The Art of Being Obtuse (Like Mark Zuckerberg)

Obtuse: To be slow at understanding simple things, or to act like you do not get something that is obvious to everyone else.

That’s probably the best word I can think of to assign to Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction to any criticism of Meta. When the company is criticized for compromising teenager’s mental health, he suggests the problem isn’t that bad. When people warn that the Meta glasses are being used by perverts to take images of women, he dismisses the concerns and focuses only on the positive use cases. When the world calls for a slowing of AI advancements to really understand their impact on humanity, he “argues that competition and legal liability already give companies sufficient reason to build their models responsibly.”

“Obtuse” describes a fundamental problem with many other leaders of large organizations (or governments) today as well. They see only one small myopic view and are unable or unwilling to understand the broader implications. They focus on the optimistic micro perspective instead of the realistic macro one. Sadly, offering up case studies or examples doesn’t seem to help. They just double down on what they already think. So, what would it take for leaders with these limited mindsets to actually understand the implications of what they promote?

In movies, the only thing that ever works is bringing the consequences to their doorstep. Unless they feel for themselves what it’s like to have privacy compromised, or the toxic effects of cyberbullying, those scenarios are easy to minimize. Sometimes an evolution of thinking doesn’t happen until a wake up call comes first.