Ed Zitron: Silicon Valley's Empty Promises and Billion-Dollar Blunders
Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People
Guy Kawasaki
4.6 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is the tech industry rotting from the inside out? Ed Zitron thinks so. As a PR expert, media critic, and outspoken tech industry commentator, Zitron pulls no punches discussing what he calls the "ROT economy" - where growth at all costs has replaced innovation and customer value. In this brutally honest conversation with Guy Kawasaki, Zitron dissects OpenAI's unsustainable business model, critiques tech billionaires' empty pursuit of wealth at the expense of happiness, and challenges the AI hype cycle. From questioning Blue Origin's all-women space flight to explaining why he refuses clients like Meta and Microsoft, Zitron offers a refreshing counterpoint to Silicon Valley groupthink while advocating for a tech industry that prioritizes workers and customers over shareholder returns.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In my years of entrepreneurship, I've seen countless startups. And here's the truth. |
| 0:07.3 | Smart spending drives growth, which is something Brex has championed. Brex isn't just a corporate credit |
| 0:14.0 | card. It's a strategic tool to help your company achieve peak performance. Corporate cards, banking, expense management, all integrated |
| 0:24.1 | on an AI-powered platform that turns every dollar into opportunity. In fact, 30,000 companies |
| 0:32.9 | are trusting Brex to help them win. Go to brex.com to grow to learn more. |
| 0:39.3 | As a product, large language models are kind of interesting. |
| 0:43.3 | I despise them for the environmental damage they do and the fact they steal from people. |
| 0:47.3 | The actual things they can do, pretty cool. |
| 0:49.3 | The problem is they're not being sold as this is pretty cool. |
| 0:52.3 | They're being sold as this is the revolution that will change everything about business forever and ever. |
| 0:58.2 | That is my problem with that. |
| 0:59.6 | That and literally the stealing of the environmental damage. |
| 1:05.2 | I'm Guy Kawasaki. |
| 1:07.0 | This is the Remarkable People podcast and we found another remarkable person to help you be remarkable, too. |
| 1:14.4 | His name is Ed Zetron. |
| 1:16.4 | And he is a media and PR expert, and, well, that's understating. |
| 1:22.8 | He is so opinionated about AI and what he calls the rot economy that I just wanted a kind of new |
| 1:31.5 | voice, a new perspective on AI and tech bros and all that stuff. So welcome to the show, Ed. |
| 1:37.7 | Thank you having me, Guy. |
| 1:39.8 | Listen, Ed, I have noticed in your podcast and your writing and stuff that you don't exactly hold yourself back. |
| 1:45.9 | So I've got to ask you this question. |
| 1:48.0 | I think I know what you're going to say, but tell me what you think of this blue origin flight with the women into space. |
... |
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