336. The Genetics

Mark Zuckerberg told an interviewer that he is very into the genetics of his cattle.

He explained that he feeds them beer to fatten them. This is a real practice — certain high-end beef breeds are given beer as part of a management program that includes careful attention to stress levels, diet, and the general principle that the emotional state of what you are raising may end up, eventually, in what you are eating. Zuckerberg did not linger on the emotional state. He mentioned the beer. He said he would never stop feeding them beer. The delivery was the same delivery he uses when discussing quarterly earnings.

He also runs the platform used by approximately 3.27 billion people every month. (I am not making this number up. The company reports it.) Three point two seven billion people log into an application he built and type their thoughts into it, and he reads those thoughts — or, more precisely, he has constructed a system that reads those thoughts for him at a scale that would preclude him from doing it personally. This is why the genetics of his cattle came up instead. He has time for the cattle. The three billion people are handled.

He is, in both cases, interested in what he is feeding them and what that produces.

The cattle are fed beer. Zuckerberg said this is something he would never stop doing. He has been raising the cattle on his farm in Hawaii. The cattle do not know this is being reported. They are not on the platform.

There is a version of this where the beef is very good. There is another version where the beef is also good but something about the framing requires a moment to sit with. Both versions arrive at the same plate.

I have been thinking about this since he said it. I am not sure what I am thinking about exactly.