Misquoted

Story: An Open Letter to Mark ZuckerbergTotal Replies: 7
Author Content
thenixedreport

Jan 06, 2016
9:28 AM EDT
This is what he actually said: "Even better would be to encourage them to *be* the nerd in their school so they can be the next successful inventor!"

He never said not to date a nerd; that was simply headline fodder from the likes of the New York Daily News and other media venues:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/mark-zuckerberg-bui...

http://fox8.com/2016/01/04/mark-zuckerbergs-advice-to-girls-...

Referring to Zuckerberg as sexist for pointing out something valid like that boggles my mind to be honest. He was responding to a grandmother who encouraged her grand daughters to date a nerd in the hopes they would become the next Zuckerberg. The Facebook basically pointed out the problem with simply attaching themselves to another person in the hopes that they would be successful.

I think he ought to have a digital high five for encouraging a bit of self-reliance in this instance instead of being misquoted.
seatex

Jan 06, 2016
12:36 PM EDT
Personally, I couldn't care less about anything he says. This is a guy fighting to allow cheaper foreign workers into the US to replace all those young girls and nerds.
gus3

Jan 06, 2016
5:58 PM EDT
I still don't think he'd give advice like that to someone's grandson.

Besides, the grandmother knows the girl far better than Zuckerberg does, and her advice (for good or ill) will, and should, carry more weight. He's sticking his nose where it doesn't belong; being the founder of Facebook doesn't change that.
mbaehrlxer

Jan 06, 2016
11:54 PM EDT
in as much as the original advice was made public, as well as the response, it is no longer just advice from two people to one girl, but something that can be picked up by anyone. so while grandma most likely knows what's best for the girl, her advice should not necessarily be copied, whereas zuckerbergs should.

though, even better would be to say: "don't just date the nerd...", because she can date the nerd, and be one at the same time. in fact that might raise the chances at a successful relationship.

oh, and if grandmas advice can be taken for ill, it deserves a response. suggesting that you should date someone who might be successful is like saying that you won't be successful yourself. and that's the same problem that helios discussed earlier all over again.

greetings, eMBee.
CFWhitman

Jan 07, 2016
10:35 AM EDT
This seems way blown out of proportion to me.

The grandmother's advice is fairly obviously tongue-in-cheek. That is, it's not completely without basis in fact, but it's not meant to be taken completely seriously.

Zuckerberg's response was a bit more serious, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he viewed the grandmother's post as completely serious. He just wanted to take the opportunity to offer a bit of advice of his own. Also, he didn't say the original advice was bad; he said, "even better," which implies that he thought the original advice was good, just not as good as what he was about to say.

The grandmother explained later that her post hadn't been completely serious and that she encouraged her granddaughters to do well in their own studies, but she had never expected such a big controversy over such a little remark, which is understandable as far as I'm concerned.

I say this as someone who has never been a fan of Zuckerberg or Facebook (I don't have an account), though that is unrelated to any political stance he may have because I never pay much attention to those.
dotmatrix

Jan 07, 2016
11:04 AM EDT
I'm with seatex on this one... why does this matter at all?

The importation of cheap replacement workers for potential citizen workers is far more damaging to the local work force and local worker morale.

Frankly, I'm looking forward to the dismantlement of the 'free' Internet which is really funded through forced payment of personal information [PII] to Gooble and Faceplant. I'd much rather pay a few dollars on the barrel head for my own domain running its own services than be forced to participate in Gooble and Faceplant's global PII workforce.

Dumbledore wrote:Personally, I've never had much time for heroes.
gus3

Jan 11, 2016
12:55 PM EDT
If you don't have time for heroes, you haven't defined "hero" properly.
dotmatrix

Jan 11, 2016
2:34 PM EDT
Ha! I suppose sometimes they are called sub sandwiches...

I could go for a nice MLT -- Mutton Lettuce and Tomato.

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