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Since he adopted Wikipedia as his main memory source, Matt forgets most of the things he learns within 24. What exactly can he remember from the ride in a washing machine that was 2018?

Show Notes:

We’re coming to the end of another year, and it’s a tradition with MSP that we find out what Matt has learned over the last 12 months. One of the reasons we ask this, is that the list of things he has learned is usually a lot shorter than the ones he has learned.

What have you learned this year?
•The first thing I learned is that no one over the age of 25 should play futsal unless they have an ambulance on-call and very very good medical insurance.
•The second thing I learned is that no one batted an eyelid when Richard and I played on-air badminton.
oWhich suggests that they either have the people at home have a high level of trust that I will eventually make a the point, or that no one is listening.

I had no idea that you and Rich played badminton, so I guess no one was listening.
•Always there with a kind word.
•And it’s kind words where I want to begin and end with this.
•As usual, I’m going to spread this out over two episodes. So if all goes to plan we’ll go full circle from kindness through rage, delusion, miserliness, fear, optimism, happiness and back to kindness.
•Because this year really has been a crash course in ethics.

In what sense?
•Last year we talked a lot about the power of tech companies and how they were dominating increasing sections of our lives, especially with the aggressive consolidations, mergers and takeovers that we often don’t pay attention to.
•Like Amazon owning almost half the world…

Fake News!
•We’ll get to the Fake News.
•I wish that there was some penalty we could impose on anyone who shouts that in someone else’s face.
•You know that thing about Godwin’s Law and the time it takes for someone to compare something or something to Hitler or the Nazis in a debate.
•I think we should call it Zuckerberg’s Law, which is the time it takes for anyone to decry any factually provable argument as fake news.

Fake News!
•I know you’re still jet-lagged but I think you’re going to have to work a little bit harder than this.
•Jeff: Fake News!
•This is going to be a struggle.
•So that journey into the power of the companies, into the role that technology has played in disrupting elections, influencing share and stock price movements.
•And how tech populism has gone hand in hand with, or even paved the way for, the rise of political populism.
•So this year has been one where I think the shows have concentrated more on people than the technology itself.