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“One of the huge challenges particularly amongst large groups is that when you’re talking about an idea, often the thing that is easiest to talk about—that is measurable, that’s tangible—are the problems,”
The most important part is to be able to communicate emotions. That is the key to what we do,” Lucas said. “Digital technology is a tool. Whatever you do, it’s going to get abused. Sound was abused, color was abused, everything gets abused. But that’s just the nature of human nature: When you get a new toy, you want to use it until it breaks, and then you start to calm down.”
Iger kept at it. In a joint interview I later did at a Vanity Fair event with him and Andreessen—the software cannibal—Iger never pretended the threat was not there, which made him unique among old media execs. “You have no real ability to ward [disruption] off or to avoid it,” Iger said. “Except by embracing it in some form and using it for the good, or your own good. And so, I just really believe that when it comes to changes that technology is bringing in our businesses, or in storytelling, for instance, bring it in and use it to your advantage. It’s that simple.”
“Basically, through a really harsh approach, he established two hundred years of world peace,” Zuckerberg explained to writer Evan Osnos. “What are the trade-offs in that? On the one hand, world peace is a long-term goal that people talk about today. Two hundred years feels unattainable.” That was the CliffsNotes version of Pax Romana, with only a glancing acknowledgment of the price of that peace, including subjugation, colonization, and so, so much death. Zuckerberg seemed to grok the downsides, noting the era “didn’t come for free.” He even admitted that Augustus had to “do certain things”
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A truism began to form in my brain about the lack of women and people of color in the leadership ranks of tech: The innovators and executives ignored issues of safety not because they were necessarily awful, but because they had never felt unsafe a day in their lives.
And settling is what I had started to feel was happening at All Things Digital. Walt and I were still operating awkwardly inside Dow Jones, where we’d been given stability but not the opportunity to grow, as well as complete operating autonomy and editorial independence by contract. Others in the company resented the freedom we had. Typical of a newsroom, they crapped all over us trying new things while they stayed in line for whatever advantage they thought standing still gave them.
Mostly, we wanted to move on from a soured relationship with Dow Jones. Still, they had that right of first refusal so, a week later, we met with Thomson, Baker, and some other execs. To signal our lack of interest, we pushed them off until late in the day, which is the dating equivalent of “I’ll meet you for coffee.”
I am not someone who apologizes a lot, and I try to behave so I don’t have to.
