You lead the company through the 90s, it became one of the most Iconic Companies in American History, and you as a result, one of the most iconic entrepreneurs in American History and by any measure one of the great businesspeople of our generation. Guest maybe should stop there and call it a day. Host i think i saw somewhere on its peak half of americans who connected to the internet connected to america online. It became so popular they made a movie about it, youve got mails starring tom hanks before he was really tom hanks, by the way. Then you had a big merger with time warner, biggest merger in American History and then he went on to continue to be a very successful business person and investor he started the revolution Investment Fund which is invested in the hundred Startup Companies including zipcar sweet green, and others. So i write the book now i have to imagine that back in those days there people bidding down the door and when i first saw it i had a chance to see it before first got published. I was like how come you had not written a book before . So why now . Guest its a great question. Ive been been talking to people about 20 years about but time warner didnt turn out as expected i was not that interested in a memoir, was much more interested in what is happening next, or the future. Like the past. I was not that motivated. It was about two years ago i was traveling throughout the country understanding what is happening with startups around the country. It dawned on me that there was this first wave and second wave and third wave about the break. It was going to be different and some of the lessons from the first wave would be helpful to the third way. Maybe it was time to write a book that is mostly about the future but it tells some stories of the past because sometimes. It became less about the memoir more about the future and a little bit of a playbook in some respects about what is going to happen in future and whatever buddy should do to be part of that future. Then i become more interested. And then. Host so before you get to the substance of the book i want to spend a little bit of time on your background. One of the things i was happy about is your friend when i read the book as you did you do not want to write a memoir but but you give us a little bit of a glimpse into not only your background, high thought about the world as a young person and a young entrepreneur and obviously the good old days. You are from hawaii, born, born and raised and why, up until about eight years ago, you are probably one of the most famous people and probably up until eight years ago you are probably the most famous person from your high school. Guest i got elbowed aside, president obama and i went to the high school at the same time. It it was a great school, there is a hundred and 75th anniversary and i was a little older i still am a little older than the president , even with the dog years. Technically i am. I was a was a senior when he was a freshman. We actually did not have any classes together. But it was was only when he came to washington as a senator we Work Together on some entrepreneurship. No offense but. Guest why a pretty good run and people were wondering what was in the water back then. Its its a good start. Even a third way title, going back to our roots. You and the president must have a good friendship, youve done so many extraordinary things with him but youve also worked with president bush and president clinton, so Public Policy is been a big part of who you are, i want to come back to that cousin that is her audience but before we get too much further, what i liked about your book is when theres a big thing going on and theres really nothing bigger than the internet, you could could argue that it is the most important Economic Force, certainly of our time but may be of history, in terms of just a pure Economic Force which you not only ushered in the Internet Business model but also the internet into peoples homes. What great is about the book as you overlay an Analytical Framework as the framework as to how we should all think about this and you break it down into the first wave, the second wave in the third wave, so we should spend some time you just explaining that thesis to people and how you think about that. The first is building awareness of why you should get connected to the internet and building the on ramps and software, the on ramps and everything to get people connected. It seems obvious now but when we started in 95 only 3 of people were online and they are only online one hour per week. It took is really a decade before got traction. Guest for most of that decade people thought why would anybody want to do it, it was sort of a quirky thing, it was really hard to do, really expensive to do but when you were online there wasnt much to do there wasnt much content yet. So it took a while before i finally became ready for prime time. That was the first way. Building the internet. The second wave, the last 15 years is building on top, apps years is building on top, apps and services in google, facebook, twitter, basically the software riding on top of the internet. That has created an enormous opportunity and Iconic Companies in the second way. The third wave is going to be fundamentally different which is really integrating the internet in a much more seamless and pervasive ways in every aspect of our lives, how we stay healthy and how our kids learn and how we think about food or energy your investing money, very fundamental things that changed a little bit on the first and second wave but not that much, as people deal with Healthcare System for example when they get sick about the same its about the same, it just is not as precise. You can easily order a pizza on your phone or watch netflix but the fundamental things around things like health and education have not really change. And they are going to change a lot in this third way. But, i but, i think it is going to require a different mindset for the innovators whether be the start up entrepreneurs of the Bigger Companies understand what is happening and Everybody Needs to understand the definition of work is changed and is changing in the third way. The first wave is a building at the second is building on top in the third is integrating it throughout our lives. In the process disrupting some of the largest industry in the country and in the world. Its enormous opportunity for people to understand where the puck is going and can position themselves. In a way, in the third wave we stop thinking of companies as technology company. Exactly. And we just start thinking about technology as part of every company. So the basic tools that we all thought existed in business and became integrated become set. So now like aol, one of one of the great things about the book when you took aol public it has 30,000,000 revenues revenues and was worth about 70 million. Now, we have google, apple, facebook, amazon, and collectively these companies are probably worth 2 trillion. So if you just think about these waves that you are talking about what is really happens, but but in the third wave what youre kind of saying this therell be big Healthcare Companies and big Financial Service companies that will be enabled by technology in ways that we never imagined before is that kinda what youre thinking. Guest yes everything is like become basic. Its really internet enabled disruption and at some point not too distant future it will be taken for granted. Like we talk about electricity enabled, the internet is on a similar path. Right now we call it an evening at. Sometime well just call it male. Someday well call it commerce, were not there yet i think it will still take another ten or 20 years. On that path and the third wave is just the next wave of taking the eight the of the internet and shifting it to be in a Quirky Technology thing to being a fundamental part of everyday life. One of the things ive are always admired to see you strike me as a optimist and you think about the world. Thats how i always thought about it and you believe in momentum. When things get going you know capitalizing on the momentum. Theres a lot of debate about the Effect Technology has had on our world. Im of the view that is been enormously positive but in truth when you look at technological innovation, when you can bind it with global connection it has been a blessing but it has put pressure on, pressured us in terms of the anxiety in our lives and some have been disruptive so when you think about this, i know youre an optimist, why are you so positive about where this is going to take us. Its always everything is always positive and not very constructive. There are some positives as you mentioned in there some negative so how do you maximize . I think the internet has been enormous of empowering people all around the world. [inaudible] [inaudible] i remember in the summer we were in africa and visited kenya and things happening there in the remote villages because of the internet because of innovation around solar and other kinds of technology is incredibly empowering and liberating. But sometimes we are to connected, the good news is sometimes were hyper connected and sometimes its helpful to have a facetoface conversation. Technology has created a lot of jobs but it has as you mentioned hollowed out a lot of jobs. So how do you figure out innovations for the future to bring everybody along . One thing i was proud to be associated around Small Business in the report that came out was can start up save the American Dream . Some of that is democratizing information, i think think theres an opportunity to democratize access to entrepreneurs and the opportunity so everybody feels like they have a shot, right now not everybody does, people do feel left out and part of the reason i brought the butt was to lay out framework for everybody to think about how the world developing and what it might look like ten or 15 years from and what are some opportunities for your own kids that might help give you a better, brighter future. So. So you talk about healthcare, education, what are some of the examples are some of the areas that could be transformed by technology, it can really change how we are thinking about the problems that we see. Anytime an entrepreneur sees a problem they also see an opportunity so its a doubleedged sword. And education a lot of things have been done in the last few decades in terms of computers in classrooms and things like that but for the most part, im not a teachers but i talked to a lot of teachers and i will say the way that they are teaching is about the same that it was 20 years ago, yet there is some advancement in terms of more personalized adaptive approaches to learning, not all kids learn the same way, some take more time, some are visual learners so having the systems that can help customize learning a thing can be very important, having teachers with more of a sense of whats going on with individual students, where they really are struggling and where they will need more help so that is one example, its not just about software, its also about integrating it into a culture in partnership with teachers, with with schools. Its not just about new learning in the cloud in the internet, but how do you improve learning in the classroom. Theres been an Interesting Development healthcare on the wellness side things like the fitbit, and wearable devices that have gotten popular but for the most part the way people manage disease is much the same way particularly if his lifethreatening disease is not as precise as it needs to be, when people come there for Second Opinion on cancer in particular 25 of the time they change the opinion, so it suggested there needs to be more data, more pierce realized approaches to health and technology as part of that solution. Again its not just the engineer solving the problem. Hes partnering and figuring out ways to knit things together that can usher in an era of healthcare that is better outcome little more convenient and lower cost. Thats one of the things where you have added so much to the discussion theres two problems that we have, we have these discussions about business and the nonprofit section or the Public Sector working together, you have people come at this debate for them perspective that the private sector, in the case of technology, the technologists have it all figured out and were kind of on an island and we know whats best, its somewhat of an insular view of the world and then you have people who come at this from the perspective the government should be driving this. One of the things that i think has been important about your voice is that is been very balanced, one of the things he talk about in the book is how you there is a role for government and it is a positive role. But we have to be careful because government clearly can stifle motivation. An innovation. It can get in the way its too bureaucratic. Theres just not enough of those balanced voices particularly people have the Business Career that you have had advocating for that balance. So so what kind of brought you to that point. I actually lived in d. C. For a while and i think that helps understanding the people and is part of the reason why am more nonpartisan trying to Work Together because ive seen and worked with people over three decades and trying to get stuff done, its also just watching the evolution of the internet itself. And in Silicon Valley in particular that theyre kinda arrogant about like the government just screws everything up in the regulations are done in their slow innovation, sometimes that true and obviously there are things that government does that frustrate entrepreneurs with different regulations or investments. Something that we take seriously but the reality is, Silicon Valley would not exist if it were not for the government and neither with the internet. Governmentfunded darpa which judge greene broke up the phone company, my bell. People forget how big of a deal that was Congress Passed the telecom act and for the most part that first wave of the internet the government says were not quite sure how its going to work so lets take a handsoff approach to regulation. So we saw that develop and if you look at some of the Great Innovation that we all take for granted and things like gps, weather data, those are funded by the government. So there is a role for government. So. Com gets most of their information from their government. Ive been in conversations with people and they say we do not need the government involved in this business we have weather. Com, again, some people view this book. [inaudible] that were going to lose our way, were not guaranteed but understand that critics, cynics and people were frustrated, i understand that view, i view, i also think there is the other view which is as a think about important aspects of our life about making sure the food our kids eat at school is not going to make them sick or the drugs are parents take a second kill them, or even drones flying over the playground is not going to crash and her kids. People want the government to provide some basic rules of the road, and provide some basic safety and consistency at the same time they do not want the government to overreach and stifle innovation so howdy strike the right balance. We knew more people have your kind of entrepreneur background making those decisions whether being congress or the white house, it is important to strike that balance, i get frustrated when i hear either side, the technologist same government irrelevant or sane you cannot trust the market. Government needs to be more involved in stuff. The reality is theyre both important and they both need to Work Together and in a constructive way, listen and respect each other and figure out what the right pass forward. In some ways it should be obvious. Most things that are very large tend to be bureaucratic and not nimble. The government is really not nimble. It certainly democratic and conservative get the way. But there are things that are indispensable in the government has to do so when you touched on that in the book. You lay out while acknowledging because i dont want to provide fuel for the fire and people say are advocating in the book but were talking about smart government and on the philanthropic side of your life you get into some of that too, will get back to that because thats your other portfolio the work that you and jean do is really worldclass philanthropists. Welcome back to that. What he think really if you could get government to act against a couple of things and thinking about in contexts of the gridlock that has prevented us from doing anything will be the two or three things you think would be really important for the government to try to do and get right to try to ensure america relates to competitive advantage . Im worried about it. I have to remind myself that were in the free world now because of entrepreneurs. They let the world in the Industrial Revolution in technology revolution. We went from being the startup to leader of the free world. But but thats not guaranteed to continue. Other countries are figuring it ought and there is a secret sauce that is animated the secret. So you see countries investing to create the right kind of investment instead of the right kind of regulatory environment. Its a global battle. We sought 50 years ago as the globalization of capital, we saw the globalization of manufacture, and our c in the the globalization of innovation. I think the work that congress has done with the white house including the jobs ask that legalized crowdfunding is important because it levels the Playing Field for entrepreneurs who do not happen to have money or know people who have money. They can use the internet to raise capital and get started. The fcc for some initial rules in