Mar 11
25
Just Answer the Question
I attended an interesting event today. I sat and watched Senator Orrin Hatch ask Mark Zuckerberg a bunch of questions submitted by students at BYU.
I have never liked Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg because of some of his business decisions. That said, I tried really hard not to like him today but he really did a great job convincing me that I should like him. He had really good answers to all the questions, he presented himself really well and actually said a few things that made me rethink the reasons that I haven’t liked him in the past.
And then he did something really interesting. “I don’t really get the chance to sit down next to a senator very often so I’d like to ask you a few questions as well.” He managed to turn things on Senator Hatch (quite innocently I believe) by asking him things like “What is the government doing to protect innovation and keep the Internet as open as possible?”
I almost thought Hatch was going to answer one of his questions… Almost.
Wow, I have never been so embarrassed to be from the same state as someone else. I tried counting the times Hatch threw flattery at Mark thinking that would be an acceptable intelligent answer to his question. “You’re so great. I respect you sooo much. I am really proud of you. Did I mention how great I think you are? I just want you to be my friend.” Towards the end of the event when Hatch would speak I noticed that a good portion of the crowd just tuned him out and used that time to stop and discuss more intelligent things among themselves.
So if I could offer my two hosts a piece of advice, here’s what I would say. Mark, do more speaking engagements, I thought you were brilliant. Orrin, just learn one thing please. ANSWER THE STUPID QUESTION!
Related articles
- Hatch hosting Facebook founder on Friday in Utah (thehill.com)
- The Facebook God is Coming to Utah (seo.com)
- Facing Tough Reelection, Senator Hatch Turns to Zuckerberg (socialtimes.com)
