Facebook Towers

I was at Facebook HQ yesterday and boy, did I feel old. I don’t think I saw anybody older than mid 20s. The office itself has a fairly anonymous entrance on University Avenue in Palo Alto — except for the tens of backpackers who have come on a pilgrimage to have their photo taken by the logo on the door. Inside, it seems like a really friendly place and really good fun. It must be pretty much a dream job. I mean, they let you muck about on Facebook all day…

A journalistic legend

I just wandered into a bookshop in SF where Carl Bernstein was giving a talk. One half of the Watergate team, Bernstein has just published a biography of Hillary Clinton. I haven’t read it, but I will do now. He was very good.

According to most Dems I’ve met on this trip, the political debate now is about who will be Hillary’s running mate. It will take a fairly major upset for her not to win the nomination. And okay so I’ve only been on the coasts but people expect her to win the Presidency as well.

Bernstein said something interesting when someone in the audience suggested that there hadn’t been any good journalism to bring down Bush. He said American journalism is as good now as it’s ever been but what has changed is the system that forced Nixon to resign in the 1970s. Washington is now a different beast to the one where he made his name. Money plays a much bigger roll. Makes what Larry Lessig is looking at all the more important.