Making Meta | Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth (CTO)
Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, Meta's CTO and an early Facebook engineer, shares insights from building the News Feed and mobile ads, Meta's turnaround, and leadership lessons, emphasizing communication, leveraging managers, and embracing curiosity.
Deep Dive Analysis
15 Topic Outline
Early Days at Facebook and Startup Realities
Leveraging Leaders and Communicating with Managers
Meta's Culture of Transparency and Information Management
When Leaders Should Get Involved in Details
Building the News Feed and Handling User Rejection
Career Growth, Passion, and Variety of Experience
The Importance of Trusting Your Own Expertise
The Philosophy of 'Communication is the Job'
Comparing Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro
Lessons from Meta's Downturn and Turnaround
Navigating Organizational Changes and Workforce Adjustments
Personal Failures and the Power of Curiosity
Book Recommendations and Favorite Media
Favorite Interview Question and Product Discoveries
Life Motto and Photography Insights
5 Key Concepts
Leveraging Leaders
This concept emphasizes that an individual's job is often to 'get things done' effectively, which frequently requires utilizing the tools, influence, and support of their managers or mentors. It counters the common belief that asking for help signifies weakness, instead framing it as a strategic way to achieve goals faster and more competently by clearing roadblocks or gaining necessary context.
Communication is the Job
This philosophy posits that having an impact, creating lasting change, or leading effectively is exclusively achieved through communication, whether verbal or through artifacts. It stresses that if a message doesn't break through or is misunderstood, the responsibility lies with the communicator to refine their approach, as one cannot 'not communicate' and silence itself conveys meaning.
Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect
This describes the phenomenon where one reads a newspaper article (or any media) about a topic they are an expert in, finds it full of errors or inverted causality, and then turns the page to read another article on an unfamiliar topic, accepting it as gospel truth. It serves as a reminder to approach all information, especially external criticism, with a critical perspective, understanding that one often knows more than the critics about their own domain.
Identity Threat
This refers to the psychological state where an individual perceives a core part of how they see themselves is being questioned or challenged. In such moments, people tend to react with their 'worst behavior' to defend that self-conception, as reconceptualizing one's identity is an emotionally expensive process. Recognizing this can help in managing one's own reactions and understanding others'.
Embracing Curiosity in Challenge
Instead of reacting defensively or with fear when faced with profound disagreement or personal criticism, this concept suggests embracing genuine curiosity. By asking 'fascinating, tell me more about why you think that,' one can tear down walls, foster open-mindedness, and gain deeper understanding, often leading to more productive outcomes and personal growth.
7 Questions Answered
The early days were intense and not glamorous, involving long hours (up to 120 per week), lack of sleep (waking every four hours for two years to check anti-spam reports), and a need to solve problems without existing experts or support infrastructure.
Transparency is crucial because it fully leverages the talent of employees by providing them with comprehensive information, enabling them to act on opportunities and contribute beyond top-down mandates. While it comes with challenges like information overload and potential leaks, it maximizes collective potential and reduces employee frustration.
Leaders should go deep into details on 'hinge' issues that are critical for success or failure, or when they have a clear vision for a specific part of the product. For other areas, they should delegate and empower trusted, talented people, providing clear guidelines on where flexibility exists and where it doesn't.
Meta learned the importance of conviction in building products, even when initial user feedback is negative. Despite outrage, users immediately doubled their product usage, revealing a cognitive dissonance between stated and revealed preferences, indicating the product itself was right, even if some details of its execution were flawed.
Optimize for aggressive learning and variety of experience, especially early in your career. Don't be afraid to change roles every six months if you're not learning enough, as this builds diverse skills. Also, seek roles that are either 'carrying a lot of water' in overlooked but important areas or are on the company's most important initiatives, as both offer invaluable experience and visibility.
While the Apple Vision Pro excels in high-resolution movie watching when stationary, the Meta Quest 3 is considered a better overall product due to its comfort, wider field of view, brighter displays, better hand tracking, and lack of distracting motion blur in mixed reality, all at a significantly lower price point.
Key lessons include taking the long view and insulating internally from external narratives, understanding that one knows more about the company's value than critics, and the critical importance of effective communication with the market about long-term investments (like AI and Reality Labs). The downturn also highlighted the cyclical nature of business for a workforce that hadn't experienced one.
22 Actionable Insights
1. Leverage Leaders for Success
Actively seek help from your manager, partner, or mentor because your job is to get things done well, and they often possess the tools or influence needed to unblock you or clear your path. This prevents wasted time and frustration, as they are rooting for your success.
2. Communication is the Job
Understand that your ability to have an impact, whether in relationships, teams, or the world, is exclusively achieved through effective communication, so prioritize clear and impactful verbal and written expression.
3. Embrace Curiosity in Conflict
When faced with strong disagreement or an “internal clench,” respond with genuine curiosity by asking “fascinating, tell me more about why you think that,” to foster open-mindedness and break down communication walls.
4. Prioritize Kind Feedback
Deliver feedback with kindness, ensuring it’s productive and helpful to the recipient, rather than merely being honest in a way that causes them to feel bad or helpless.
5. Optimize for Aggressive Learning
Prioritize roles and projects that offer aggressive learning opportunities, even if it means frequently changing jobs early in your career, as this builds a diverse skill set that compounds over time and prevents boredom.
6. Strategic Project Selection
Strategically choose projects that either involve “carrying a lot of water” in overlooked but important areas, or work on the company’s most critical initiatives, as both offer high visibility and invaluable experience.
7. Proactive Progress Updates
Send concise updates (e.g., 5-10 sentences) to your manager outlining progress, current program, and any blockers, explicitly stating “no response required” if all looks good, to keep them informed and make it easy for them to help when needed.
8. Simplify Manager’s Help
When you need help from your manager, provide specific, actionable requests, such as drafting an email for them to send or framing specific yes/no questions, to make it super cheap and efficient for them to assist you.
9. Tailor Communication to Managers
Recognize that every manager has different preferences for receiving updates; proactively ask them about their preferred cadence and format for staying informed when you start working with them.
10. Extreme Ownership of Communication
When things go wrong, take extreme ownership by asking what you could have communicated differently to achieve a better outcome, rather than blaming the audience or external factors.
11. Address Fears for Engagement
When communicating about an issue, start by explicitly acknowledging and validating your audience’s fears and concerns, as they will not trust your conclusions if they believe you don’t understand the core problem.
12. Vary Communication Modalities
Employ multiple communication modalities (e.g., all-hands meetings, written posts, metaphors) to reiterate key points, as people absorb information differently and at varying rates across these formats.
13. Recognize Identity Threat
Cultivate self-awareness to recognize when you are experiencing “identity threat” (feeling a core part of your self-conception is questioned), as this is when your worst behavior is most likely to emerge.
14. Trust Your Own Conviction
Cultivate self-trust and conviction in your own point of view, believing that your intellect and experience provide intrinsic value, especially when facing external pressures or self-doubt.
15. Filter External Narratives
When facing external criticism or praise, moderate your attachment to these narratives by remembering that you possess more internal knowledge about your work or company than outside critics.
16. Critique with Discernment
Engage with all criticism by reading it carefully, looking for potential truths you might be inclined to resist, but do not accept it blindly; use it as another perspective to integrate into your informed view.
17. Explore Unexpected Passions
Don’t prematurely dismiss potential new roles or areas of work, as you might discover unexpected passions and learn a tremendous amount, even if they initially seem outside your perceived identity or expertise.
18. Managers: Refuse to Rule
As a manager, empower your team by sometimes refusing to rule on every decision, instead affirming their capability and encouraging them to figure things out themselves, fostering their growth and confidence.
19. Apply Parenting to Management
Explore modern parenting literature to gain insights into managing emotions and engaging with people, as these lessons can significantly improve your effectiveness as a manager.
20. Regret Personal Failures
Focus on learning from personal failures where you negatively impacted another person, rather than technical or product failures, as these are the ones that truly matter and offer profound lessons.
21. Hire for Superpowers
In hiring, prioritize identifying a candidate’s “superpowers” or greatest strengths, focusing on what they are exceptionally good at and how that can be leveraged, rather than solely on weaknesses.
22. Create Art for Yourself
When creating art, focus on making it for yourself and loving the process, rather than chasing broader resonance or external validation, as that shifts it from art to entertainment.
6 Key Quotes
Nobody wants you to be more awesome than your manager does, because when you're amazing, your manager, his life gets easier, her life gets easier. So, I just think that's like the mentality we get into is like, no, no, no, like they're testing me, they're not. They are rooting for you, I promise you that.
Andrew Bosworth
If you want to have an impact on the world around you, it is exclusively done through the the the creation of artifacts or or verbalizations that like affect other humans. Like that's the only, that is all there is. That's all there is if you want to have an impact.
Andrew Bosworth
You know more than the critics do. You know more than the analysts in the marketplace do. You know more than the media does. You know more than the podcasters do. You know more than the Twitter does. You know more about what's real and substantial of value about our company than they do.
Andrew Bosworth
It's only when the tide goes out we see who's not wearing swimming trunks.
Warren Buffett (quoted by Andrew Bosworth)
You're never as good as they say you are when you're winning, and they're never as bad as they say you are when you're losing.
Lou Holtz (quoted by Andrew Bosworth)
People, they don't remember what you said, they just remember how you made them feel. That's all. It's all anyone remembers is how you made them feel.
Andrew Bosworth
2 Protocols
HPMs (Highlight People Me) for Manager Updates
Andrew Bosworth- **Highlights**: Share big-ticket items and key updates the manager needs to know.
- **People**: Report on team members, including anyone in trouble, at risk, or doing amazing work that needs recognition.
- **Me**: Provide an update on your personal well-being and how you are doing.
Effective Communication for Unblocking Work
Andrew Bosworth- Send a concise email (5-10 sentences) to your manager with a clear status update: 'Here's where things are.'
- Clearly state what you are blocked on and the current progress.
- Frame the email with 'If this all looks good to you, no response required. If there is something here that you want me to do better, different, that you think you could help with, let me know.'
- If blocked, make it easy for your manager to help by drafting an email to the blocking party or framing specific yes/no questions.