WEBVTT - 2021 and Activision Blizzard's No Good, Very Bad Year 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.680 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.360 job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:19.600 Radio and I love all things tech and we are 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:25.319 continuing our top tech news stories of closing out the year. 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:27.480 What a year it was. And one thing I feel 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:29.760 I should mention right off the top of this episode 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:34.400 which I forgot about. Well, yesterday's episode went up. You know, 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.320 all that ranting about Meta and Facebook, I forgot to 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:42.159 mention the company has been voted the quote worst company 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.760 of the year end quote. Now. That's according to Yahoo Finance, 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.480 which selects a company for this dubious honor each year 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.159 using metrics like market performance and achievements, and mostly polling 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.160 people to find out which company upset them the most 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.960 over the course of the previous twelve months. This year, 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:03.040 that was met h slash Facebook, though notably the investment 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.200 service Robin Hood, which we will talk more about in 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:10.120 just a few minutes, was also a contender. Last year 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:14.360 it was the Nicola Motor Company. So you know Nicola 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:20.080 Tesla being this very instrumental engineer in the field of electricity. 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.119 Of course, the Tesla motor company takes its name from him, 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.840 and so does the Nicola Motor Company that's an electric 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.800 truck company. It also got some votes this year, but 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:32.840 it won if you can call it that worst company 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:35.600 of the year last year at corn Yahoo Finance. Anyway, 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:38.760 this isn't like a scientific examination of which company is 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.319 in fact the worst. I mean, it's a pole. There's 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:43.160 not even that many people who respond to it from 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.759 what I can tell. Uh. And also meta slash Facebook 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:48.840 was in the news a lot towards the end of 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.160 this year, so most of that news was not positive 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.400 at all. It's not a big surprise. I should also 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.160 point out that TikTok and Twitter both end up on 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.200 a lot of hated company lists. Not necessarily the yeah 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.240 who finance one, but lots of companies or lots of 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:07.320 outlets will organize lists like this, and TikTok and Twitter 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:12.480 and Facebook are frequently in that mix. All right. In 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.639 our last episode we ended with my rant about n 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:17.560 f t s, there was a lot of ranting. Uh 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:21.200 spoiler alert, there'll be more ranting in this episode. Well, 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:23.040 since we talked about n f t S in the 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.760 last episode, I suppose we should also talk about cryptocurrency. 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:28.919 While we're on the subject of block chains and such, 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:33.120 crypto had another roller coaster of a year, with bitcoin 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:38.239 prices climbing rapidly and steadily into early spring, reaching around 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:42.799 sixty thou dollars per bitcoin. Then there was a big 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:46.480 crash in May, with the value dropping by are you know, 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.600 around fifty or so. Then there was a recovery period. 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.120 It got back as high as sixty three thou dollars 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.720 per bitcoin in November. Uh, as I record this, it's 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:01.400 closer to around fifty thou dollars per bitcoin, but that's 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.680 as I record this. By the time you hear this, 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.960 who knows. But bitcoin continues to be a volatile investment, 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:10.760 and I still wouldn't call it a currency because the 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:14.680 value fluctuates so dramatically that it's hard to imagine using 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:18.520 it as a practical currency. It's far more likely to 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.600 be used as either a way to invest money and 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.240 hope that the value of the bitcoin continues to grow, or, 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:27.400 as we've seen in the recent past, to use it 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:30.480 as a means to launder ill gotten gains and hide 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.440 the fact that you've been on Santa's naughty list. This year, 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.640 we've seen proof of work cryptocurrencies take a bit of 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.880 a beating on another pr front this year, one that 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:45.360 revolves around conservation and climate change. It's no secret that 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:51.200 proof of work currencies, particularly bitcoin mining, require massive amounts 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:54.600 of electricity. This is tied into the value of the 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:59.880 currency itself. If it is hugely profitable to mine the cryptocurrency, 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:04.320 well then you'll find people and organizations who will pour 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:09.160 a ton of money into building out mining operations. And 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.520 of course, these these operations that they're using powerful computers 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.440 to play a complicated guessing games. What it really boils 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.599 down to, But one thing that's not a guess is 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:22.520 the amount of electricity that these machines need. It's a lot. 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.760 So much, in fact, that it's not unusual for bitcoin 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.440 mining operations to purchase or at least facilities that are 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.839 co located to power plants, including coal fired power plants, 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.800 including ones that are no longer online, and then bringing 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:41.560 them back online. This has brought more focus on bitcoin 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.839 mining and its impact on consumption and climate change. China 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:49.839 has shut down bitcoin mining operations in several regions, citing 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:54.200 concerns over the potential environmental impact of bitcoin mining. However, 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.599 I think I should add that I suspect China's government 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.800 also has a healthy concern for any ind tree that 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.120 could potentially acquire enough power to rival the government itself, 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.560 and we're seeing some governments around the world at the 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:11.880 country or the local level consider or even enact bands 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.640 on operations that would require bringing defunct fossil fuel power 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.800 plants back online. So we have seen some opposition in 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:25.880 various places. Ethereum is currently also a proof of work cryptocurrency. Uh. 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.600 It does also have a much lower value than bitcoin, 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.560 so you don't see the same massive ethereum mining operations 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.080 because the the profits aren't there. It would cost you 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.839 more to run the operation than you would make in 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:43.560 mind cryptocurrency. So for that reason, mining rigs for ethereum 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.040 are a little more modest than the ones that are 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.680 used by bitcoin miners. That's more than a little bit 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.680 of an understatement. So it's the ethereum miners who frequently 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.560 go after graphics processors for their rigs, which of course 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:58.520 makes it even harder for gamers to get hold of 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:00.680 a good GPU at a decent price. You've got the 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:05.200 semiconductor shortage, you've got bots buying up cards and then 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.760 trying to sell them for marked up prices on secondary markets, 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.560 and you've got Ethereum miners who are after those same cards, 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:17.279 but for the purposes of mining cryptocurrency. However, Ethereum is 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.680 supposed to switch to a proof of steak approach next year, 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:24.640 which has a much lower computation requirement, so we'll see 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.880 if that actually changes things. But yeah, was a year 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:33.520 in which crypto sword to new heights, then plummeted, then 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.520 rose again, then plummeted again. You get the idea, and 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.120 a lot of this was fueled by a passionate and 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:45.080 frankly kind of scary community in places like Reddit. Oh 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:47.800 and also Elon Musk played a part in it too. 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.600 I'm gonna save a lot of my Elon Musk fire 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.800 for the third episode in this series. I think I 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:58.400 also received a request recently on Twitter to do a 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.800 full episode about Web three, and I'm still planning to 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.760 do that, but I should talk about the emerging discussions 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.440 of Web three, which is usually spelled out altogether, so 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:12.440 it's w e B, the number three no spaces that 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:16.560 ended up becoming a pretty big thing this year, particularly 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.400 on Twitter. There were some Twitter spats about Web three. 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.480 There are also some parallels here between Web three and 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:26.320 the metaverse, because they're both kind of this concept of 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:28.880 what the next phase of the Internet, or at least 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.760 internetwork connectivity are all going to be about. And like 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:37.720 the metaverse, the definitions here get pretty lucy goosey because 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:40.560 it doesn't exist yet, so it's kind of hard to 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.560 talk about what it is because there isn't anything at 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.720 the moment, and different people have sort of a different 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.080 concept of what it will be if it ever does 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:53.160 become a thing. But generally speaking, the concept of Web three, 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:55.200 at least the one that most people are referring to, 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:59.280 is one that uses blockchain as a backbone. And you 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:06.160 might say, okay, how and uh uh hey, look over there, 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:10.040 it's something shiny, okay, so well, the concept is that 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:13.240 Web three will leverage blockchain in such a way that 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.120 ideally the power of the Internet will be distributed to 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.640 those who are using the Internet. In other words, it's 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.440 kind of like putting the Internet's ownership into the hands 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:26.920 of the people. That's in contrast with how Web the 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:31.400 three enthusiasts see the Internet today, because they see the 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.400 Internet today as an entity that is heavily dependent upon 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:39.240 a few major companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta and 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.920 you know, like we'll talk about stuff like the Amazon 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.160 Web Services outage that shows that a lot of what 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:49.679 we depend upon in connectivity does route through Amazon in 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.760 some way. So this general notion is that Web three 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.760 projects are are similar to cryptocurrencies and n f t s. 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:59.640 There's some form of implementation that relies on the blockchain 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.040 to keep track of transactions, though what those transactions actually 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:08.920 are varies dramatically from implementation to implementation. However, once you 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:12.360 get past that kind of vague description, things really start 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.160 to break down. I have yet to see a compelling 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:20.320 case explaining how blockchain will enable a new version of 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.120 the Internet, or even of just the Web, because remember 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.440 the Web and the Internet or two different things. The 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:29.720 Web exists on top of the Internet. So I haven't 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:33.520 really seen a compelling case for this distributed ownership model. 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:35.560 And there are a lot of folks who are expressing 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:39.040 skepticism about the idea in general, including people who say 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:41.679 that if Web three does become a thing, it will 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.840 be a thing that is controlled by venture capitalists rather 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.320 than big companies. But it still means that the hoi poloi, 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.360 meaning folks like you or me will still be left 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:55.720 out of the loop. Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.560 made this point on Twitter, saying, Hey, you know, the 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.160 people who will own Web three will be venture capitalists, 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:07.800 not the people in general, and those making Web three 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:12.800 applications will be doing so with their investors in mind. 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.920 So it'll be the venture capitalists who are essentially directing 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:21.200 how Web three evolves, again without really going into details 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.960 about what Web three is going to look like. And anyway, 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:28.920 that whole criticism is not making Web three evangelists very happy. 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.440 So I'm gonna save a deeper conversation about this topic 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:35.760 for a full episode further down the line, because honestly, 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.880 it would take me hours of research to really dive 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:42.040 into it and separate the buzz terms from anything with 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.200 you know, actual substance to it, Because every time I 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.280 read anything about Web three, I feel like I'm reading 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:52.920 ad copy for a product that doesn't exist yet, and 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.680 that's not really useful. But since we're talking about tech 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.640 and money, let's chat about something that unfolded early this 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.080 year that involved both, and it all has to do 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:06.000 with Game Stop and stock prices. Alright, So game Stop 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.360 is a video game retail company. They sell video games 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.880 and video game systems. Early in two thousand twenty one, 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.840 there was a move to short sell Game Stop stock 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:22.000 among certain hedge funds. So a short sell is when 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.320 you borrow a bunch of shares of a company from 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:30.000 another stockholder. You don't known these shares, you're borrowing them, 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.480 and you're promising that you will return that same number 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.520 of shares to the stockholder at some agreed upon time. 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:42.600 Then you take the shares you borrowed and you sell them. 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:44.679 You know, the ones that you do not own. You 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:47.600 sell them and you take the money, and your goal 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.000 is to buy back the shares you just sold, but 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.160 at a lower price, and you pocket the difference. So 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:56.320 what you're hoping for is for the stock price to 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.560 come down. You're hoping that a company hits hard time 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.199 send their stock price reflects that. So you might sell 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.200 a bunch of shares at around twenty dollars a pop, 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.199 and then your plan is to buy back those shares 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.440 when they reach five dollars a pop, and you pocket 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.440 the fifteen dollars difference per per share. More or less, 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:18.319 it gets a little more complicated than that, but that's 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.040 the basic idea, and then you return the shares to 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:25.080 the stockholder, you keep what's left over. Everyone's happy, while 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:27.800 the stockholder is probably not happy because their shares are 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:30.160 worth less now, but hopefully they're in it for the 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:34.800 long term because they believe in the company or some nonsense. Now, 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:39.280 if the price of the stock goes up instead of down, well, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.480 you then have to spend more money to purchase the 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.440 shares back then you made when you sold the shares 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:47.920 in the first place, because you still have the obligation 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:52.720 to return those shares to the original holder, like you 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:55.600 can't just walk away. So then you get a bunch 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:59.080 of folks online who decided to do something called a 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:02.520 short squeeze. Is on some hedge funds that we're planning 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:06.800 to short sell the game Stop stock. So what these 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.200 folks did was they just started buying up shares of 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:14.520 game Stop, like lots of shares, and that activity drove 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:17.080 up the stock price because there was a demand for 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.319 game Stop stock, so the price went up. Demand is high, 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.720 price increases, and that meant that these hedge funds were 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:27.720 suddenly faced with the very real possibility of having to 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.640 pay more money to buy back those shares that they 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.920 had borrowed than they had on hand to cover the 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.440 short cells. And it was a kind of activism mixed 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:41.000 with speculation because as the price was going up, it 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.120 also meant that the stock that people were holding was 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:48.280 growing in value, that the stuff they owned was actually 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.200 getting more valuable, and their wealth was increasing. In fact, 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:56.720 it was increasing significantly. And you might wonder how significantly well. 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:59.960 The stock price had been at around seventeen dollars per 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.959 share before the squeeze really got moving. At the height, 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.920 it was closer to five hundred dollars per share. So 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:10.520 imagine you bought something for seventeen bucks and then you 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.600 could sell it for five hundred bucks. So there were 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:15.240 a lot of people who are jumping on board this 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.959 not because they were trying to push against hedge funds, 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:22.360 not because they were like trying to take down the 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:27.640 the These these groups that were, you know, boasting memberships 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:30.200 of incredibly wealthy people, and to stick it to the man, 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:33.000 they were joining because they saw this as a way 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:35.040 to get rich quick. So there was a mixture of 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.400 both of these kinds of people. Now, this peak wasn't 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:40.840 to last. It did settle down a bit. But even 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.800 as I record. This the stock prices valued at around 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.920 a hundred fifty dollars per share, so not quite ten 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.480 times what it was valued at before the squeeze. This 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.520 also did force a few hedge funds to shut down, 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.400 and it also brought to lights and disparities in the 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:02.240 individual investor world. So the investment service robin Hood that 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.600 I mentioned earlier, it made headlines because it began to 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:10.840 deny robin Hood users the opportunity to purchase game Stop stock. 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.440 Like that's what robin Hood exists for, is for the 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.480 individual person to participate in the stock market. Because the 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:22.720 individual typically if they have any involvement in the stock 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:24.760 market at all, it's because they happen to have something 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.680 like a four oh one K plan where some fund 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:32.720 manager is deciding, you know, what moneys go to what stocks. 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:35.840 This is a case where the individual person can say, no, 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.920 I want to buy fifty shares of game Stop stock 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.280 for example. Well, robin Hood's stopped that. They stopped letting 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.520 people do that on their service, and they cited a 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:51.600 desire to not contribute to an unstable market environment, which 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.480 is pretty rich when you consider robin Hood's namesake, right, 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:59.040 I mean, like the Robin Hood, the legendary figure, was 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:03.960 all about creating an unstable market environment. Anyway. This prompted 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:08.040 folks to draw connections between Robin Hood and people who 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.760 were involved in hedge funds who had participated in the 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.040 short selling, and some people started claiming that Robin Hood 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.720 was trying to mitigate the effects of the short squeeze 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:23.720 because they had financial interests in those, you know, folks 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:25.920 that were higher up in the food chain of various 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.160 hedge funds. In other words, they were saying, you're not 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:32.200 really for the people, you're for other big companies. The 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.640 whole game stop saga prompted a lot of folks to 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:37.880 get into individual investors stuff when they had never really 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:41.560 dipped their toes into it before, and several sub credits 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:45.360 saw their ranks swell due to this interest, and a 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.360 lot of folks came out at the subject from all 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.200 different angles, a lot of them uninformed angles. You could 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:55.920 almost taste the frustration of the more seasoned investors in 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.960 those groups as folks totally new to the field began 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.840 delving out their expert advice. You know, people who had 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.760 been investing for all of like two weeks were suddenly 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.560 experts anyway. In many respects, this whole thing was part 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.400 of a larger, more vague trend of people finding ways 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:16.399 to push back against big corporate and financial entities. And 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.080 we'll talk about that more after we come back from 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:32.040 this quick break. So another kind of expression of this 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.520 anti corporate sentiment, and I don't mean that in a 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:41.080 bad way. I mean this, this feeling of I've taken 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:44.199 all I can take and I won't take anymore. Was 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:49.720 this general trend of workers organizing and unionizing. Here in 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:53.199 the United States, we're seeing support for the concept of 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:57.720 unions grow, but the pandemic really pushed folks to move 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:02.360 at a faster rate. Workers get to demand more from employers, 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:07.160 and uh employers began complaining about stuff like labor shortages. 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.119 They were saying, we can't we don't have enough people 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:11.199 to do the work we need to do, and the 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:15.639 workers were saying, well, there's no surprise there, you know, 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.879 look at the compensation you're offering people, look at the 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:22.760 working conditions that people have to endure. It's no wonder 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:26.800 that you aren't able to attract and retain employees. You've 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:31.200 got to offer more to them. And companies were like yeah, 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.720 that doesn't sound right. And then workers at lots of 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:40.360 places said, okay, well, we're all going to band together 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:42.719 and create a union so that we have the leverage 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:46.600 to force you into negotiations for better conditions or else 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:48.360 you don't have anyone to do your work for you, 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.879 and where will that put you. So we saw unions 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:57.280 go on strike at Freedo, Lay, at Kellogg's, John Dear, Nabisco, 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.600 and more. And while John Dear is the only company 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:03.280 in that short list I gave that is most related 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:05.240 to tech, at least as the way we think of it. 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.960 I mean, all of these companies rely on tech obviously, 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.520 but John Deere is a company that makes technological products. 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.080 But the sentiment spread much further than just those companies. 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:20.320 Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama rallied to unionize, 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.320 and they held a vote on the matter, but that 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.560 vote famously failed. In fact, it failed it like a 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:31.160 two to one ratio. However, in the process of that, 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:35.439 workers were alleging that Amazon had engaged in anti union 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:39.639 practices and was actively trying to discourage employees from supporting 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:42.960 a union. This was enough to prompt the US Labor 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:46.800 Board to order a revote, which has not yet happened, 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:50.119 but should in the not too distant future. On a 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:54.200 similar note, Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York, 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:59.400 filed a union petition earlier in then withdrew the petition, 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.360 and and this month chose to refile that petition. They 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:06.320 also staged a walk out during the holiday rush, placing 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:10.399 enormous pressure on Amazon to respond before customers started losing 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:13.600 their ding dang minds that their Christmas presents We're gonna 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:18.720 arrive late. The message is clear. Workers around the US 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:22.560 are starting to demand better working conditions and better compensation. 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.920 Many of the industries involved are ones that required people 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:30.120 to come into situations that are dangerous even when there 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:35.840 isn't a pandemic going on. Amazon fulfillment centers are notoriously hazardous, 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.840 for example. And we've also seen these kind of movements 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:45.359 among hospital staff as hospitals get consistently overwhelmed and the 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:50.679 staff are demanding better conditions because they're under extreme circumstances 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:54.520 for an extended period of time due to lots of 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.320 other factors that go well beyond the scope of this podcast. 0:20:57.359 --> 0:21:00.320 So don't worry. I'm not gonna rant about all that 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:05.000 generally speaking, unionization has been on the decline in the 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.840 United States until fairly recently, but we're seeing the movement 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:12.560 spread across multiple industries, including the tech world. In fact, 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:15.119 will tackle a really notable case in just a moment. 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.800 But uh, I should also add for full transparency that 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:23.120 the I Heart Media podcasters also submitted a petition to unionize, 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:28.320 which passed a vote the podcasters past that now that 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:32.200 process is still ongoing, and considering my position, I can't 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:35.399 really comment on it any further than that, but I 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:37.640 wanted to at least acknowledge that it is a thing 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:42.600 that is happening. All right. Now, let's tackle another really 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:46.760 big story in tech that unfolded throughout twenty one, the 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:50.520 story of Activision Blizzard. Now, this is such a big 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:55.080 and nasty story that's gonna take up essentially a third 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:57.600 of this whole episode, and it plays into a lot 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:00.200 of other trends in tech that we saw over the year, 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:03.480 such as the continuation of the Me too movement as 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.000 a movement in which people are coming forward with allegations 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:09.600 of like hostile work environments and sexual harassment and worse. 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:13.560 And it also ties into the labor organizing movement that 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:18.320 I touched on just a second ago. So let's dial back, 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:22.040 and let's go back to July twenty one. That's the 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.720 date when the world at large got a glimpse into 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:28.959 what the heck was happening over an Activision Blizzard. That 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:32.440 was when the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:38.320 or d f e H, filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:41.400 the video game company. So, in case you're not familiar 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:45.679 with Activision Blizzard, it is a truly enormous company that 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:49.720 has its roots way back in the Atari days. Activision 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:53.919 originally formed with a group of Atari programmers left Atari 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:57.520 and found their own game company. The company is known 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:01.760 for a lot of ultra popular titles like Call of Duty, 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:07.840 World of Warcraft, Diablo Overwatch, and dozens of others. Well, 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:11.800 the lawsuit had some really ugly accusations in it, which 0:23:11.880 --> 0:23:14.960 have been expanded upon quite a bit since then. They 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:20.720 included instances of discrimination, sexual harassment, hostile work environments, sexual 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:24.840 assault in some cases, and more. There are also charges 0:23:24.920 --> 0:23:28.320 that the company had very few women in leadership positions 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:33.840 and many women were subjected to unwanted advances from male coworkers. Further, 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:37.720 the accusations said that the company's HR department had categorically 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:42.440 failed to respond to complaints, furthering the idea that the 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:46.600 company's HR department isn't really there to protect employees, it's 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:50.000 there to protect the company. And that's a narrative that 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:53.640 I wish I could say is unrealistic, but based upon 0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:55.960 a lot of similar stories in the business world in 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:59.879 general and the tech world in particular, that's a hard 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:06.119 narrative to refute. The complaints specifically called out Alex Afrasiab, 0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:10.399 who had previously led the World of Warcraft creative department, 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:15.280 stating that Afrasiab had engaged in quote blatant sexual harassment 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:19.239 with little to no repercussions end quote. Now by that 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:22.960 point he had already left the company, but this was 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:26.720 sort of the reckoning of of his actions, and the 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:30.360 next day, on Tuesday, July one, the press ran stories 0:24:30.400 --> 0:24:34.680 about this lawsuit. Activision. Blizzard Reps kind of went into 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:38.080