Mark Zuckerberg is not Mother Teresa and doesn’t claim to be!

In the name of full disclosure, I have never met Mother Teresa or Mark Zuckerberg. What follows is one man’s opinion (perception) of their reality. Measure this against the “reality” of your perception. Reality is the facts. Perception is how we view the facts.

The alleged “scandalous” behavior of Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg is headline news this week. This got me thinking about how much of the world feels but doesn’t always think! Mark Zuckerberg is not Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa is not Mark Zuckerberg. In the name of truth in advertising – neither claimed to be anything but themselves.

Mother Teresa is a saint. Even most non-believers in her God or her faith admire her works – she touched lepers and other untouchables. Her messages were simple – these touch our hearts and for some our souls. A sampling is shown below:

• “Peace begins with a smile.”

• “God is the friend of silence.”

• “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.”

Mark Zuckerberg never claimed to be a saint even though many worship him for his’ ”works (Facebook).” Mark Zuckerberg has more followers than Mother Teresa but I’d bet my soul she has touched more people more deeply than he has. Some of his messages are shown below:

• “Connectivity is a human right.”

• “Our philosophy is that we care about people first.”

• “Facebook was not created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a mission - to make the world more open and connected.”

The messages of these two well-known people are similar in some ways. Perhaps the difference in their persona is many (most?) people admire what Mother Teresa did with her life (but do not desire to do what she did) and many (most?) would like to have what Mark Zuckerberg has.

If Facebook had been established as a “not for profit” company, Mark Zuckerberg, today might be honored for his humanitarian spirit instead of being invited to testify before Congress for “what he knew and when did he know it.” I believe he built Facebook to do what it does.

Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge is power.” Today – technology (internet / social media / AI) allows us to access all the great works of literature and also to know “what’s inside of your head, heart and wallet” often before you, as the consumer, realizes it or acts on it). In 1972, I was stationed in the Pentagon of Europe (USAEUR and 7th Army Headquarters Heidelberg, German).

The Staff Sergeant in our unit had spent most of his life in military intelligence. He explained to me one day, “when we were playing tennis on the courts behind our barracks, there was a satellite in space that could read the label on the tennis ball, when we hit it.” His message was simple – “privacy is dead” – there are eyes in the sky.

In 1993, I met Jim. He, too, had spent his life in the world of intelligence. His expertise was Bayesian Economics (Bayesian econometrics is a branch of econometrics which applies Bayesian principles to economic modelling. Bayesianism is based on a degree-of-belief interpretation of probability, as opposed to a relative-frequency interpretation. – Wikipedia). I didn’t understand the definition so he explained the theory to me in words I could understand.

Jim explained that in 1974, when the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaped Patty Hearst, he was approached by the FBI to help them by using his modeling to find Patty Hearst. Jim went away to ponder the possibilities of success. He came back to the FBI a week later and explained, “I can’t find Patty Hearst but I can help you find everyone in America who is just like Patty Hearst.”

Remember this was 44 years ago and the technology already existed then to do much of what Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are being criticized for doing today.

A few years ago I heard a Ted Talk about a major retailer that sent a 16 - year old girl coupons for diapers before she had told her parents she was pregnant. Big Data Algorithms tracking her buying habits and those of her contemporaries were tipped off when she bought a purse large enough to hold diapers and increased her purchase of vitamins. The store was right – she was pregnant.

Call the above “Big Brother” or an “Eye in the Sky” or “Artificial Intelligence” – the issue is the same, Mark Zuckerberg didn’t create the problem – he capitalized on the world and technology as it was, is and will be. Today whether you are a “buyer” or “seller” of products/services, THE GAME HAS CHANGED. You are competing or “consuming” in a world that I call “strategic blinking” – decision making at the speed of thought. The driver of this marketplace on “speed” is not in your sales pitch it is about the first source (read – seller) to approach me with what I want at the moment I discover I want it. This new world is about facilitating buying before prospects enter the market – not trying to sell after they call you for product and price information.

Here’s the dilemma – as a buyer what are you willing to do to maintain freedom of thought or what will you give up for convenience and “Friends?” As a seller, what are you willing to do to capitalize on the market opportunity that is AI? Don’t criticize Mark Zuckerberg, if you’ll do what he does to get what he’s got. Most of us are not Mother Teresa.

With apologies to Ben Franklin, consider this: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety (or convenience or “Friends”), deserve neither liberty nor safety.”