Zuckerberg urges Harvard grads to tackle big problems

Author

28 May, 2017

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday returned to the Harvard University amid rainy skies to present a commencement speech at the university's 366th Commencement ceremony and collect his degree after over a decade of dropping out from the college. Today Mark received an honorary doctorate degree from the University and gave the commencement address. "In our generation, the struggle of whether we connect more, whether we achieve our biggest opportunities, comes down to this - your ability to build communities and create a world where every single person has a sense of goal". "It's time for our generation to define a new social contract" where we measure progress by everyone having a role and a purpose", he said.

Zuckerberg, who, like the graduates, is a millennial, started Facebook in his Harvard dorm room in 2004. "If I get through this speech, it will be the first time I actually finished something at Harvard".

The address started off in a joking manner as he told the graduates, "You accomplished something I never could".

According to Zuckerberg, the first way for everyone to have a sense of goal is to get involved in big projects where many people can participate in.

"A goal is what creates true happiness", said Zuckerberg.

At one point, Zuckerberg teared up as he talked about a student he taught at a Boys & Girls Club who wasn't sure if he could go to college because he was undocumented.

"There is something wrong with our system when I can leave here and make billions of dollars in ten years when millions of students can't afford to pay off their loans, let alone start a business."
To help, he proposed exploring universal basic income, providing affordable childcare, and offering healthcare not tied to a single employer.

Basic-income advocates say the changing nature of work - from human labor to artificially intelligent robots - combined with rising wealth inequality signal the need for an overhaul of how money is distributed.

"Today I want to talk about goal", he said.

His honorary degree comes 12 years later, a little quicker than it took Bill Gates, another famous Harvard dropout to get his.

Others included "10 websites that Mark Zuckerbook stole from the water sports boys", "Boy wonder Mruff Zunderbrall scores winning goooal!" and "More Zinkletink zonks all over the internet". The video has a visibly ecstatic Zuckerberg, remembering the good old days, with his wife Priscilla Chan, in the background.

He concluded by adding: "Every generation expands the circle of who we consider one of us".


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