On a long flight recently, I listened to the interview between Mark Zuckerberg and Joe Rogan. The dialog left me more concerned than ever about the

Vinay Prasad's Observations and Thoughts

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2022-10-06 19:30:06

On a long flight recently, I listened to the interview between Mark Zuckerberg and Joe Rogan. The dialog left me more concerned than ever about the future of discourse in America, the seduction of online worlds, and the fate of democracy.

Mark Zuckerberg has access to essentially infinite resources as CEO of the formidable company Facebook. I suspect that prior to this interview—and interviews in general—he has had considerable coaching. The topics he discusses can be anticipated (algorithms, election, Hunter Biden laptop), and he will have consulted experts to put the strongest arguments to preserve Facebook’s empire of advertising revenue. It is likely worse than that. Every word choice and phrasing has likely been subject to A-B testing or focus groups. Despite, all that effort. He is clearly not a natural communicator and comes across as stilted, flat, and robotic. You wouldn’t want to get a beer with him—as the old political heuristic goes.

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