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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg began 2017 with a bold personal challenge: "to have visited and met people in every state in the US by the end of the year."
So far, his whistlestop tour of the states certainly bears all the hallmarks of early political canvassing.
As part of the challenge, Zuckerberg reportedly wanted to meet longtime Democrats who voted for Trump in the last election and asked his team to reach out and find such people.
[...]
Such a tour becomes even more conspicuous in light of unsealed court filings from a class-action lawsuit in 2016 in which Zuckerberg attempted to dilute shareholder power and afford himself permanent control of the $440 billion company.
Of particular note in the proceedings was a message sent to Zuckerberg by Marc Andreessen, one of Facebook's most prominent investors, in which he raised the issue of "how to define the government service thing without freaking out shareholders that you are losing commitment."
"It's the thing people will point to on announcement and say 'what the f**k are you guys doing agreeing to this', particularly since... government service would require you to give up control of Facebook anyway and it's a moot point," said Andreessen, adding credence to speculation that Zuckerberg will make a run for political office at some point in the future.
One of the richest men in the world will be looking out for the little guy, right?
Source: https://www.rt.com/usa/386718-zuckerberg-political-campaign-rumors/
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 02 2017, @03:05PM (9 children)
It's amazing the number of my fellow engineers who get this mistaken impression that they know jack-shit about running a country.
Anyone who has spent substantial time with engineers would know that that being able to plan a 40nm board layout or check a manual to determine the appropriate wire gauge for support 17 tons across a 20 foot span doesn't make you smart.
Also, I would do anything to save myself from people who've only ever taken econ 101 reducing every social problem to a linear supply/demand curve.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 02 2017, @03:16PM (1 child)
Engineers generally lack the skill to get people to do what they want, as politicians. When they morph into technocrats, though, they can become a much more positive and helpful variety of bureaucrat.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @04:30PM
Steps for an engineer to gain the skills to become president / ceo type.
Step 1. Surround yourself with people who only say Yes.
Step 2. Insulate yourself from cause and effect loops.
Step 3. Tell yourself it's THEIR problem if you don't understand something.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Tuesday May 02 2017, @04:33PM (5 children)
Perhaps, but I'd rather have engineers in public office than a bunch of lawyers. At least engineers know how to solve problems, not make them worse.
To be oneself, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday May 02 2017, @06:39PM
.... aaaaand that's the problem in that a lot of "problems" are rackets where the "right" people are making money.
What an engineer sees as a ridiculous design mistake is some saledroid's commission opportunity or upselling feature.
If the purpose of the government was to fix things, things would run quite a bit different and engineers would already be in charge. If the purpose of the government is to entrench corruption, then you need something like the breaking bad "Criminal" defense attorney.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @06:45PM (3 children)
At least engineers know how to solve problems,
That's a false equivalency.
Engineers know how to solve a specific class of problem involving hard sciences like physics and chemistry.
Lawyers know how to solve a different class of problem involved soft sciences like psychology and sociology.
Guess which class most closely resembles the problems of governing, especially governing a democracy?
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday May 02 2017, @07:05PM (1 child)
Lawyers know how to solve a different class of problem
With all due respect its more like the consultant who's pretty good at keeping the money rolling in and fixing things may or may not help with keeping the money rolling in.
Like the old joke about a lawyer starves in a one-lawyer-town but once a town has two lawyers nothing gets fixed, but the two lawyers do get fat. Any other profession, if the existing population in a professional field is starving, doubling the population would result in utter famine, with the sole exception of lawyers, LOL.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @07:41PM
With all due respect you suck at analogies.
Telling jokes that illustrate your ignorance of fields you have no experience in isn't an analogy, its just superficial invective.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @04:14AM
Guess which class most closely resembles the problems of governing, especially governing a democracy?
Neither, because the differences are insignificant. Lawyers tend to want power and money above all, and many are sociopaths/psychopaths. Of course, that problem applies to most politicians, and being an engineer would not really solve anything. The soft sciences are also generally useless and studies can be replicated only some of the time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:00PM
Right now, it isn't engineers with economics minors. We get:
gardeners, hair stylists, receptionists, janitors, burger flippers...
Um... let's go with the engineers.