Shallow pool

As the commercial begins, a crowd is gathering in an auditorium to watch someone perform.  A piano sits center-stage.  The crowd grows; then, the camera focuses on a husband and wife.  They ask where their son is, making the viewer aware that the son is small since he still needs adult supervision.  As the couple look around the auditorium from their seats, the light dims and the pianist begins playing.  Panic-striken, the husband and wife realize their son is seated at the piano, his hands pressing the keys to a simple song.  They try to figure out exactly what to do about this when from the side of the stage strides the musician that everyone has come to see.  He doesn't chastise the 10-year-old, call for security, or even stop the boy from playing.  Instead, he joins the boy on the bench, whispers to him to continue playing, and adds a very sophisticated rhythm to the simple notes being played.  The master turned what could have been a fiasco into something touching, showing his true talent in adding sophistication to an otherwise simple tune.  He had the human touch along with his masterful expertise.

It sounds simple.  Focus on the most pressing problem.  Don't waste time in fixing it.  Don't act poorly as you are solving the problem.  The outcome will be touching, astounding.  Zuckerberg put it in the following words.

Focus on Impact

If we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on solving the most important problems. It sounds simple, but we think most companies do this poorly and waste a lot of time. We expect everyone at Facebook to be good at finding the biggest problems to work on.

Is this something that kids 6-18 can learn to do?  First they are the problem, someone helps them with great finesse.  Then, they learn what causes problems.   And, finally they learn to address problems, feebly at first, but with increasing finesse as they become older.  The word mastery means exactly that by age 18, not proficient, or minimally skilled, or regular, or average.  It means seeing a little boy who ventured onto a stage, unknowingly attracted to a piano that invited him to play (he didn't know it was showtime), and walk onto the stage to add zest and life to what the boy has to offer, so that the crowd gives a standing ovation by the end of the song.

Sure someone 18 can do that.  But not by being dumped into a group with 25-30 others their same age for 12 straight years.  Nor by being given less than 15 minutes a day of personal time with someone who teaches basic principles over and over to the mean of the group, or worse yet, to the lowest common denominator of the group.  Not even by allowing "involvement" by participating in group projects.  And certainly not by dulling the mind with mindless repetition, usually with homework, but with the normal "first run" of a concept sometimes.  There is no impact using this method.  And focus is out of the question for content redundantly presented.

So who works for Zuckerberg?  I at least know the pool of people he didn't draw from, and that is a very large pool.