Secrets and Lies

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I would say I read widely and I play with a lot of ideas, most of which don't come to fruition. Most of our intellectual products are failures. But we live in a world where it's possible to throw these failures at a far, far more rapid rate at other people. And so I found that to be an extremely useful way of thinking through things or playing with initial ideas. So kind of combinatorial iteration.

The one concept most valuable for understanding the news today might be Henry Farrell’s theory of weaponized interdependence. Whether it’s China’s influence over the NBA, the US ban of Huawei, or whether social media should be regulated on a global scale, Henry Farrell has played a key role articulating how global economic networks can enable state coercion.

Tyler and Henry discuss these issues and more, including what a big tech breakup would mean for security and privacy, why political economics suggests Facebook’s Oversight Board won’t work, what Italy might reveal about China’s future, his family connection to Joyce, his undying affection for My Bloody Valentine, why Philip K. Dick would have reveled in QAnon, why Twitter seems left-wing, and being a first generation academic blogger.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded October 7th, 2019 Other ways to connect

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