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What would the world be like if Zuck had paid attention to his Facebook comments and read David Graeber?
Published onDec 04, 2021
Meta

I’ve been absent for a bit because I spent November doing NaNoWrimo. It turns out 1600+ words per day, even terrible ones, is…a lot. More on that later. For now, here’s something I drafted the day of the Facebook name-change but didn’t have time to finish until now.


I’m sure you could do this with any book, but here’s a fun one. Back in 2015, Mark Zuckerberg (in)famously went on a 50-state listening tour and announced he would be reading 26 books that year (one every two weeks, I guess?). Naturally, people took to his platform to recommend countless books which he, like the rest of us, no doubt ignored.

But oh, imagine if he had taken this particular commenters’ advice:

A Facebook comment that reads: "Mark, one book I recommend is 'Debt: The First 5,000 Years" by David Graeber. It has really impacted me in how I see the economy, debt, as well as history. I'd say it's a must-read if you are in any way interested in history or anthropology."

What would his company, and the world, look like if he had decided on a truly bold, critical direction for Facebook rather than the insipid, dystopian vision that is the Metaverse? Never read the comments, indeed.

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