Mark Zuckerberg:
This is a great thread. I think it's good for the world that people have all these different ways of thinking about what they want to do with their lives. That kind of diversity is probably what allows the richness of experiences we have today. If we all optimized for the same thing, that probably wouldn't be possible.
For me personally, I focus my life around doing what I think will create the best possible impact for the world -- which is making the world more open/transparent. I just feel like we're all very fortunate to have the lives we do and the tools to really improve the world, and I/we owe it to everyone else to put those tools which have been given to me/us to good use.
My theory on this is somewhat similar to what Stuart describes above -- focusing on meaning rather than happiness or pleasure. One defining moment for me was a few years back when we had to decide whether to sell the company. Many people made the argument that if we sold then we would be set for life and would be able to just have fun and do whatever they wanted. Ultimately we decided it was more important to us to spend our lives working hard and making our mission a reality than just focusing on our own happiness.
I'm definitely not saying this is the only way or even the best way to be. This is how I think about my life, but as I said above I think it's good for all of us that there's diversity in how people think about theirs.
I do think though that you can't optimize for everything though. That is, if you choose to focus primarily on impact, I don't think it's possible to fully optimize for happiness. And if your primary goal is happiness, then in general I don't think you'll have the biggest impact you're capable of. The two are often aligned (working with great people on challenging problems is very rewarding) but ultimately there are tradeoffs that each person must resolve for themselves.
Interesting thread though :)Read the full thread for the rest of the conversation.
