Microsoft Hosted Sting Performance in Davos on Night Before Announcing Layoffs (opens in new tab)

I’m sure Henry Kissinger has other people lined up to take on that roll. The technique of using exclusive events to socialize and indoctrinate people is age-old.

Just listened to The Economist podcast that hyped them that CEOs and politicians can meet once every few months, thus saving lots of jet fuel from private jets. Why do they need to travel at all? Have we forgotten that most travels don't need to happen because we have that online meeting thing?

It was supposed to sound like a good thing, but it was out of context, so made me think, why even mention it, almost like they have an agenda to sell here.

Remember like three weeks ago when the twitter files showed US congress texting and calling back and forth with the heads of major corporations? About how congress was polling in response to those corporations' actions and what they were both gonna do about it?

Yeah no one else does either.

What do you expect? A ticketed event for a price? Then you'll still moan about any rich douchebag being able to buy their way in. An "anyone can join" event? Then all the people with influence will just be busy because all their fans will want a selfie. The G7/8/20 is a forum where world leaders can have private conversations and maybe get other leaders to see things from their perspective and change their minds, what about doing the same with CEO's of big corps, who also run the world, whether you like it or not...

It's not like the WEF is super exclusive, I remember seeing a job offer from a small tech company who got bought for 10M Euro, I read about this company's history and found the founder's Facebook page. He had pictures of a prop plane, I think he spent some of the money learning to fly, and 2-3 pics where he's in Davos, including a blurry selfie of him standing in line for lunch at the WEF in front of Bill Clinton.

Information shaping has resulted in most not even knowing Davos exists.

Well fortunately, any of us have the opportunity to get to a place where we can offer insight and contribute to the light winds that somewhat influence the global economy. When you have a role to play in that, maybe you’ll be invited. I hear the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting is a good time, if you are sad that you are missing out on something. As far as politicians, you might not like it, but we elect those politicians to represent us. So I am happy that they have a voice at these forums, even though sometimes that voice isn’t who I specifically wanted there.

How do 52 heads of state and 600+ CEOs of the world's largest companies not have "any control or vision of what's going to happen?"

> elites really don’t have any control or vision over what’s going to happen,

Is this satire, blindness, or just youthful optimism?

To be fair there's also a lot of leftists who protest WEF, G7/8/20, etc. There is also left populism...

There's a lot of merit to face to face meetings - if you could have a date over FaceTime or in real life, which would you prefer? - and of course it's only the elite/influential people who are invited, they're the ones with the power to change things. Whether or not they're capable of fixing the world or if their hands are somewhat tied because of politics or shareholder motivations, is a different question.

For some populism: I do think most politicians/elites care more about their career/wallet rather than the world.

Can you elaborate, what specifically do you like about WEF?

When we (our group in Microsoft) did our group event a few weeks ago it was in fact a picnic. Guess what? because we didn't want to spend a lot of money on it and wanted to show we are cost-cutting we did a potluck. Everyone cooked and brought stuff along. No one spent a lot of money, it was nice.

When we did a team event it was volunteering together. No fancy restaurants like last year for the same reason - we don't want to be wasteful in an unclear market.

I am disappointed in our execs doing this. I understand it was already probably pre-booked and it was probably just a few hours in a lot of long and frustrating leadership meeting but the optics are bad. Satya is usually such a respected leader for knowing how to do the right thing and avoid these situations, bummer.

It was meant to be sarcastic. Sting performing a private concert in Davos is the farthest possible thing from a company picnic.

So what you're saying is, they should have laid off Sting too.

Or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_in_a_Bottle_(The_Polic...

Pirates of Silicon Valley reference? :)

Probably they couldn't tell the organization team

I do feel bad for the 12/hour folks considering I used to be one of those.

As someone who got into tech as a self taught engineer at age 25 I am always blown away by the entitled nature of people around me who either A) don't work that hard and goof around on the clock and B) complain when we're literally coddled to the brim with free food, free trips to events every year, and various other free benefits.

I remember not getting a $0.25 per hour raise one year and being upset about it for a minute. I didn't have free top of the line health insurance (no insurance actually), nor did my company just pay for things that have nothing to do with my job. As someone who went from a few hundred bucks in his bank account to now literally six figures in my checking, and much more in stocks and investments (which are down lol), even if I got laid off I know I'm probably getting 5 years x service + 3-4 months full pay severance worst case scenario.

All I'm saying is that we're playing the game (capitalism) and companies will cut their losses. That's just how it works and we choose to sign offer letters, and yes I feel much worse for my friends who are not in tech who can barely afford to put food on the table or meet rent than a fellow tech bro who has to cancel his luxury Lake Tahoe cabin rental during these economic hardship times.