{"id":5673,"date":"2026-04-03T02:45:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/5673\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T02:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:45:16","slug":"mark-zuckerberg-had-no-concept-of-small-talk-and-would-just-stare-at-you-the-vc-behind-airbnb-and-reddit-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/5673\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Zuckerberg \u2018had no concept of small talk\u2019 and would \u2018just stare at you,\u2019 the VC behind Airbnb and Reddit says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u2018Gen Z stare\u2019<\/a> became an internet meme last year\u2014used to describe a blank, expressionless look from a generation often glued to their phones. But it\u2019s not just a phenomenon among today\u2019s young people\u2014even Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> once had his own version of it.<\/p>\n

On a recent episode of The Social Radars podcast<\/a>, Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham <\/a>recalled meeting the Facebook cofounder around 2007\u2014and being struck by his lack of social skills.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Zuckerberg] has this weird thing where if he didn\u2019t have anything to say, he wouldn\u2019t fill the gap with passing conversation,\u201d Graham said. \u201cHe had no concept of small talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The silence coming from the twentysomething Harvard<\/a> dropout, Graham added, was more jarring than expected: \u201cIt was surprisingly disconcerting. I didn\u2019t realize how important small talk was until I met the lack of it. But he would just stare at you if there wasn\u2019t anything [to say].\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, Graham cofounded the software company Viaweb, which Yahoo<\/a> acquired in 1998 for $49 million. In 2005, he co-founded the startup accelerator Y Combinator, which has helped launch billion-dollar Silicon Valley companies including Airbnb<\/a>, Stripe<\/a>, Dropbox<\/a>, and Reddit<\/a>. While his exact net worth is not public, Graham has likely earned substantial income through his investments.<\/p>\n

Even Mark Zuckerberg agrees he came across \u2018as robotic\u2019 before finding success<\/p>\n

Now 41, Zuckerberg\u2019s communication skills have in fact visibly evolved. From delivering Harvard\u2019s commencement address in 2017 to testifying before Congress multiple times, he\u2019s grown into a far more polished public speaker\u2014and it\u2019s worked to his advantage. Zuckerberg himself now has a net worth<\/a> of $210 billion.<\/p>\n

Graham quipped his first meeting with Zuckerberg was before he \u201chad learned to imitate a normal person,\u201d\u2014but the tech founder himself has acknowledged he has struggled with communication as he\u2019s taken his social media platform from a Harvard dorm room idea to one of the biggest companies in the world<\/a> with a $1.5 trillion market cap.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, historically I\u2019ve had a very hard time expressing myself,\u201d Zuckerberg told NBC News<\/a> in 2019. \u201cI just come across as robotic.\u201d<\/p>\n

He echoed that sentiment years later on Threads<\/a>, saying that feedback about his awkwardness initially made things worse\u2014but he\u2019s improved with time: \u201cBeing awkward and getting negative feedback on how I came across definitely made me more careful and scripted,\u201d Zuckerberg wrote<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

Fortune reached out to Y Combinator and Meta<\/a> for further comment.<\/p>\n

Communication is more than a nice-to-have\u2014it\u2019s a skill that billionaire CEOs like Richard Branson and Jamie Dimon say is table stakes<\/p>\n

Graham\u2019s observations about a young Zuckerberg\u2014and his evolution\u2014underscore a broader point: communication, even seemingly trivial small talk, can shape how ideas are received and careers unfold. While Zuckerberg had a breakthrough product and early momentum to offset his social awkwardness, many Gen Z workers don\u2019t have that cushion\u2014and are struggling with communication in today\u2019s tech-driven workplace.<\/p>\n

About 38% say networking makes them anxious<\/a>, according to a survey conducted by Strand Partners for LinkedIn<\/a>, with many young people avoiding it altogether because they don\u2019t know where to start. But the stakes go beyond just missed opportunities: communication gaps are among the reasons some employers have already begun giving the pink slip to recent Gen Z hires<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Strong communication has long been a hallmark of effective leadership. Richard Branson<\/a>, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group, has called it the \u201cmost important skill any leader can possess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunication makes the world go round. It facilitates human connections, and allows us to learn, grow and progress,\u201d Branson wrote<\/a> in 2015. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about speaking or reading, but understanding what is being said \u2013 and in some cases what is not being said.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in the age of AI, those human skills<\/a> are becoming even more valuable than ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAI can\u2019t replace genuine human connection,\u201d said<\/a> Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. \u201cIt can\u2019t listen, care, or inspire people. That\u2019s what leaders do. Technology can help us work smarter, but only people can build trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a view shared by JPMorgan Chase<\/a> CEO Jamie Dimon<\/a>, who said that soft skills like communication matter more than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy advice to people would be critical thinking, learn skills, learn your EQ [emotional quotient], learn how to be good in a meeting, how to communicate, how to write,\u201d Dimon told Fox<\/a> News late last year. \u201cYou\u2019ll have plenty of jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u2018Gen Z stare\u2019 became an internet meme last year\u2014used to describe a blank, expressionless look from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"tags":[765,2683,3403,3313,5470,3053,618,994,6018,6019,6020,6021],"class_list":{"0":"post-5673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mark-zuckerberg","8":"tag-billionaires","9":"tag-careers","10":"tag-entrepreneurs","11":"tag-entrepreneurship","12":"tag-gen-z","13":"tag-investors","14":"tag-mark-zuckerberg","15":"tag-meta","16":"tag-start-up","17":"tag-tech-culture","18":"tag-tech-start-ups","19":"tag-y-combinator"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116338486350112373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}