The ‘Gen Z stare’ became an internet meme last year—used to describe a blank, expressionless look from a generation often glued to their phones. But it’s not just a phenomenon among today’s young people—even Mark Zuckerberg once had his own version of it.
On a recent episode of The Social Radars podcast, Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham recalled meeting the Facebook cofounder around 2007—and being struck by his lack of social skills.
“[Zuckerberg] has this weird thing where if he didn’t have anything to say, he wouldn’t fill the gap with passing conversation,” Graham said. “He had no concept of small talk.”
The silence coming from the twentysomething Harvard dropout, Graham added, was more jarring than expected: “It was surprisingly disconcerting. I didn’t realize how important small talk was until I met the lack of it. But he would just stare at you if there wasn’t anything [to say].”
In the 1990s, Graham cofounded the software company Viaweb, which Yahoo acquired in 1998 for $49 million. In 2005, he co-founded the startup accelerator Y Combinator, which has helped launch billion-dollar Silicon Valley companies including Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox, and Reddit. While his exact net worth is not public, Graham has likely earned substantial income through his investments.
Even Mark Zuckerberg agrees he came across ‘as robotic’ before finding success
Now 41, Zuckerberg’s communication skills have in fact visibly evolved. From delivering Harvard’s commencement address in 2017 to testifying before Congress multiple times, he’s grown into a far more polished public speaker—and it’s worked to his advantage. Zuckerberg himself now has a net worth of $210 billion.
Graham quipped his first meeting with Zuckerberg was before he “had learned to imitate a normal person,”—but the tech founder himself has acknowledged he has struggled with communication as he’s taken his social media platform from a Harvard dorm room idea to one of the biggest companies in the world with a $1.5 trillion market cap.
“Look, historically I’ve had a very hard time expressing myself,” Zuckerberg told NBC News in 2019. “I just come across as robotic.”
He echoed that sentiment years later on Threads, saying that feedback about his awkwardness initially made things worse—but he’s improved with time: “Being awkward and getting negative feedback on how I came across definitely made me more careful and scripted,” Zuckerberg wrote in 2024.
Fortune reached out to Y Combinator and Meta for further comment.
Communication is more than a nice-to-have—it’s a skill that billionaire CEOs like Richard Branson and Jamie Dimon say is table stakes
Graham’s observations about a young Zuckerberg—and his evolution—underscore a broader point: communication, even seemingly trivial small talk, can shape how ideas are received and careers unfold. While Zuckerberg had a breakthrough product and early momentum to offset his social awkwardness, many Gen Z workers don’t have that cushion—and are struggling with communication in today’s tech-driven workplace.
About 38% say networking makes them anxious, according to a survey conducted by Strand Partners for LinkedIn, with many young people avoiding it altogether because they don’t know where to start. But the stakes go beyond just missed opportunities: communication gaps are among the reasons some employers have already begun giving the pink slip to recent Gen Z hires.
Strong communication has long been a hallmark of effective leadership. Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group, has called it the “most important skill any leader can possess.”
“Communication makes the world go round. It facilitates human connections, and allows us to learn, grow and progress,” Branson wrote in 2015. “It’s not just about speaking or reading, but understanding what is being said – and in some cases what is not being said.”
And in the age of AI, those human skills are becoming even more valuable than ever.
“AI can’t replace genuine human connection,” said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. “It can’t listen, care, or inspire people. That’s what leaders do. Technology can help us work smarter, but only people can build trust.”
It’s a view shared by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who said that soft skills like communication matter more than ever.
“My advice to people would be critical thinking, learn skills, learn your EQ [emotional quotient], learn how to be good in a meeting, how to communicate, how to write,” Dimon told Fox News late last year. “You’ll have plenty of jobs.”
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