Big tech CEOs are learning the art of the filibuster
1Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/interface/2020/1/24/21078749/sundar-pichai-interview-fortune-filibuster-competition-antitrust
Reported today in The Verge.
Big tech CEOs are learning the art of the filibuster
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You maniacs sold out our second-ever Interface live event, with Uncanny Valley author Anna Wiener, in record time. Thanks to everyone who bought a ticket, and we'll look into finding a bigger venue for the next one. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing a good number of you on February 4th!
The basic idea behind journalism is that there are things people don't know that they should know, and that someone ought to go find the people who do know about the things and ask them. Most of the time when a journalist interviews someone, they learn something useful, and then report it all back to us so we can have a shared understanding of reality and make better decisions about how to live.
Historically, a person that lots of journalists have wanted to talk to is the big tech CEO. As companies like Amazon and Apple grew in power, getting the chance to sit down with a Jeff Bezos or a Tim Cook became wildly appealing. Here were people who knew about many, many things - things that affected almost all of us - and could tell us about them with a candor that their employees typically will not permit themselves.
And yet when you think of what you have learned from reading the thoughts of tech CEOs over the past few years - well, what have you learned? If you hang around the darker, more thought-leader-y corners of Medium, it's possible you'll have gleaned a few insights into customer acquisition or recruiting. But if what you're after is a CEO's worldview - or even just a moderately unvarnished look into their decision-making process - you typically come up empty.
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