massari, you can now pay fifteen 104 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:39,839 Speaker 1: dollars a month for verification on Instagram and Facebook, which 105 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:43,640 Speaker 1: will also get you access to customer support. Great goddamn idea, 106 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:47,680 Speaker 1: Adam burn in hell anyway, I'm not the only one 107 00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:50,400 Speaker 1: angry with Adam Assei. He's also one of the least 108 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:53,560 Speaker 1: popular tech executives in history. And I'm not kidding. I 109 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:57,360 Speaker 1: have been reading the tech media very deeply. For Jesus 110 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:01,039 Speaker 1: coming up on sixteen years bloody hell. Anyway, I've never 111 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: seen someone this unpopular other than maybe Elon Musk, and 112 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:08,520 Speaker 1: even then, Elon Musk, who's a loathsome individual, has far 113 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:13,920 Speaker 1: more riars than Adam Massearri, who mostly spends his time apologizing, No, seriously. 114 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:16,600 Speaker 1: Since taking over Instagram, he's had to apologize for an 115 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 1: update that made Instagram's feed mood sideways and I'm not 116 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:22,000 Speaker 1: kidding about that one. He's had to apologize for Instagram 117 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:25,920 Speaker 1: censoring pro Palestinian content. He's had to testify before Congress 118 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:28,880 Speaker 1: about Instagram's harm to young people, and he said to 119 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:31,920 Speaker 1: tell people that Instagram is no longer a photo sharing app. 120 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:37,960 Speaker 1: What does the Graham eh? Anyway, He's overseen so many 121 00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:42,640 Speaker 1: deeply unpopular changes that Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, who 122 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:45,800 Speaker 1: between them have over six hundred million followers, had to 123 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:48,920 Speaker 1: beg him to stop Instagram from trying to be TikTok, 124 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:52,520 Speaker 1: to which he responded that more and more of Instagram 125 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:55,040 Speaker 1: is going to become video over time, and claim that 126 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:58,120 Speaker 1: it had cut back on recommended content, something I think 127 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:01,880 Speaker 1: we can all agree was a blatant, fucking lie. I 128 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:04,760 Speaker 1: find Adam Massari very annoying as well, because when you 129 00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:08,600 Speaker 1: watch his videos, he's always going, hey, guys, yeah, so yeah, 130 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: So the reason that Instagram's bad now is because, uh, 131 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:13,840 Speaker 1: and you can see him in real time trying to 132 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:16,960 Speaker 1: come up with a reason why it sucks. That isn't 133 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:18,600 Speaker 1: just well, it makes it. It makes us so it 134 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:20,320 Speaker 1: may it may have made me so rich. I have 135 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:22,720 Speaker 1: a house in Kensington, now I'm so rich. Is so good? 136 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:27,600 Speaker 1: He's just he's worm like. He and I want to 137 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:29,720 Speaker 1: get into personally inside. I take that back. Adam Massari 138 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:33,440 Speaker 1: is not wormlike. He is a coward. Though he is 139 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:37,239 Speaker 1: the reason that Instagram sucks. Now he is the architect 140 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:40,840 Speaker 1: of the destruction of one of the most dominant places 141 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:45,040 Speaker 1: on the web. These are his decisions. Massari, like many 142 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:47,640 Speaker 1: of the most powerful men in tech, is a glorified 143 00:08:47,679 --> 00:08:52,320 Speaker 1: management consultant, incapable of creating anything of note. Massari has 144 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:55,560 Speaker 1: already anounced that Threads metas dollars stor clone of Twitter, 145 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:00,640 Speaker 1: is not for news and politics, making news organizations kind 146 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 1: of hesitant to invest in a platform that was made 147 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:05,520 Speaker 1: by a company that has a rich history of screwing 148 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:09,480 Speaker 1: over news organizations. Also, what the hell do I talk 149 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:13,600 Speaker 1: about in social networks? Then, Adam, No, nothing that's happening 150 00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:16,560 Speaker 1: in the government of words. Well oh wait, let me 151 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:20,000 Speaker 1: answer that. On threads, what people talk about is whatever's 152 00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:24,040 Speaker 1: making them angry that day, without much form, more feature, 153 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:26,880 Speaker 1: and they still talk about politics and news. It's just 154 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:30,760 Speaker 1: not supported by the algorithm. It's just it's the kind 155 00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:33,920 Speaker 1: of thing that you would make if you had no 156 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:38,120 Speaker 1: idea how social networks worked, but you knew product management. 157 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:40,480 Speaker 1: If you were like, all the people, what do we 158 00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:43,040 Speaker 1: want to see out of a social network? We want 159 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:45,280 Speaker 1: to see lots of clicks, we want to see lots 160 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:49,240 Speaker 1: of scrolling. Yeah, we definitely want people interacting and engaging. 161 00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:52,839 Speaker 1: That's what makes good social networking, right. And I think 162 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:54,439 Speaker 1: we can all agree at this point that Twitter was 163 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:56,839 Speaker 1: a mistake. It was like a text based platform. I 164 00:09:56,840 --> 00:09:59,800 Speaker 1: don't think Bisstone and Jack Dorsey are particularly gifted product 165 00:09:59,800 --> 00:10:03,000 Speaker 1: peace people, but they were smart enough to leave it 166 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:05,880 Speaker 1: the hell alone. If you look at the Twitter files, 167 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:08,640 Speaker 1: which by the way, are very funny because they Matt 168 00:10:08,679 --> 00:10:12,280 Speaker 1: Taybe sold is sold to Elon Musk, the most deceptive 169 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:17,240 Speaker 1: man alive other than Donald Trump. It rocks didn't think 170 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:19,520 Speaker 1: the leopards would eat your face, did you, mate? Anyway? 171 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:22,720 Speaker 1: The Twitter files, all you can see in there is 172 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:25,440 Speaker 1: Twitter's executives just being like, Oh, I don't want to 173 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:27,160 Speaker 1: touch it, mate, I don't want to know. I don't 174 00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:28,839 Speaker 1: want to if we mess with it it's going to 175 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:30,800 Speaker 1: make it bad. It's going to break. Everyone will be 176 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:32,960 Speaker 1: so angry if we do anything. We shouldn't ban this person, 177 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:37,199 Speaker 1: we shouldn't change this threads is this weird, hyperoptimized, hyper 178 00:10:37,240 --> 00:10:41,040 Speaker 1: algorithmic crapfest. And all the people on there are people 179 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:44,800 Speaker 1: who write comments on Instagram it sucks, and there are 180 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:46,880 Speaker 1: some good journalists on there. I'll pop in for that. 181 00:10:47,280 --> 00:10:49,360 Speaker 1: But it's a bad social network. And it's a bad 182 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:51,320 Speaker 1: social network because it's made by a guy who doesn't 183 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:55,360 Speaker 1: build products, unless you think of products as like financial vehicles, 184 00:10:55,360 --> 00:10:58,840 Speaker 1: in which case Adam Massei maybe the most gifted man alive. 185 00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:06,200 Speaker 1: But let's be honest. Nowhere is Adam Massari's consultant mindset 186 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:09,600 Speaker 1: more obvious than in his suggested plan to deal with 187 00:11:09,640 --> 00:11:13,840 Speaker 1: Instagram's hundreds of thousands of underage users by creating a 188 00:11:13,880 --> 00:11:16,960 Speaker 1: new type of family centered account in Instagram that would 189 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:22,360 Speaker 1: permit Meta to upsell Instagram to children under thirteen, a disgusting, 190 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:26,560 Speaker 1: loathsome program that was planned as an alternative to instituting 191 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:31,040 Speaker 1: stricter registration procedures, according to a lawsuit against Meta filed 192 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:34,560 Speaker 1: by the Attorney General of New Mexico, Yeah, Adam I 193 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:38,200 Speaker 1: won't come without a link because I'm scared anyways. This 194 00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:40,480 Speaker 1: is the man running one of the most important tech 195 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:42,959 Speaker 1: platforms in the world, a man bereft of morals or 196 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:47,680 Speaker 1: qualifications or even ideas, a walking, talking figurehead that exists 197 00:11:47,679 --> 00:11:50,760 Speaker 1: only to spout vague platitudes about what social media can 198 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:53,360 Speaker 1: or will do, as the profits of making it harder 199 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:57,079 Speaker 1: to communicate with friends and family make him unfathomably rich. 200 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:01,520 Speaker 1: He comes out every so often bab about how social 201 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:04,559 Speaker 1: is important, how the changes he's made that make Instagram 202 00:12:04,600 --> 00:12:07,760 Speaker 1: worse are actually good, and then disappears up his own asshole. 203 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:10,559 Speaker 1: One time he responded to something I wrote on the information, 204 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:13,680 Speaker 1: and he responded with a bunch of typos, which is 205 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:17,280 Speaker 1: very funny. But he also responded saying that Facebook planned 206 00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:20,959 Speaker 1: no layoffs and Instagram planned no layoffs. They laid people 207 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:23,640 Speaker 1: off on six months later. It's just this is the guy. 208 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:27,679 Speaker 1: These are the guys in power now. Well. Much of 209 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:30,240 Speaker 1: the blame for the state of Instagram and Facebook can 210 00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:32,920 Speaker 1: obviously be laid at the feet of Mark Zuckerberg. It's 211 00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:36,520 Speaker 1: important to remember Mark sucks, and Mark is the reason 212 00:12:36,559 --> 00:12:39,040 Speaker 1: he did the original Facebook after he stole it from 213 00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:43,319 Speaker 1: the Wet Brothers. But nevertheless, it's also important to understand 214 00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:46,360 Speaker 1: the sheer level of damage that Adam Massei has done 215 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:51,360 Speaker 1: to the world. Instagram is now a truly awful product. 216 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:55,440 Speaker 1: It's terrible, and Massari's only response to the pain and 217 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:58,280 Speaker 1: frustration of his users is to tell them that he 218 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:01,880 Speaker 1: intends to make it shittier. That was his actual response 219 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:05,720 Speaker 1: when Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian said, hey, stop making 220 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:08,320 Speaker 1: Instagram like TikTok, he said, I'm actually gonna make it 221 00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:11,360 Speaker 1: more like Tiktel. Your fucking assholes. Okay, that's not exactly 222 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:13,120 Speaker 1: what he said. He just said there'd be more video. 223 00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:16,200 Speaker 1: They've claimed their rolling things back, but it's all nonsense. 224 00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:19,640 Speaker 1: It's all lies. And this is the management consultant mindset 225 00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:23,960 Speaker 1: that dominates tech. They trap users in these terrible experiences, 226 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:27,000 Speaker 1: and they do so because they have giant monopolies, and 227 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:29,440 Speaker 1: then they make their products worse and worse and worse 228 00:13:29,480 --> 00:13:31,600 Speaker 1: once they know that their users can't or won't go 229 00:13:31,679 --> 00:13:37,360 Speaker 1: anywhere else. And what's insane about this is Instagram could 230 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:41,000 Speaker 1: have probably made Facebook tens of billions of dollars without sucking. 231 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:43,720 Speaker 1: There are honest ways to do a business like this 232 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:47,640 Speaker 1: if they really actually invested in algorithms. And I kind 233 00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:50,320 Speaker 1: of hinted this in previous episodes and made it so 234 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:54,000 Speaker 1: it was just very good at showing you things you like. Hell, 235 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:59,120 Speaker 1: they'd make TikTok. Why do you think TikTok has done well? 236 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:03,760 Speaker 1: Because it's our algorithm, while extremely weird and unsettling, is 237 00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:07,040 Speaker 1: actually very good at showing people things they'd find interesting. 238 00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:11,120 Speaker 1: It's invasive, it's weird, it's bad. But guess what Matt's 239 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:13,880 Speaker 1: worth hundreds of billions of dollars. They're putting tens of 240 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:16,760 Speaker 1: billions of dollars into the metaverse. Still, Reality Labs is 241 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:19,280 Speaker 1: still burning what ten fifteen billion dollars a quarter or 242 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:22,120 Speaker 1: a year. It's an insane amount of money. How about 243 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:25,360 Speaker 1: feeding that into the algorithm so your experience doesn't suck us. 244 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:29,560 Speaker 1: I'm being vulgar, and I've been quite vulgar in this episode, 245 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:32,760 Speaker 1: and I apologize, I really do. I shouldn't swear so much. 246 00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:34,920 Speaker 1: My mother tells me this, my father tells me this, 247 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:39,960 Speaker 1: shrink tells me this. But anyway, I just find this 248 00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:43,680 Speaker 1: all so annoying. I find it frustrating because the bad 249 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:47,120 Speaker 1: guys keep winning and the reason they keep winning is 250 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:49,360 Speaker 1: nobody points at them and says how bad they are, 251 00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:52,720 Speaker 1: or at least they don't do it enough. Really, people 252 00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:55,280 Speaker 1: should walk out of Instagram, and we should stop using 253 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:59,080 Speaker 1: Instagram and Facebook. I think I use it Instagram like 254 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:02,200 Speaker 1: once every cup day's look at my friend's very fat dog, 255 00:15:02,240 --> 00:15:05,360 Speaker 1: which I do enjoy. I might just text him and say, 256 00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:06,960 Speaker 1: can you just send me picture of site of your dog? 257 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:10,640 Speaker 1: But that's kind of weird. These apps have become part 258 00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:14,640 Speaker 1: of the social fabric, and people like Adam Masseria are aware. 259 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:18,400 Speaker 1: Same with Mark Zuckerberg. They know exactly how well they've done, 260 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:21,760 Speaker 1: and they have. They are a success story. An evil 261 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:26,360 Speaker 1: success story, but they're a success story. You are on Instagram, 262 00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:29,560 Speaker 1: you are on Twitter, you are on email. You are 263 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:35,320 Speaker 1: on these platforms because that's where people exist online. There 264 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:38,000 Speaker 1: are people that I can only speak to on Instagram. 265 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:40,920 Speaker 1: They're just bad at text, but they love Instagram, and 266 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:42,920 Speaker 1: it sucks. I don't want to use these platforms, and 267 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:45,440 Speaker 1: imagine you don't want to EVA, which is why it's 268 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:48,040 Speaker 1: important to talk about who mess them up. It's important 269 00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:51,720 Speaker 1: to say Adam Masseri a hundred times and keep saying it. 270 00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:55,800 Speaker 1: That's the only way that history will know who has 271 00:15:55,880 --> 00:16:01,520 Speaker 1: done this damage. And these management consultant types they're everywhere, 272 00:16:02,840 --> 00:16:05,840 Speaker 1: They're everywhere, and they're inspiring people to be like them, 273 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: to be ruthless assholes, to be terrible product developers, but 274 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:14,880 Speaker 1: excellent businessmen. And there is a middle ground, a sustainable ground, 275 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:18,720 Speaker 1: one which doesn't involve burning cash or burning customers or 276 00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:23,280 Speaker 1: in the case of Instagram, shortly adding generative AI to everything, 277 00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:27,320 Speaker 1: to Facebook, to Instagram. And by the way, here's a 278 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:31,840 Speaker 1: crazy story for you. Recently, a generative AI on Facebook 279 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 1: responded to a group saying that it had a gifted child. 280 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:39,200 Speaker 1: And you may think I'm mistaking something. No, no, it 281 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:41,640 Speaker 1: said this whole thing about having a gifted child. This 282 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:44,440 Speaker 1: is what happens when people who don't know product, who 283 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:48,440 Speaker 1: don't build anything, who don't understand anything, get the keys 284 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:51,560 Speaker 1: to the kingdom. They fuck it up and they'll keep 285 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:56,920 Speaker 1: doing so, and their massive success only seeks to inspire 286 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: generations of useless founders with creating profitable pain boxes over 287 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:05,479 Speaker 1: useful products. And as we speak, the most quirked up 288 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:09,360 Speaker 1: loathsome one of the more is rising to power. I'm 289 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:22,159 Speaker 1: talking about Sam goddamn Altman. Now if you don't know 290 00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:25,200 Speaker 1: who that is. Sam Altman is the CEO of open Ai, 291 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:30,680 Speaker 1: which is a very unprofitable revenue generating company building software 292 00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:33,800 Speaker 1: to do something, and Generative Ai might do something. You 293 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:36,000 Speaker 1: should go back and listen to the episodes about that. 294 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:40,240 Speaker 1: But I want to tell you how Sam Altman got started, 295 00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:43,800 Speaker 1: and I want to let you know how shit Sam 296 00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:46,919 Speaker 1: Altman has peen at his job in the past. In 297 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:50,320 Speaker 1: two thousand and five, Altman, a Standford dropout, co founded 298 00:17:50,359 --> 00:17:54,200 Speaker 1: a company called Looped. That's loopt, that's what companies were 299 00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:56,800 Speaker 1: called back then, and they were a location based social 300 00:17:56,840 --> 00:18:00,240 Speaker 1: networking app that raised over thirty million dollars from taking Hiba, 301 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:04,680 Speaker 1: y Combinator, and vcs like Sequoia Capital and NEA. Seven 302 00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:07,879 Speaker 1: years later, Aortmand would flog Looped to a publicly traded 303 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:10,800 Speaker 1: financial services company called green Dot, best known for their 304 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:14,679 Speaker 1: prepaid cards, for remarkable forty three point four million dollars, 305 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:17,879 Speaker 1: despite the fact that the app didn't find traction or 306 00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:21,880 Speaker 1: revenue ormand got quite rich from the Loop deal, despite 307 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:24,080 Speaker 1: the fact that a group of senior employees urged the 308 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:27,560 Speaker 1: board on two separate occasions to fire Aortmand for what 309 00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:31,359 Speaker 1: they described as deceptive and chaotic behavior. According to The 310 00:18:31,359 --> 00:18:35,840 Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal, Ormand would almost immediately become a partner 311 00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:39,119 Speaker 1: at y Combinator, surprising a lot of people after working 312 00:18:39,119 --> 00:18:42,320 Speaker 1: there part time before being made president by co founder 313 00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:46,560 Speaker 1: Paul Graham in twenty fourteen. Yet, behind the scenes, according 314 00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:49,679 Speaker 1: to reporting by Elizabeth Dwaskin and Natasha Tiku of The 315 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:53,000 Speaker 1: Washington Post, Aortmand was well known for and I quote 316 00:18:53,359 --> 00:18:56,439 Speaker 1: for an absenteeism that rankled his peers and some of 317 00:18:56,480 --> 00:18:59,840 Speaker 1: the startups he was supposed to nurture. Ortmand was also 318 00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:03,120 Speaker 1: double dipping in y combine at startups by investing through 319 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:06,120 Speaker 1: Alt Capital, a venture firm founded with his brother Jack, 320 00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:09,639 Speaker 1: with one source quoted by the Post describing Aortman's tenure 321 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:13,800 Speaker 1: as the school of loose management that's all about prioritizing 322 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:17,680 Speaker 1: what's in it for me. Aortmand became wildly rich during 323 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:20,800 Speaker 1: his tenure at y Combinator, using his connections and his 324 00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:24,040 Speaker 1: cult of personality to make early investments in companies like 325 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:27,199 Speaker 1: Gusto and optimizedly, which was acquired in twenty eighteen for 326 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:31,240 Speaker 1: one point one six billion dollars, and Patreon and Asana 327 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:34,640 Speaker 1: and Reddit probably made a couple hundred million red air 328 00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:39,360 Speaker 1: really depressing. In twenty fifteen, he founded OpenAI, at the time, 329 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:44,400 Speaker 1: a nonprofit organization dedicated to building responsible artificial intelligence applications. 330 00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:49,240 Speaker 1: Yet it's really important to note that Aortman is not, 331 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:52,160 Speaker 1: and was not ever an engineer or a technologist. He 332 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:55,240 Speaker 1: did code, but he was, in every case, from what 333 00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:58,159 Speaker 1: I can find, a figurehead and a fundraiser that was 334 00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:01,719 Speaker 1: able to convince actual academics and engineers like Dirk Kingman 335 00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:06,120 Speaker 1: and we'll check Zaremba and Iliasidskava to do the actual 336 00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:08,800 Speaker 1: work at open AI, while he sent master ptory emails 337 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:11,679 Speaker 1: to Elon Musk, who only ever donated fifty million dollars 338 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:14,359 Speaker 1: of the one hundred million he claimed he'd invested in open AI. 339 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:17,640 Speaker 1: You know what the thing is, Sam, at the very least, 340 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:19,679 Speaker 1: can you make sure that Elon Musk pays up? Are 341 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:23,440 Speaker 1: you that much of a count anyway? I really want 342 00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:25,879 Speaker 1: you to remember that Sam Mortman was an absentee parent 343 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:28,760 Speaker 1: for the first few years of open AI. He split 344 00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:31,840 Speaker 1: his efforts in actually a way that was very similar 345 00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:36,159 Speaker 1: to Elon Musk, across multiple other investments and enterprises like 346 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:39,439 Speaker 1: the two funds he'd built inside of Y Combinator for 347 00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:42,639 Speaker 1: him to run. In twenty nineteen, according to reports at 348 00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:45,840 Speaker 1: the time, Alltmond would step down from Y Combinator amid 349 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:48,760 Speaker 1: a series of changes at the accelerator, a story that 350 00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:51,720 Speaker 1: much of the industry press just simply chose not to 351 00:20:51,760 --> 00:20:55,639 Speaker 1: look into. Though I will give Eric Newcomer some credit 352 00:20:55,680 --> 00:20:58,560 Speaker 1: for calling people out for this kind of in vain. 353 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:02,399 Speaker 1: Yet the Washington Host's reporting revealed that Y Combinator found 354 00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 1: a Paul Graham, best known for writing extremely annoying tweets 355 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:09,840 Speaker 1: and very long and quite boring blogs. That's my job, Paul. Anyway, 356 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:13,679 Speaker 1: he flew from the United Kingdom to Francisco to personally 357 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:16,359 Speaker 1: kick Sam Altman out, though he blamed his wife for 358 00:21:16,359 --> 00:21:20,360 Speaker 1: some reason, and anyway due to Altman continuing to focus 359 00:21:20,359 --> 00:21:24,280 Speaker 1: on his own personal projects and press over his thing 360 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:28,440 Speaker 1: at WY combinetor This is the story of the man 361 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:31,680 Speaker 1: whom New York Magazine called the Oppenheimer of our Age 362 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,440 Speaker 1: in a meandering piece that frames Altman's vagueness about AI 363 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:39,080 Speaker 1: as some sort of big secret, a hidden truth, when 364 00:21:39,119 --> 00:21:41,879 Speaker 1: I think the truth might be far simpler. Sam Altman 365 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:45,760 Speaker 1: is yet another fucking management consultant. In a piece published 366 00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:48,840 Speaker 1: in early twenty twenty one, Sam Altman proposed the concept 367 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:51,520 Speaker 1: of Moore's law for everything, referring to the principle that 368 00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:55,040 Speaker 1: the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles approximately 369 00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:57,600 Speaker 1: every two years, leading to a linear increase in computing 370 00:21:57,640 --> 00:21:59,680 Speaker 1: power in the process. And if I got that wrong, 371 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:03,760 Speaker 1: I just I think it's okay anyway. Moore's Law for 372 00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:06,840 Speaker 1: Everything is, in essence a utopian take on the impact 373 00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:10,320 Speaker 1: of AI, noting that as machines usurp the roles of 374 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:13,199 Speaker 1: humans in the supply chain, the prices of goods and 375 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:16,360 Speaker 1: services and thus the cost of living will go down exponentially, 376 00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:19,280 Speaker 1: something that has been proven wrong by a lot of history. 377 00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,280 Speaker 1: The problem with this piece is it's kind of like 378 00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:25,439 Speaker 1: Sam Moultman in that it's a deeply complex bucket of nothing. 379 00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:29,600 Speaker 1: It's an extremely verbose screed that says things like AI 380 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:32,240 Speaker 1: will lower the cost of goods and services because labor 381 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:34,560 Speaker 1: is the driving cost at many levels of the supply chain, 382 00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:38,120 Speaker 1: and suggests things like that we should tax capital rather 383 00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:40,919 Speaker 1: than labor by creating an American equity Fund where companies 384 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:42,600 Speaker 1: are forced to give up a percentage of their shares 385 00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:45,480 Speaker 1: to a nationally incorporate adventure fund, an idea that makes 386 00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:47,720 Speaker 1: sense if you're in the business of flogging private companies 387 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:52,200 Speaker 1: to public companies. Moore's law for Everything is a remarkably 388 00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:55,520 Speaker 1: telling piece in that if frames Aortman's worldview as one 389 00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:59,120 Speaker 1: where the only thing that can save mankind is startups, 390 00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:02,080 Speaker 1: and those should be funded in the way that Sam 391 00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,840 Speaker 1: Ortman likes, and this piece feels a lot like everything 392 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:09,960 Speaker 1: in a Ortmand's universe. Endeavor actually connects Moore's law to anything, 393 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,600 Speaker 1: which I should add isn't so much of a law 394 00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:15,239 Speaker 1: as an observation as long ceased to be relevant as 395 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:18,480 Speaker 1: the shrinkage of transistors as slowed in the recent years. 396 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:23,200 Speaker 1: In many respects, this comparison is actually ierially prophetic given 397 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:25,840 Speaker 1: the slow down and even regression of improvement we've seen 398 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:30,080 Speaker 1: in large language models like chat GPT, And much like 399 00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:34,480 Speaker 1: chat GPT, Ortmand is capable only of loosely approximating the 400 00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:38,240 Speaker 1: output requested, because that is core. He lacks any kind 401 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:41,879 Speaker 1: of substance or technical history that you'd need to do so, 402 00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:47,160 Speaker 1: like chat GPT, he's a very intelligent know nothing that, 403 00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:50,840 Speaker 1: through deterministic measures, completely detached from the meaning of the 404 00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:53,440 Speaker 1: underlying ideas, picks the right words to say at the 405 00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:57,640 Speaker 1: right time. And by the way, this is the man 406 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:02,320 Speaker 1: selling the artificial intelligence stream. He's a salesman, and he's 407 00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:05,760 Speaker 1: a salesman capable of superficial connections between ideas in a 408 00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:08,880 Speaker 1: way that's initially satisfying as long as you just don't 409 00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:12,520 Speaker 1: think about it too much. Altmand's famed startup playbook, which 410 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:14,840 Speaker 1: is published in twenty fifteen, is full of the kind 411 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:19,040 Speaker 1: of obvious yet satisfying crap that you'd expect. He extols 412 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:22,320 Speaker 1: the virtues of being flexible yet rigid. Advis is that 413 00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:24,720 Speaker 1: you talk to your users and watch them use your product, 414 00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:28,000 Speaker 1: which is an exact quote, and he says that you 415 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,119 Speaker 1: should try to improve your product five percent each week. 416 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:34,240 Speaker 1: These are the kind of things that are very useful, 417 00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:37,679 Speaker 1: genuinely to an early twenties founder, and super impressive to 418 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:40,840 Speaker 1: a mid fifties white venture capitalist that doesn't remember the 419 00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:43,160 Speaker 1: last time they worked a job that wasn't ten hours 420 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 1: a week of investing in Chuntley the SaaS for dog breeders. 421 00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:51,960 Speaker 1: They're the tech equivalent of live, Laugh, Love It does. However, 422 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:56,640 Speaker 1: at one point, betray Sam Altman's real mindset that the 423 00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:59,959 Speaker 1: only universal job description of a CEO is to make 424 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:05,760 Speaker 1: make sure that the company wins. Almand's material contributions to 425 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,880 Speaker 1: open Ai kind of hard to nail down. Well, it's 426 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:12,080 Speaker 1: unfair to judge someone entirely by their emails. Those that 427 00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:14,879 Speaker 1: I can find, such as the ones from Elon Musk's 428 00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:17,920 Speaker 1: lawsuit against open Ai, feel like they could be from 429 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:22,159 Speaker 1: any other managerial huckster, and they feel kind of as 430 00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:26,200 Speaker 1: specious as Elon Musk's. And by the way, you're able 431 00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:29,440 Speaker 1: to compare those because when Elon Musk sued open Ai, 432 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:31,800 Speaker 1: open Ai published a bunch of emails and him and 433 00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:34,680 Speaker 1: Alman are the same guy. They're both just sitting going, yes, yes, 434 00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:36,560 Speaker 1: the future will be very good. It'll be very important 435 00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:38,760 Speaker 1: that we have technology in the future. Yes, AI will 436 00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,040 Speaker 1: be able to grow. And Sam Almond's like, yeah, dude, yeah, 437 00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:45,119 Speaker 1: that's great. That's crazy man. It's like Joe Rogan, except 438 00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:50,440 Speaker 1: they're worth billions of dollars. Almond blathers on about governance 439 00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:53,680 Speaker 1: structures and how open ai needs to create the first 440 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,639 Speaker 1: general AI and use it for individual empowerment, which he 441 00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:59,960 Speaker 1: defines as the distributed version of the future that seems 442 00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:03,200 Speaker 1: the safest. Like I said, Musco and Aortman are very 443 00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:07,200 Speaker 1: similar creatures, managers wearing engineering costumes, and both are credited 444 00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:11,119 Speaker 1: as having expertise in AI without actually appearing to have 445 00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:13,879 Speaker 1: written a single line of code in a decade. And 446 00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:16,919 Speaker 1: let me tell you something about most of the guys 447 00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:19,960 Speaker 1: who actually work deep in AI. You know what, They've 448 00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:25,200 Speaker 1: got academic papers, they have actual published things they've done. 449 00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:29,919 Speaker 1: They're not afraid to share their code. They're not asking, 450 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:32,359 Speaker 1: as Elon must did when laying people off at Twitter 451 00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:35,080 Speaker 1: for people's most salient lines of code, because they actually 452 00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:37,399 Speaker 1: know how code works. I, by the way, do not. 453 00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:40,080 Speaker 1: I'm not going to pretend I do. But I'm also 454 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,199 Speaker 1: not there selling you the future of AI. From what 455 00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:47,240 Speaker 1: I can tell, Altman has like broberkar Ragavan, the villain 456 00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:51,720 Speaker 1: of the last episode Fallen Upwards. He was a constant 457 00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:55,040 Speaker 1: source of frustration at Looped due to his pursuit and 458 00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:58,160 Speaker 1: I share you not of side projects, with the Wall 459 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:01,600 Speaker 1: Street Journal reporting late last year that Altman wants diverted 460 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:05,000 Speaker 1: engineers to work on an unnamed gay dating app. As 461 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:08,199 Speaker 1: I previously noted, Ortmand was fired from y Combinator for 462 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:12,679 Speaker 1: his absenteism and I quote reputation for favoring personal priorities 463 00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:16,280 Speaker 1: over official duties, and the Wallstroop Journal reports that by 464 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,199 Speaker 1: early twenty eighteen, a year before he was fired, Ortmand 465 00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:22,640 Speaker 1: was barely present at y Combinator's headquarters, spending more time 466 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:26,200 Speaker 1: at open Ai, which rankled longtime partners at y Combinator 467 00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:41,840 Speaker 1: who began losing faith in him as a leader. The 468 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:45,040 Speaker 1: journal's piece does reveal a little more about why Ortman 469 00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:48,200 Speaker 1: was fired as CEO of open Ai, something that happened 470 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:51,160 Speaker 1: last November and was very weird if he didn't see 471 00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,560 Speaker 1: it happen. He was fired for like three days, and 472 00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:58,680 Speaker 1: then a bunch of managers like Reid Hoffman and Brancheski 473 00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,280 Speaker 1: of Airbnb, sachurn Adela, the king of managers, the CEO 474 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:05,840 Speaker 1: of Microsoft, got together and bullied a nonprofit into putting 475 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:09,720 Speaker 1: him back. Super happy story, But one of the reasons 476 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:12,320 Speaker 1: that he was fired was because Sam Altman is a 477 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:17,520 Speaker 1: pretty atrocious manager. Founding and sadly now former open Ai 478 00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:21,200 Speaker 1: board member Ilia Sutzkava described to the board when calling 479 00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 1: for Altman's removal, a long running pattern of Altman's tendency 480 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:29,000 Speaker 1: to pit employees against one another, or promised resources and 481 00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:33,400 Speaker 1: responsibilities to two different executives at the same time, yielding conflicts. 482 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:36,720 Speaker 1: More worryingly, the General reports that other members of the 483 00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:41,120 Speaker 1: board had heard similar concerns from senior OpenAI executives. By 484 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:45,200 Speaker 1: the way, anyone who brought Sam Altman back in ire 485 00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:48,920 Speaker 1: ascam bag, we all know it. They also feared that 486 00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:51,920 Speaker 1: Sam Altman would use his influence in Silicon Valley once fired, 487 00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:56,000 Speaker 1: something that almost immediately came true when Sam Altman ran 488 00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:59,240 Speaker 1: as I mentioned to Brian Chesky of Airbnb, who then 489 00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:02,160 Speaker 1: called Saturn Della of Microsoft, which sparked a chain of 490 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,120 Speaker 1: events that restored Altman as CEO of open Ai and 491 00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:07,400 Speaker 1: led to the removal of the non believers like Ilia 492 00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:13,520 Speaker 1: Suitskafer from the board entirely. This this is Silicon Valley's king. 493 00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:17,560 Speaker 1: This is the guy that people think is the Oppenheimer 494 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:22,160 Speaker 1: of our age. This is the king of Silicon Valley now, 495 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:26,120 Speaker 1: a multi billionaire who's actually a lobbyist role playing as 496 00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:31,719 Speaker 1: a founder, a diplomat masquerading as a technologist, A charming, capricious, abusive, 497 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:35,840 Speaker 1: and untrustworthy man that has proven time and time again 498 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:39,640 Speaker 1: that his only reliable trait is that whatever happens must 499 00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:43,680 Speaker 1: benefit Sam Altman. This also explains why so little of 500 00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:47,280 Speaker 1: Sam Altman's promises about AI makes sense and why open 501 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:50,840 Speaker 1: ai has been so unashamed in steam rolling and plagiarizing 502 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:55,120 Speaker 1: the entire world. Altman has created nothing other than wealth 503 00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:58,640 Speaker 1: for himself and other rich guys, helping elevate and protect 504 00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:02,400 Speaker 1: existing power structures and the ideologies of men like Microsoft 505 00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:06,840 Speaker 1: CEO Sachnadella and LinkedIn founder and career manager Read Hoffman. 506 00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:10,200 Speaker 1: And let's not forget open AI's new board member Larry 507 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:14,480 Speaker 1: Goddamn Summers, and it all kind of makes sense why 508 00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:18,240 Speaker 1: GENERATIVEAI doesn't really help anyone other than those who want 509 00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:21,560 Speaker 1: to sell something. When the center of attention at a 510 00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:24,080 Speaker 1: company isn't really on the product or the tech, but 511 00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,000 Speaker 1: the idea of what the product could do, very little 512 00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:30,320 Speaker 1: about the company's culture is focused on building useful things 513 00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:35,080 Speaker 1: for real people. When leadership is dominated by managers that 514 00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:37,320 Speaker 1: haven't touched a line of code in decades or talked 515 00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:40,560 Speaker 1: to a normal person in decades, nobody steering the ship 516 00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:43,280 Speaker 1: has the ability to judge whether software is good or useful, 517 00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:47,120 Speaker 1: or valuable, or does anything other than help you raise 518 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:51,960 Speaker 1: venture capital, of course, and this is the direct result 519 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:56,240 Speaker 1: of Silicon Valley's corruption by the managerial sect. While Propakar 520 00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:00,480 Speaker 1: Ragavan may be a decorated computer scientist and academic, he 521 00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:03,920 Speaker 1: arguably oversaw the destruction of Yahoo, formerly one of the 522 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:07,240 Speaker 1: Webb's most dominant search engines, and failed upwards into a 523 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:09,960 Speaker 1: managerial role that allowed him to take over and now 524 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:14,480 Speaker 1: arguably ruin Google's search product chasing Away Ben Gomes a 525 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:18,480 Speaker 1: hero and a man responsible for actually building things. Adam 526 00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:22,440 Speaker 1: Masseri was and always will be a manager making calls 527 00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,000 Speaker 1: about products he's had no hand in building, and has 528 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:28,480 Speaker 1: architected the outright destruction of a social network used by 529 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:33,840 Speaker 1: billions of people. And Sam Altman, a career failure famous 530 00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:37,480 Speaker 1: for making himself rich and popular and upsetting and hurting 531 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:40,240 Speaker 1: the people he works with, is on course to become 532 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:44,040 Speaker 1: the most toxic manager of them all. If left unchecked, 533 00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:47,320 Speaker 1: OpenAI will perpetuate one of the largest thefts in history, 534 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:49,880 Speaker 1: looting the Internet and using it to train models that 535 00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:52,320 Speaker 1: have yet to prove their necessity. Other than there's a 536 00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:56,280 Speaker 1: symbol that Silicon Valley has still fucking got it, even 537 00:31:56,360 --> 00:32:01,160 Speaker 1: though it unquestionably doesn't when it comes to generative as yet, 538 00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:04,840 Speaker 1: because Altman, like every manager, is so thoroughly divorced from 539 00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:09,000 Speaker 1: natural production, he's only succeeded in generating unsustainable hype and 540 00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:12,440 Speaker 1: making vague promises that the people who do the actual 541 00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:16,840 Speaker 1: work at OpenAI likely know that they can't keep. And 542 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:21,160 Speaker 1: it's frustrating because, as I said before, bad guys keep winning. 543 00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,920 Speaker 1: There are people in Silicon Valley making real products. There 544 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,640 Speaker 1: are people out there who are doing good things, but 545 00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:31,560 Speaker 1: Silicon Valley will continue to suffer as long as we 546 00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:34,840 Speaker 1: entrust the future to management consultants and showmen who don't 547 00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:38,760 Speaker 1: build things. Just look at Humane, a company that raised 548 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,640 Speaker 1: hundreds of millions of dollars to make a voice activated 549 00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:45,360 Speaker 1: AI powered pin that the ultra popular YouTuber markus brownly 550 00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:49,400 Speaker 1: called the worst product he'd ever reviewed. One might wonder 551 00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,000 Speaker 1: how a company would willingly launch a seven hundred dollars 552 00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:55,600 Speaker 1: product that overheated within minutes of use and repeatedly failed 553 00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:59,320 Speaker 1: to answer basic queries. And the answer is actually really simple. 554 00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:04,520 Speaker 1: Was founded by Bethny Bonziano, a former management consultant at PwC, 555 00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:08,200 Speaker 1: and Imronchell Dori, a former director of design from Apple, 556 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,080 Speaker 1: that re firs to himself as an inventor and innovator 557 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:13,760 Speaker 1: that was fired in twenty seventeen for sending out an 558 00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:16,320 Speaker 1: email about his planned exit from the company that suggested 559 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:20,800 Speaker 1: that Apple could no longer innovate. Well, may look at 560 00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:23,440 Speaker 1: the humane pen. Do you think you innovated? Just to 561 00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:25,320 Speaker 1: be clear, if you haven't seen this thing, you should 562 00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:27,440 Speaker 1: really look it up. It's really funny. It clips on 563 00:33:27,640 --> 00:33:30,920 Speaker 1: and you are meant to use it to project a 564 00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:33,800 Speaker 1: laser thing onto your hand to make phone calls or 565 00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:36,120 Speaker 1: take photos. It's got a little camera in it. Here's 566 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:38,560 Speaker 1: the problem. It overheats after a few minutes because of 567 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:41,640 Speaker 1: the laser. And on top of that, the queries don't 568 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:44,600 Speaker 1: work after time. And when they do, who really cares? 569 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,040 Speaker 1: It's just chat GPT except seven hundred dollars worth a 570 00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:51,760 Speaker 1: twenty four dollars a month subscription. And this is what 571 00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,640 Speaker 1: happens when you're insulated from real people's problems, and when 572 00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:57,680 Speaker 1: you don't participate in the process that might actually solve them, 573 00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:03,400 Speaker 1: you become fundamentally disconnect from any real value creation. Silicon 574 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:07,640 Speaker 1: Valley is atrophying as a result of lazy, disconnected vcs 575 00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:12,480 Speaker 1: and power players elevating man like sam Altman and incumbents 576 00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:15,680 Speaker 1: helping career consultants dictate the actions of those who actually 577 00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:19,440 Speaker 1: build software and hardware. If the tech industry wants to 578 00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:22,520 Speaker 1: escape the public's eire, it should push back against this 579 00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:26,600 Speaker 1: managerial poison and talk to real people with real problems 580 00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:29,920 Speaker 1: and focus on solving those before creating yet another growth 581 00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:34,320 Speaker 1: centric bullshit machine. And as the value really wants to change, 582 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:38,360 Speaker 1: it needs to stop empowering those who have failed upwards 583 00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:41,760 Speaker 1: just because they say the right things. It feels good. 584 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,040 Speaker 1: I get it that we have a guy out there 585 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,560 Speaker 1: who's saying, yeah, I can help the value be worth money. 586 00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:51,680 Speaker 1: But as we speak, in vidios down ten percent by 587 00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:53,759 Speaker 1: the time this episode's out, I truly don't know where 588 00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:57,000 Speaker 1: it will be. But I'm worried. I'm worried that the 589 00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:00,320 Speaker 1: tech industry is going to start sputtering because every rues 590 00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:02,839 Speaker 1: put their eggs in the AI basket. But I do 591 00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:06,040 Speaker 1: have some hope. A lot of the startups I talked 592 00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:10,200 Speaker 1: to are only slightly touching generative AI. They don't seem 593 00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:13,680 Speaker 1: firmly embedded in it. Maybe this is just anecdotal, Maybe 594 00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:16,440 Speaker 1: I just know good people. I don't know, but my 595 00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:19,560 Speaker 1: thought here is the fact that the zero interest free 596 00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:22,160 Speaker 1: generation has kind of ended. That venture capitalists can't just 597 00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:26,800 Speaker 1: get hundreds of billions of dollars quite so easily. Means 598 00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:29,720 Speaker 1: that they're not so quick to invest in this stuff. 599 00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:33,600 Speaker 1: But I think are reckoning's coming, and I don't know 600 00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:35,759 Speaker 1: if it will be from people, but I think it's 601 00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:39,400 Speaker 1: going to be kind of a larger effect. It's going 602 00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:41,480 Speaker 1: to be one where you see that these products just 603 00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:43,960 Speaker 1: don't get adopted, like I mentioned in the AI episode, 604 00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:46,760 Speaker 1: and I think you're going to see these big, nasty, 605 00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:51,360 Speaker 1: overfunded consumer AI companies fall apart. But like I said before, 606 00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:54,440 Speaker 1: I'm afraid the open AI is going to start falling apart, 607 00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:57,920 Speaker 1: even if it is mostly part of Microsoft. I'm afraid 608 00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:00,040 Speaker 1: of the knock on effects on the stock market. And 609 00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:04,200 Speaker 1: I know, oh, stock market is only rich people play. No, 610 00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:07,360 Speaker 1: that's people's pensions as people like regular people do actually 611 00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:09,919 Speaker 1: invest in the stock market, and regular people watch Jim 612 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:12,360 Speaker 1: Kramer as he goes you need to invest in AI. 613 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,200 Speaker 1: That man does not know a goddamn thing. By the way, 614 00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:19,040 Speaker 1: a lot of people who've responded to my AI episode 615 00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:20,879 Speaker 1: have said, yeah, it's good that AI's fail. It's good 616 00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:23,880 Speaker 1: that the tech industry is falling apart, and it feels 617 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:26,120 Speaker 1: good to see bad people fail. But the thing I 618 00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:29,600 Speaker 1: need to caution you about is management consultants are also 619 00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:36,000 Speaker 1: really good at avoiding blame. Prabakar Ragavan he destroyed Yahoo, 620 00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:38,239 Speaker 1: or at least watched it happen, and he's now the 621 00:36:38,239 --> 00:36:40,800 Speaker 1: head of Google Search and he's destroying that too. Sam 622 00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:44,640 Speaker 1: Altman has messed up so many times, and yet here 623 00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:47,160 Speaker 1: he is. He's the king of Open AI. He gets 624 00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:49,880 Speaker 1: these glossy stories. He can be interviewed by anyone anywhere. 625 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:52,759 Speaker 1: These people keep winning, but you want to know how 626 00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:58,160 Speaker 1: they get defeated Sunlight talk about them, Talk about Adam Maseri, 627 00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:02,120 Speaker 1: talk about Sam Mortman. These stories to your friends, say 628 00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:05,800 Speaker 1: the name Propacar Ragavan. As much as you can blame 629 00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:08,719 Speaker 1: these people for their actions, I can't say it will 630 00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:12,719 Speaker 1: change much. But at least the wider society will know 631 00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:17,360 Speaker 1: who to blame for destroying the Internet. Thank you for listening. 632 00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:30,200 Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Better Offline. The editor and 633 00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:33,400 Speaker 1: composer of the Better Offline theme song is Matasowski. You 634 00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:35,680 Speaker 1: can check out more of his music and audio projects 635 00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:39,319 Speaker 1: at Matasowski dot com. M A t t O. S 636 00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:43,480 Speaker 1: O w Ski dot com. You can email me at 637 00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:46,000 Speaker 1: easy at better offline dot com or check out better 638 00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:48,479 Speaker 1: Offline dot com to find my newsletter and more links 639 00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:52,120 Speaker 1: to this podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Better 640 00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:54,759 Speaker 1: Offline is a production of cool Zone Media. For more 641 00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,680 Speaker 1: from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool Zonemedia dot com, 642 00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:00,680 Speaker 1: or check us out on the I or radio app, 643 00:38:00,760 --> 00:38:03,200 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.