Ian Bremmer

All of that builds trust.

And by the way, it doesn't hurt when someone that you went to a conference with 20 years ago suddenly has grown up with you and now that person that you've always liked and trusted is

How do you like that in a position of real power?

That also matters too.

So the network is essential and the network is something that you cannot substitute anything but content and time for that.

Well, one is time.

The more you know somebody, the longer you know somebody, the better a track record you can assess.

In the same way that they're assessing whether or not they trust you, you need to understand what their perspective is.

Now, the fact that everyone has a perspective

is very different from being spun.

I assume that any leader you're talking to comes from the context and background that is informing their job, that their worldview is very heavily linked to that.

So, I mean, clearly, if you are the prime minister of Japan or if you're the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, you have very different contexts.

That doesn't mean that they're spinning you, but their perspectives are wildly different.

Spinning for me is when someone is trying usually not to convince you of a broad argument, but to convince you of a specific point that has relevance and time duration to something that is happening in the news or is about to happen in the news.

That usually isn't the most important part of a conversation.

So already when that comes up, it kind of rings some bells.

And if it's not consistent with what you believe, because you don't have one data point, you've got lots.

You're not getting one set of inputs from one leader.

You have many and they're different, allows you to connect those dots.

I mean, I remember when I found out.