Mark Zuckerberg's Feed Me debut.
The Meta founder answers your questions about Harvard style and how billionaires should spend their money.
Hello, everyone.
Today’s newsletter includes: A Guest Lecture with Mark Zuckerberg (including a conversation we had on Zoom), Cannes IV drips gone wrong, and Ina Garten is launching a podcast with Vox.
I’m writing to you from the floor of my apartment in Cannes, eating truffle potato chips and salami. The best way to describe the situation here for those who have never been is Disney World for advertisers, but instead of Mickey Mouse and Cinderella, people geek out over Gary Vaynerchuk and Alex Cooper. The whole festival appears to run on bottles of rosé, which is offered at all times to remedy boring conversations, gaps in the calendar, and the heat. I’m having a blast.
Last night, I stopped by The New York Times dinner hosted by Andrew Ross Sorkin before heading to my own dinner that I hosted with Yahoo. I’ve been working with the Yahoo team for the last few months, and I’ve grown to really admire their CEO Jim Lanzone and chief communications officer Sona Iliffe-Moon (who happened to also be in the WSJ last week). It might’ve been my own espresso martini buzz, but I got a little emotional while watching a (bear with me) drone show with Casey Lewis, Alex Heath, Rachel Karten, Risa Heller, Jack Raines, Ana Andjelic, Beehiiv founder Tyler Denk, Willa Bennett, and Serena Kerrigan all in one place — that place being the Yahoo Explorers Society on La Plage du Martinez. My night ended at 1 a.m. by finishing my last drink at Hotel Du Cap with one hand, and shaking Scott Galloway’s hand with the other.
Here’s what I’ve done today so far:
Spotify Beach hired the world’s best coffee maker, Victor Delpierre, to run the coffee situation at their Cannes set-up. I met him yesterday and was amazed by his coffee skills, so we went back this morning to work and drink more coffee. MVP of my week so far.
I spoke at Hearst House with Willa Bennett, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and Seventeen, and Michael Sebastian, editor-in-chief of Esquire. We were discussing the metrics of a successful media business, and all agreed that one of the most important ones for a leader is unseeable to the rest of the world — the emails and notes from readers who tell editors directly how a publication’s work makes them feel. Afterwards, I met a group of young women from the University of Georgia who are studying abroad in France this summer. Ate a mini chocolate croissant and left.
Sat in the air conditioning at UTA Beach and drank water, while eavesdropping on other people’s hangovers.
Adobe hosted a “Group Chat,” a format I really enjoyed. They brought together creators like Sammi Cohen and iJustine to discuss “scaling content and reaching new audiences.” They seated each of us at separate tables, and I sat with several newsletter writers and business creators and talked about building a business on Substack. A big topic throughout this week thus far has been taste, developing creativity, and standing out in a sea of content. On the walk home, I got an ice cream cone and thought about how long I’ve been using Adobe products to build my projects. In 2020, I applied for a creative grant for $2,500 to make my documentary, The End. I got it, and it ending up unlocking my ability to book an Airbnb in Montauk for me and my friends to go out to Long Island and shoot the film.
I just took a nap and ate some strawberries and drank a Coke Zero, and will be back with more updates from the South of France tomorrow.
Have a news tip from Cannes, New York, or London? Hit the Feed Me Tip Line: (646) 494-3916
Guest Lecture: Mark Zuckerberg
This interview is part of a Feed Me feature called Guest Lecture. In this series, I introduce you all to an expert who I’m curious about, and give paid readers an opportunity to ask them anything they want. Past guests have included Jeff Klein, Mark Guiducci, and Audrey Hobert.
Today, we have a rather surreal guest, Mark Zuckerberg. He answers your questions about Harvard style, “not getting” wearables, and the most interesting things he’s thinking about that nobody is asking him about.
“Social feeds have gone from people you know, to creators you follow, to AI recommendations, to AI-generated content. Is the end state a feed where almost nothing was made by a real person? And is this the goal, or a side effect you’re okay with?” - Brad
Yes, feeds have evolved, but we still design our products to help people connect. Today, a lot of that happens through messaging rather than directly within the feed. Previously someone would post, and you’d comment on that post, and that would be the interaction. Now, feeds act more as a discovery engine where there’s content from your friends, from creators, and increasingly content that’s either been created with AI or by AI, and that’s all in service of helping people learn about the world and find content that helps them connect with their friends.
Even as feeds have changed, the content that typically does the best has a voice or perspective that’s unique and genuine to the person posting it. That’s true on our platforms, it’s true here on Substack. And so I think that human creativity is always going to remain a big part of social feeds.
"I’ve never really bought into wearables because ‘I can just use my phone,’ and don’t want to lug around other devices. How do you make the pitch to folks to add another device? Or: is Meta’s wearable tech trying to move in the direction of being a better version of the phone, i.e. replacing the phone, instead of adding to it?” - Zach
I don’t think phones are going to go away completely, but I do think that glasses will be the next major computing device. Today, when I’m sitting at my desk with a computer in front of me, I still reach for my phone to do a lot of things. In the future, I think you’re just going to do more and more stuff on your glasses, so even if you have your phone in your pocket, you’re not going to pull it out. And eventually you may leave it home more of the time. So I think eventually the question might be: “Why should I lug around my phone, when I have my glasses?”
Glasses are already something that almost 2 billion people wear every day -- people are used to using them in their daily lives. We know that we have to make sure that there’s a style for everyone so we’ve been building a pretty deep portfolio. We have over 70 options now so there’s a style that works for any occasion and at an accessible price point.
“Outside of AI and wearables, what’s the most interesting thing you’re thinking about that nobody is asking you about?” - Montague
One of the things I spend a lot of time thinking about is how model advancements are going to dramatically accelerate scientific discovery. Priscilla and I founded Biohub with the goal of being able to accelerate the pace of science to be able to cure or prevent all diseases this century, and now with the advances in AI, we think that’s going to be possible a lot sooner. This is one of the really exciting opportunities with AI -- basically combining frontier science with frontier AI to produce some really interesting results that will improve the world for everyone.
“Now that the Metaverse has taken a back seat to AI more generally, does he regret changing the name of the company? Ever consider changing it back? Is the metaverse dead?” - Todd
No, I think Meta is a great name. It comes from the Greek word for “beyond” and symbolized that our work was moving beyond just the one Facebook app, and to some extent, even beyond social media apps towards building the future of human connection and the deeper technology that supports that. Also, we’re still very excited about the glasses and metaverse vision for the next generation of computing.
“What’s your perfect lunch?” - Dylan
Chicken tenders.
“AI is about to unleash many new billionaires. How should they think about spending that money for social good? Should they start new companies, invest in philanthropies like CZI, or something else? How do you think about the balance in your own work between Meta and CZI as forces for change?” - Cameron
I actually think the idea that you make money with a company and then find a way to do good with a philanthropy is a really outdated way of thinking about things. In most cases, the companies people build will be the main way they make an impact in the world. That’s why it’s so important that the work of these companies pushes human progress forward. And then yes, of course it’s great if you can also find a cause or mission that you care about to re-invest in.
“I would love to know if Mark is aware that his 2000s style (hoodies, basic tees, Harvard dorm-core) is having a moment with young people. Does he remember his favorite thing to wear during college?” - Biz
Adidas slides.
“You see humanity at a pretty absurd scale, what’s something you’ve learned about people that makes you optimistic about the future?” - Shira
When you put the power of new technology into people’s hands, some pretty amazing things will happen. A surprising thing from this journey has been that there are a lot of people in the world that don’t want this to happen, because having people broadly be empowered is an equalizing force and a democratizing force and it takes power away from incumbents and means that anyone gets to express themselves or contribute ideas to the world. It’s a surprisingly controversial idea, but I think if you look back across history, individual people pursuing their own aspirations has been the way that humanity tends to make progress across domains -- whether that’s science, economic prosperity, culture, all sorts of things. This is what we’re trying to do with AI too. We don’t want there to be some central AI that runs the world. We want to build very strong AI and put it in people’s hands. That’s what we mean when we talk about delivering personal superintelligence to everyone in the world.
OK, this is Emily now... One more thing: The Meta team gave me the opportunity to interview Mark about the Meta Glasses that launched today. I’m wearing the Starfire pair that Kylie Jenner designed. We also discussed watches and Daft Punk. Video below. Enjoy.
Posting and browsing on the Feed Me Job Board is free.
“Something iffy is happening with the Ciroc IV drips at Cannes.” Turns out it’s not all media mixers and Sauvignon Blanc over here…
The annual Martha’s Vineyard Possible Dreams auction includes tea at Belle Burden’s house.
In communion with the Rosalía Lux world tour stage, new Chinatown club Gosh has a confessional, too. Where else / who else is getting in on the trend of telling secrets into a box? Does the Cobble Hill Gossip Line count?
Only two people attended David Hockney’s funeral. As he wished.
Hillstone in New York has limited reservations to one week out.
New York City started handing out a brand new area code last week: 465 Only the latest (but perhaps greatest) way to judge someone’s NYC bona fides. The city ran out of 212s in 1984, introducing 718s to Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. In 1992, 917 was introduced for cell phones and pagers (shoutout Carrie Bradshaw). The most recent unveiling of a new prefix was 332, in 2017. 465 is now the eighth area code servicing the city.
Tech:NYC has compiled a first ever NYC directory of vibe-coded apps. For safety, transit, weather, where to find an emergency baguette, Knick-knacks (unofficial Knicks gear, curated obsessively), and more. The directory is live but not officially announced, ahead of the opening of public nominations today. It was curated by Obviously NYC, the social layer of Tech:NYC.
Ina Garten is starting a podcast. Vox is producing it. It will take place in New York, not the Hamptons.
From the Feed Me Tip Line: “If anyone is itching to open an independent movie theater in Litchfield County, CT… a hundred-year-old single screen movie theatre just hit the market.”
From the Feed Me Tip Line: “I finally found soft serve in the neighborhood. Ube and vanilla soft serve at Bread and Joe Cafe on 4th Ave by Prospect Ave subway.”
"Having people broadly be empowered is an equalizing force and a democratizing force and it takes power away from incumbents and means that anyone gets to express themselves or contribute ideas to the world."
That's cute, Mark. Whose work is stolen to train the models and whose work benefits as a result? Who gets rich on the AI boom and who is put out of work? Who gets to enjoy this power and who gets to live next to the data centers? My wish is for extractive tech billionaires to have a minimum amount of integrity and candor about what they're doing. Don't treat people like idiots.
Adidas slides