Published: 06/06/2026
My brother sent me a photo the other day. Mixed in with a fleet of rusted and battle tested commercial fishing vessels, an absolute behemoth of a luxury yacht moored in Seattle’s Lake Union. “Mark Zuckerberg’s super yacht” his caption read.
The mental image of a historical battleship sending an 18lb cannonball through the hull of that monstrosity somehow gave a sense of inner peace and I had to stop and consider why. You see, the appearance of Mark Zuckerberg’s super yacht in Seattle immediately followed the latest round of Meta layoffs. Approximately 8,000 total, including the termination of 1,500 Seattle based employees.
Now it is one thing to lose a job unexpectedly. However, having your livelihood stripped only to find a symbol of the grotesque wealth that your labor helped produce parked in front of your face should be enough to make one’s blood boil over. Was Zuckerberg even in town? Who knows. Is he really that disconnected and tone deaf? Probably. Either way the message is received loud and clear. “I do this, because I can… and also f… you.”
I want to be careful not to victimize tech workers too much, there aren’t too many folks in this industry living paycheck to paycheck, However, an income gap, even if it doesn’t lead to immediate financial ruin, sends ripple effects that if timed poorly, can dramatically shift the course of an individual’s life. If a young couple loses an income stream while trying for kids they may choose to delay until their financial situation stabilizes again. Depending on the timing, they may miss their window of opportunity. This is one example.
Every time there is a mass layoff like this I see a million posts made in solidarity with the workers. Solidarity is nice in difficult times, it feels good to blame “the Man” together, but I’d like to present a more optimistic outlook here. For the past 10 years or so big tech has hoarded some of the brightest minds in our generation. Withholding talent from smaller firms, other industries and even universities. What happens when you release that wave of talent back into the world? Time will tell, but I think it’s unlikely we’ll have tens of thousands of tech workers permanently unemployed or pivoting to careers in the trades. Rather I see every laid off employee as a little spark of talent in a field of grass kept dry for the last decade. And the thing about a spark is --- it only takes one to start a fire. With all this talent headed for companies outside the “magnificent 7” and potentially into other industries entirely, we may see the unleashing of a torrent of innovation. With any luck we may see masses of incredible human beings applying their talents to problems beyond perfecting the dark arts of advertising, perhaps leading to the demise of the tech monopolies in power today. We have the numbers behind us to decide the future, YOU ARE NOT POWERLESS and don’t ever forget that.