Nick Clegg | Westminster to Silicon Valley
The Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future podcast ends up focusing on 6-8 areas.
Entrepreneurs / CEOs - particularly those who have built businesses in different ways.
Politicians / Policy makers / Thinkers
Technology / AI
Creative Industries
Media / Social Media
Sport
Interesting Career Transitions or multi-hyphenates (this is generally where authors fall into)
This is why Nick Clegg was such a great guest, because he touches each of those sections (with the exception of Sport). It is also why Lord [Danny] Finkelstein, Chelsea Director and Times Columnist was another favourite.
Because the Brexit vote and the process of leaving the EU upended the British state so dramatically, I don’t believe that the Coalition Government has perhaps been given the examination it deserves, a decade on from its finishing, it is beginning to happen.
I enjoyed listening to Clegg’s book ‘between the extremes’, and it was interesting to hear how Government operated, with him and David Cameron operating on a simultaneous Red Box System.
It was also enjoyable listening to Clegg’s podcast of which he did 8 episodes of in 2018. It has a remarkable set of guests from Joe Biden, George Osborne to Nigel Farage!
He said to me that he found it useful for thinking about what to do next. Hopefully it will dawn on me at some point :)
An interesting aside when speaking to non-political friends for the last couple of months - I have been telling them we have Nick Clegg coming on, and a regular response was ‘oh right, what is he up to now?’.
I have great respect for how Clegg has gone off and built a new career. As he said when I asked him for his advice to MPs who recently lost their seat, ‘I didn’t want to end up doing graveyard slot on the Today Programme’.
I had also forgotten what an instinctive libertarian Clegg is when it comes to the powers of the state. In 2010 he said on Desert Island Discs that his luxury would be a packet of cigarettes, so I couldn’t resist asking him whether that would still be the case and what he thought of Government planning to ban tobacco (46:29).
Full set of timestamps for navigation below.
01:30 Nick Clegg's Role at Meta
03:44 Transition from Politics to Tech
07:14 Challenges and Cultural Shifts
11:15 Reflections on Political Career
23:40 Advice for Politicians Transitioning to Private Sector
27:18 Future of Jobs and Technology
30:44 The Impact of Technology on Jobs
32:04 The Role of Government in Lifelong Learning
33:03 Challenges and Opportunities for the UK Post-Brexit
33:46 Comparing UK and US Higher Education Systems
35:45 Embracing AI for Public Services
37:30 The UK's Productivity Puzzle
42:56 The Importance of Open Source AI
46:29 Quickfire Questions with Nick Clegg
54:00 Balancing Politics and Family Life
P.S. Thank you to all of those of you who shared our last post about the launch of Boxlight. We have received over 1,200 applications and are whittling them down this week
p.p.s. We have the first of our episodes with the Conservative leadership contenders out tomorrow with Tom Tugendhat.