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“Young people just have simpler lives,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a talk to would-be entrepreneurs in 2007, when he wa
by CountSessine 12y ago
“Young people just have simpler lives,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a talk to would-be entrepreneurs in 2007, when he was 23. “We may not own a car. We may not have family. Simplicity in life allows you to focus on what’s important.”
Don't have kids so you can focus on what's important to Mark.
- sbov 12y agoI read that as "Simplicity in life allows you to focus on what's not important".
- mhurron 12y agoYa, well the quote is from a larger response regarding why it is hard for older (30+) people to get a job in Silicon Valley. It also included the phrase 'younger people are just smarter.' The point he was making was to only hire young people who do not have this distraction of an outside life to prevent them from burning themselves out for the almighty founder. It very much carries a 'so they can work at making me rich' vibe to it.
- srdev 12y ago"Important" was a bad choice of words on Mark's part, since its a value judgement that is necessarily going to differ from person to person.. However, he essential gist of what he's saying is true. If you don't have kids, you can spend more time focusing on things other than taking care of your kids. I'm a dad and it does take up a lot of time and limits what I can focus on. My only disagreement is based on a personal value judgement of whats important; raising a child is the most important thing to me, but that's not a universal truth for everyone.
- vizeroth 12y agoYour job should never overwhelm your ability to do something important with the rest of your life.
- srdev 12y agoI agree. I am just providing a charitable reading of the quote, assuming that the phrasing of the general point was poor.
- dragonwriter 12y agoI don't think its any more wrong to fully devote yourself to a job that is the important thing you want to do with your life than it is to have a job that exists to enable other important things you do outside of the job.
- jahewson 12y agoYes, instead of wasting time on mindless social interactions with friends and family those young employees can devote themselves to something important like Facebook, which is a tool for... oh, never mind.