Five Travel Lessons You Can Learn From Mark Zuckerberg
Did you know that Mark Zuckerberg is actually a travel expert? He probably doesn’t either. The poor guy missed his true calling as a jet setter and now he’s stuck having to console himself with the power and fame of being a billionaire techno-wizard. Let’s learn from his mistakes!
Dress simply
If you watch Mark "The Zuck" Zuckerberg's presentations or perhaps are (Un) lucky enough to meet him at work, you'll notice two themes. Facebook intends to be the only tech company you could ever need and The Zuck almost always wears the same outfit: a gray shirt, blue jeans, and white sneakers. In the approaching tech billionaire tech dystopia, find comfort in knowing that you can hide among them simply by shopping at Target.
Even if you can’t join him at the top of the ladder, you can learn from The Zuck to make traveling better. Wearing more or less the same thing every day simplifies a lot. Packing becomes trivial if there’s no deciding what outfits to bring. Your clothes always match, and they're always comfortable. In the mornings, you never need to think about what you're going to wear, and a single dressy piece can spruce up all of your outfits for a night on the town. (Imagine a dress shirt, or a nice blazer.)
Be attentive
A charitable way to describe Meta's business model is that they are attentive to everything their users do. They suck every ounce of monetizable data from clicks.
You can't machine learn your way into a safer trip, but you can be mindful of your surroundings. You might notice that no one going through domestic security in South African airports takes liquids out of their carry ons, then you don’t do it either. You can learn loads about how the local culture operates just by watching the locals in action.
Looks matter
The Zuck's first social media platform was Hot Or Not which let college students rate each other. It wasn’t any better than it sounds.
You can improve your travel experience by thinking about looks though. A simple wardrobe can make you less of a target for pickpockets and pushy tourism salespeople. If you pay attention to a city's streets and develop a good sense of what they normally look like you might realize when something looks off, avoiding some danger.
Avoid governments
Mark Zuckerberg has waffled over time from vehemently opposing any government regulation of Facebook to helping craft that very regulation. His abilities in regulatory capture are astounding, and a useful template for you.
Don't interact with the local government until you have to. Passport control is a necessary step internationally, and you should report crime to the local authorities, but as long as things are going well and you don't need to interact with local officials, it's probably a good idea not to. No one can abuse their position of power to take advantage of you if they don't even know that you're there.
Share it with others
Love it or hate it, The Zuck uncovered and monetized a fundamental aspect of human psychology: people love to share and be shared with.
Tell your friends and family about your travels past, present, and future. Stories of the past let you relive your memories and bond over the similar experiences others recant back to you. Telling people about your current travel plans lets them keep a watchful eye on you from afar. Offering up future travel plans can inspire others to set out on their own adventure, or maybe even join in on yours.
