Podcasts, Public Platforms & Responsibility
Listened to a Lex Fridman and Sam Harris Podcast Episode and Had Some Reckons.
Talofa reader,
I’m taking the Easter weekend holidays into consideration for this weeks late newsletter edition 😁🙏🏽.
This week, there's been more AI-related content in the reading list. Contrary to previous newsletters, I don't aim to make these reads too long. A week is not enough time to really dive deep into any one thing - I actually named this section in my template "Top of Mind" to be just whatever stood out to me - an idea, a quote, a thought - that I wanted to sit down and write out and think on a bit more deeply, and maybe look up a few readings. As it turns out, that's how these things blow out and turn into essays.
This week, I've had one "Top of Mind" thought strong enough to lead me to blurt out a blog post to capture my thoughts on it as they came to me on the treadmill.
The Setup
Lex Fridman has Sam Harris on his podcast, and they're talking about a range of topics from Trump, to Elon, the pandemic, AI and everything in between. They talk about Lex having Kanye on his podcast and Sam thinks it was a mistake to do so, given it put anti-semitism on a platform and added nothing meaningful to the discourse on the subject. Because of course, Kanye no authority on the topic and he's been kicking off about a bunch of things and doesn't seem stable. So why stick a mic in his face and let him go off about the Jews? Lex believes, at the time, that organising and publishing a conversation with Kanye and letting him kick off about Jews, would not increase violence against Jews (Sam mentions people who play the "knockout" game where they go around punching Orthodox Jews) but instead decrease it, because of how he (Lex) conducted the interview, showing empathy towards Kanye and his ideas.
The Issue
I guess looking at the setup, I could take issue with a bunch of things to talk about on all the topics discussed during the podcast i.e. the pandemic, Trump, Elon, and AI, but topics are hard, and they change, and can be subjective, so none of them really stuck out to me. But the thing that really did stand out to me was the attitude towards the task of, and dare I say “responsibility”, of public discourse on controversial topics or any topic really. It’s not about “we shouldn’t be talking about certain things” it's about how people arrive at "this is okay that I'm going to do this, like this, in this context" than it is what the topic is. I think we should be able to discuss anything, but I do not think we're all qualified or capable of having any conversation we want with any audience or any scale and manage any potential fallouts.
I thought Lex's reasoning that he can put that conversation with Kanye out on a massive platform because the "power of love" philosophy will win out was naive at best (I do believe Lex is a good guy and means well), problematic at worst, and overall, irresponsible.
Again, public discourse, talking about hard topics, all good. Who should be doing it, and why? That's my issue.
The Factor
I think most people would understand that human behavior is different in different contexts. As the scope gets bigger, and the context changes, you have more variables to manage. People behave differently under observation than they would if they think no one is watching i.e. the observer effect.
When it comes to human-to-human communication, for example, you wouldn't talk the same way, even use the same terms, slang, or vocabulary in front of your family and close friends compared to your workmates, and then again to an audience of strangers (such as at a talk or conference). At least not if your goal is for everyone who hears you to understand your position. To achieve that, you would need to craft your message, its tone, language or vocabulary used, terminology and supporting explanations and examples for clarity. Even then, you're not going to achieve 100% of the audience of your message to fully understand what you're trying to say - not necessarily agree with, but at least understand.
Yes, you can't cater to everyone, and the ideas of "you can't please everyone" and acknowledging that communication is hard are important. But it's the hubris or recklessness of just having a swing at this, at scale, without (seemingly) enough humility to allow "leave it alone" on the table as an option for you to take. The humility to consider that you're not sufficiently qualified to conduct this public conversation with a reasonable level of confidence that it results in a net positive outcome for all involved.
Sidenote: During the episode Lex talks about how the experts during the pandemic were horrible communicators, and this is probably true, but failed to acknowledge what makes communicating at that scale, with all those variables, hard. Then doesn’t seem to apply much rigour, in reflecting on Sam’s criticism of his broadcasting his Kanye interview.
Public Responsibility
When does the size of someone's audience, or their reach, start determining the level of responsibility they have to take with how they conduct themselves? I had this conversation with my brother just the other night because sometimes it's good to have these discussions with other human beings and not just yourself at 10pm at night while writing a newsletter. He's a tattoo artist and business owner, so he gives me a different perspective from the tech folks I'm usually surrounded by.
Responsibility is a funny concept, in my experience, because it usually depends on what it costs the person who has to weigh it up. Staying with the Lex Fridman podcast, does he have a responsibility to himself to do what makes him happy? Or is it to his audience to do what keeps them entertained and engaged? Or ultimately does he have a responsibility to society at large to do what's, on balance, the best for everyone? I would argue that the weight of this responsibility would shift as he scales up. Does the money and notoriety mean a shift in values? A "reimagining" of what integrity means /s? Does the overall good of humanity end up weighing heaviest, and Lex stays in his Machine Learning, MIT lecturer lane? I'm not saying he's any of these things, or needs to do anything I'm saying here. The thought exercise is in how scale influences values and motivations, for anyone.
A great philosopher once said, "If a person says that money doesn't change you, it's because they haven't made enough" - and 50 Cent was right. Scale matters. People will act the absolute fool with and for the right sized audience.
Maybe we don't know unless we get out there and have these conversations and figure out, "Oh, maybe I didn't achieve the best outcome here, and I should leave it for someone who can." Or maybe we don't think that's our responsibility, and society is going to be what it will be, and we should just live our best lives and speak our truth1.
The Outcome
Ultimately, I'm not about telling people what they should or shouldn't do (had enough of that in my Christian upbringing). I believe in best intentions and best efforts, mantras like "don't be a dick", "be kind," and "treat others how you want to be treated." But I also believe in a bit of humility, that we're not always best suited to the things we want to do, that we would do them anyway not because they end up being the greater good, but because we're selfish people sometimes, and it's what we want for ourselves. We're not perfect; we're human.
Thanks for reading. I'll see you in the next episode.
Learning
Things I’m actively studying or learning this week…
Studying for the ‘AWS Certified Security - Speciality’ certificate - going slowly… EC2 Instance Metadata.
Building
Things I’m building or working on this week…
Revisited my AWS YouTube Analyzing project to progress it a bit more with Step Functions.
S3 Archive Solution with Lifecycle Policies, using CDK and golang- Random project cos I wanted to learn more CDK.I’m creating a Cyber Security CTF for a High School after school programme that my charity ‘Pasifika Tech Education Charity‘ runs during the school term. -Completed this, trying it out this week.
Interesting Reads
Articles or other writing that stood out to me this week…
The Causes of Unreliable Software by Abi Noda — this was a great read and a topic for future newsletter i.e. the organisations effect on the tech outcomes and application.
Community
Other projects in community I’m working on…
Pasifika Tech Education Charity - Providing Tech Learning Opportunities for the Pasifika Community.
Pasifika Tech Network - A Network for Pasifika Tech Professionals & Learners.
The topic of being your "authentic self" we can park for another time.