Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a return to Harvard today, and spoke at the commencement ceremony. He also received an honorary doctorate in law and reminded everyone of Bill Gates except that Gates had made a return to Harvard at the graduation ceremony. There was also the difference in their speeches: While Gate’s was laced with humor and pun, Zuckerberg’s speech seemed like it was coming from a politician.
The topics Zuckerberg talked about, ranged from climate change, affordable health care, universal basic income and automation.
Speaking about the student debt, a topic which was obviously close to the hearts of many of the audience, Zucky said:
Let’s face it: There is something wrong with our system when I can leave here and make billions of dollars in 10 years while millions of students can’t even afford to pay off their loans, let alone start a business.
Well, blaming the system already? I would say that is one short step away from wanting to change it — although there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Zuckerberg also commented upon entrepreneurship and how, it was important to let people take multiple shots at being successful.
The greatest successes come from having the freedom to fail. Now today we have a level of wealth inequality that hurts everyone. When you don’t have the freedom to take your idea and turn it into a historic enterprise, we all lose, and right now today our society is way over-indexed on rewarding people when they’re successful and we don’t do nearly enough to make sure everyone can take lots of different shots.i
The talk then moved on to automation, as Zuckerberg said that this generation would of necessity, have to deal with the job cuts that will be brought about by automation in sectors like car. However, he also said that there was the potential to do a lot more.
This is the struggle of our time: The forces of freedom, openness, and global community against the forces of authoritarianism, isolationism, and nationalism. Forces for the flow of knowledge, trade, and immigration against those who would slow them down. These are not battles between nations, it’s a battle of ideas.
Zuckerberg finally asked students to work and ensure that everyone on the planet, had a goal worthy of their life, that they cold strive to achieve. He said that merely obtaining your own purpose was not enough, and it was important to ensure that everyone had a sense of purpose.
In our generation, the struggle of whether we connect more or achieve our greatest opportunities comes down to your ability to build communities and create a world where every single person has a sense of purpose.
Finally, the Facebook CEO said that the idea of a single eureka moment was a lie propagated by movies and pop culture and it was actually more important to just make a start.
You can watch the full commencement right below:
