Macromegas #29 - Mark Zuckerberg & Patrick Collison on Progress
Mark Zuckerberg & Patrick Collison on Progress
Hello Friends,
And happy Friday!
I am sharing a unique piece of knowledge this week because it is a very deep one, in a longer format: 1h video debate between Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg & Stripe’s Patrick Collison on technological progress.
I must say I have been quite positively amazed by the dialogue.
First, I had no idea that Mark Zuckerberg (MZ) was involved in large-scale healthcare research. Especially not as a charitable venture.
Second, I knew very well how well-informed and passionate Patrick Collison (PC) was about technological progress as a science - he publishes a lot on Twitter - but I discovered his thinking process in much more detail.
But what I find most fascinating is that both billionaires are working towards human betterment at a very large scale and in the very long run, but each in their very particular way.
When you look into it, those two very different ways of contributing to technological progress seems to be deep-rooted in their thinking and executing style. It clearly reflects on the way they lead their respective companies.
MZ is a visionary.
If you look at it from The Hedgehog and the Fox perspective, he is a “hedgehog” - like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. His business vision is that the world needs better connectivity. Facebook succeeded by solving this problem for the Web 1.0, it does it more or less ok for the Web 2.0 - at least it monetizes it well, and no he is actually building the Web 3.0 itself to create the market that will fulfil his own prophecy - see Macromegas #25, Mark Zuckerberg on the Future of AR and VR.
He is doing the same with life sciences: he wants to build the bio-science tools of tomorrow. Not trying to cure one disease or another: simply advance bio-science and bio-engineering as a whole. His time horizon is of the order of the century. His funding is in the hundreds of millions. One vision, one execution, one mega project.
PC is a pure “fox”.
He knows thinks unknown unknowns. He provides the thinking framework, but he delegates the decisions to the experts on the ground. Don’t get me wrong: MZ delegates as well, but he delegates the technical expertise, not the vision. PC delegates the vision itself. Not all of it of course, but most of how its overarching vision should be diced into the right theses.
His thesis is that we are not managing progress scientifically as a species. So, he is funding a data-driven approach to setting the right KPIs, measuring different ways to fund projects, and finally allocating resources (mostly capital) to the most promising ventures.
But I think that his personal funding allocation is more of a byproduct of his real goal: designing the right measurement and systems for all capital allocators to pick the best research ventures for the benefit of mankind.
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MZ funds one outcome. PC designs the process to better allocate funding.
Two brilliant minds; two very different leadership styles.
I do believe in both founders and their companies:
Facebook because MZ is right about human instincts and desire.
PC because his long-term decentralised thinking is formidable.
Both because their execution is impressive.
Working for Checkout.com, one of Stripe’s main competitors globally, it is clearly an intellectual pleasure and an honourable challenge to compete.
As for Facebook, I don’t think anyone is really competing. Not at the same scale + focus. Hopefully the Metaverse(s) will be open - like the Internet - but nothing is less sure.
And now for the real deal:
Mark Zuckerberg talks to Tyler Cowen (Economist), and Patrick Collison (CEO of Stripe) 69min
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Thanks for reading, and have an innovative weekend,
V