By Erin GriffithElon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Marc Andreessen show how the tech industry’s insular culture remains largely unchanged.
source: The New York Times/Cari Vander Yacht
Last month, Mark Zuckerberg spent hours touting his love of jiujitsu, wrestling and UFC on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which is known for its hypermasculinity. Watching TV was not active enough, Mr. Zuckerberg said. Compared with social media, TV was “beta.”
Elon Musk, who signed a deal to buy Twitter seemingly on a whim and is now headed to court because he wants to back out of the purchase, has lobbed “debate me, bro” taunts at Twitter’s chief executive in between doling out advice about intermittent fasting and worrying about population collapse.
And Marc Andreessen, the high-profile tech investor, recently opposed a plan to build multifamily housing in the Silicon Valley town where he lives and then announced his latest and largest deal: a residential real estate start-up led by Adam Neumann, the entrepreneur who notoriously incinerated billions of dollars in value at WeWork.
Their actions seemed designed for maximum outrage. Zuck likes to wrestle with his buddies? Elon thinks he’s above the law? Andreessen trusted that entrepreneur with how much money?
Tech’s most powerful elite seem to be embracing a new tone lately. It is more openly defiant, combative and a turnaround from just a few years ago, when the industry was put on its heels by exposés about its “bro” culture.
