Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg just dropped some serious parenting advice

Alan Smithson
3 min readMar 2, 2022

In February 2022, on the Lex Fridman Podcast, during a 2 hour interview on everything from Privacy, AI, VR and the Metaverse to what kind of world he wants to see for his children, Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg gave some sage advice. If you are a parent, this is definitely something you will want to read.

“All children are artists, the challenge is how do you remain one when you grow up?” — Pablo Picasso

Lex Fridman and Mark Zuckerberg

“Our philanthropic goal is to cure, prevent or manage all diseases” — Mark and Pricilla Chan have pledged 99% of their shares in Meta to fund these initiatives. This illustrates Mark’s priorities and commitment to a better humanity.

Lex Friman, never asks the easy questions and this was one that spurred some great learning. “You are one of the most successful people, ever. What advice do you have for young people today? How to live a life to be proud of? How to build something that can have a big positive outcome in the world?”

“Every night, when I put my daughters to bed, we do the ‘good night thing’. I ask my girls August ‘Auggie’ (4) and Maxima ‘Max’ (6) ‘what are the things that are most important in life…

HEALTH — Make sure you take care of yourself, exercise.

LOVING FRIENDS & FAMILY — Making time for family and friends is one of most important things.

SOMETHING YOU ARE EXCITED ABOUT IN THE FUTURE — Having something to look forward, gives us hope and joy.

WHAT DID YOU DO TODAY TO HELP SOMEONE? — Did you do something to help another person today?

Advice Mark continues to give advice for teens or young people:

“The most important decision you are going to make is who you surround yourself, because you become like the people you surround yourself with.”

“And his hiring heuristic: When I hire someone, I ask if I could see myself working for them?”. Interesting perspective.

Lex continues to ask “You die and get to ask God only one question, what is it? Mark’s answer ‘I would just want to know that my family is ok’, a very human answer that I am certain we can all relate to.

The virtual world vs. the real world… ‘the real world is a combination of the virtual world and the physical world, but I think over time, as we get more technology, the physical world is becoming less of a percent of the real world. This opens up a lot of opportunities for people. You can work in different places, you can stay close to people in different places’

When asked ‘What do you think is the meaning of life?’ by podcast host, Lex Fridman, there was a dramatic, multi-second pause…

“Duality of life; the people around you who you care the most about and there is this bigger thing that you are building…My whole life’s work is around human connection, so…to me, human connection is the meaning of life”

You can start to see a more human side of someone who gets blamed for all the negative sides of social media, but very little praise for bringing billions of people closer together every single day, around the world.

I am glad I took the time to listen to one of the great builders of our generation.

Watch the full interview below:

ABOUT ME

I am the Co-Founder of MetaVRse, a web-based, low-code 3D creation platform to build Metaverse experiences.

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Alan Smithson

Alan’s purpose in life is to inspire and educate future leaders to think and act in a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable way.