From a point of view, I might even agree with Zuck's asinine statement. When I was in my 20's, I had no idea how many things I truly did not know. So, in my limited "fresh out of college" way, I was pushing maximum intelligence. As the years have flown by, I've learned just how vast many fields are. Introspectively, I've learned that I'm not the brightest mind in any given room. As a matter of fact, I've just barely scratched the surface. Many, as they get older, realize this harsh reality. For me, I was probably very smart... and completely ignorant. In tech, this is inflated as we seem to rediscover old paradigms every few years, yet we look at those that may have lived through an earlier "discovery" as "irrelevant geezers". Many of could never dream to achieve the level of things that Alan Kay has forgotten, but we sure will treat his contemporaries as worthless. Zuck will get there some day. And I doubt history will remember his as a great visionary.
> I've learned that I'm not the brightest mind in any given room
I find it scarier when I am the brightest mind in a room, at least on a specific topic. I understand everyone has different backgrounds and experiences, and given the chance to share, many people can make contributions, even sometimes from people you may not expect at first blush.
There are other times though when, not so much through hubris but sort of... delayed understanding(?) - I end up realizing I am the brightest/smartest in a room (at least for the topics at hand). Sometimes you're expected to lead - false modesty won't do anyone much good there. Sometimes you're expected to lead and someone else ends up thinking they're the smartest one, and become a pain to deal with. Looking back I realize I've been that person, and wonder if I could have done anything differently (honestly don't know - lots of factors at play there).
The day I noticed my tenure was longer than the median Google engineer was horrifying. "You mean half of these people know less than I do how this stuff works?"
