rant · moment 4 of 10
Thomas Friedman's Word-Salad Genius
from I Love Cons · #27
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
10 minTim and Ray dissect clips of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, mocking his empty buzzword-laden speeches (AI into IA, the world going from 'connected' to 'hyperconnected' to 'interdependent'), his massive Wembley-style paid talks, his claim that dairy farm kids need computer science degrees, and his self-mythologizing about how 'politics worked' in his childhood.
- 19:08Tim thought Thomas Friedman was a crank, but admits he used to quote him.
- 19:35Started watching Friedman's speeches because he doesn't understand how this guy works—does an hour while others do two.
- 20:25Friedman gets to talk everywhere and Washington loves what he writes, yet he's on every side of every issue saying nothing real.
- 20:46Friedman speaks in weird riddles, like 'globalization is a process that occurs when two parties get together and love each other.'
- 21:09Tim watched Friedman clips last night and couldn't figure out if he knows he's just stringing together words.
- 21:53Friedman's realized his talent because he's not saying anything—plays UN speech where he discusses AI replacing cow milk.
- 24:21Friedman admits on stage that if he'd been more honest, his book wouldn't have sold 4.5 million copies in 42 languages.
- 25:16Friedman reads from 2004's World is Flat index to note what didn't exist: Facebook, Twitter, the cloud, 4G, LinkedIn, Big Data, Hadoop, Skype.
- 26:39Tim read Friedman's Longitudes and Attitudes right after 9/11 when he was high and thought it was great.
- 28:18Tim suspects Friedman might be a con artist—a guy with a ten-thousand-square-foot mansion who says absolutely nothing but sounds profound.
Thomas FriedmanRay KurzweilDexter FilkinsMySpaceBarack Obama