Former President Barack Obama said at a tech conference Wednesday that one key to his decision-making was relying on staff and surrounding himself with a diversity of viewpoints, before adding:
"The other thing that is helpful is not watching TV or reading social media."
Why it matters: Obama has largely avoided major criticisms of President Trump, but he used his comments at a conference for Splunk, a company that helps businesses make sense of their data, to draw a contrast between the two administrations.
- Obama admitted during his speech that he made mistakes in hiring. "I won’t say we enforced perfectly the 'no-jerk rule,' but its a pretty good rule. I won’t say who violated that rule."
- He then added: "I'm proud of the fact we didn’t have indictments. I’ve said that before but that is pretty rare in modern day." Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation resulted in the indictments of 6 former Trump advisers.
Other highlights: Obama said there are tough calls you have to make as president, citing the decision to go after Osama bin Laden as a 50-50 call and bailing out Chrysler as a 60-40-type decision.
- To make those calls, Obama said, you need the facts without spin or sugar coating, as well as a diversity of opinion.
- Obama added that it's also important that the people who serve in the administration aren't there for fame or money: "Are folks here because they want to serve the American people?"
Obama cited health care as one of the key areas where Big Data can help, both to cut costs and improve outcomes.
- "Almost our entire federal deficit, at least when I was president, could be accounted by what we spend on health care vs. what other industrialized countries spend" to get similar outcomes.
- The government, he said, has tons of data from running Medicare and Medicaid. "All that stuff is really powerful. It can be powerful for researchers, it can be powerful for policymakers."
- But, he added, medical data is at the same time highly personal and individual privacy needs to be protected.
Obama said that there are "a handful of big issues that if we don’t get right we have real problems. You can anticipate what those might be. Climate change is a big problem."
- "Ultimately, it is a moral decision we make that we are, as much as possible, going to mitigate this problem we’ve created."
- Obama also warned about income inequality and people living in filter bubbles, a problem he said is exacerbated by social media. "That's not healthy for a democracy and it's not healthy between countries. That's how wars get started and bad things happen."
On a lighter note, Obama acknowledged he remains a Chicago Bulls fan, but admitted: "It’s been a while since we were as competitive as we would like."
- As for the local team, the Golden State Warriors, Obama praised the team and its coach and said it can survive the loss of star Kevin Durant. "You’ll be fine. Steve Kerr is a great coach, and more than that he is a good man."
- There may be some rebuilding needed, but he said the team has created a culture that will endure and help that process. "Their best players just care about the team and are willing to make sacrifices."