Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook presence, a mix of business insights, family photos, pseudo-philosophical insights, and more plugs for the business, is carefully maintained by a team of 12 people, as was learned last month. But for his latest post, a somewhat inscrutable, definitely rambling 6,000 word manifesto about globalism and networks and communities and artificial intelligence, Zuckerberg very proudly did it all by himself. 6,000 words, Mark? Are you, like getting paid by the word? Maybe more people should have helped to, I don't know, edit it, or perhaps fewer, as it sort of reads like it's been watered down.
Kindly, Zuck tries to make it easy for us to find his thesis by putting the below sentence in bold, but if there's some meaning to be found here, beyond Facebook Is Good, Community Is Great, then I'm missing it.
"In times like these, the most important thing we at Facebook can do is develop the social infrastructure to give people the power to build a global community that works for all of us."
So you're going to keep working at Facebook.... Thanks for the note.
In anticipation of this big Facebook open-letter mic drop exercise, the CEO granted interviews to a slew of tech publications, all hungry for access, and who all published their pieces this afternoon emphasizing that access. "We Talked To Mark Zuckerberg About Globalism, Protecting Users, And Fixing News," writes BuzzFeed. "I’ve interviewed Zuckerberg before," brags Wired in their write up, and so on.
"One thing I have been wondering recently is if people misdiagnosed is that the hope for the future is all economic,” Zuckerberg told Recode editor Kara Swisher. “But the things that are happening in our world now are all about the social world not being what people need and I felt like I had to address that.”
Swisher considers the letter meaningful, in that it's a "real neck-snap shift from Zuckerberg's initial who-us? shrug after the election, as many blamed fake news running rampant on Facebook in part for the election results. Now, he seems to be inching forward to saying that the service has become the way many get their news and information these days and that matters."
Maybe it's the medium that's the message here. Zuckerberg is saying that he wants to say something, that there's a lot to say, but in being unable to express himself, he's making the point that he doesn't quite have the words.
Related: Mark Zuckerberg's Personal Facebook Page Is Managed By A Team Of 12 People