Making Meta | Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth (CTO)

Andrew Bosworth-or Boz, as most people know him-is the chief technology officer at Meta and head of Reality Labs, the company’s augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) organization, which he created in 2017. Boz joined Facebook in 2006 as their approximately 10th engineer, and in his 18-year tenure he built the original News Feed, Messenger, and Groups, as well as many early anti-abuse and infrastructure systems. At various times he has been the engineering director overseeing Events, Places, Photos, Videos, Timeline, Privacy, and more. Before Reality Labs, he ran the Ads and Business Platform product group, where he led engineering, product, research, analytics, and design, taking annual revenue from $4 billion to $40 billion in five years. Andrew currently leads Meta’s efforts in AR, VR, AI, and consumer hardware across Quest, Ray-Ban Meta glasses, and more. In our conversation, we discuss:
• Stories from the early days of Facebook
• Lessons from Meta’s downturn and recent turnaround
• Meta’s culture of transparency
• Boz’s thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro
• Why communication is the job
• Why you should regularly seek help from your manager
• Lessons in setting incentives and avoiding their misuse
• Why you should optimize for a variety in experience in your career
• The importance of trusting your own expertise and not being swayed by external opinions
• Stories of failures and personal growth
-
Brought to you by:
• Vanta-Automate compliance. Simplify security: vanta.com/lenny
• Eppo-Run reliable, impactful experiments: www.geteppo.com/
• Explo-Embed customer-facing analytics in your product: explo.co/lenny
Find the transcript and references at: www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/ma...
Where to find Andrew Bosworth:
• Facebook: / boz
• Instagram: / boztank
• X: / boztank
• LinkedIn: / andrew-bosworth-8247a01
• Website: boz.com/
• Photography website: wardenshortbow.com/
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: / lennysan
• LinkedIn: / lennyrachitsky
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Boz’s background
(04:48) Fun facts about him
(07:20) Early days at Facebook
(11:11) Advice for founders
(13:22) Leveraging leaders
(19:27) Tips for communicating with managers
(22:10) Transparency at Meta
(27:01) The importance of clear guidelines
(29:11) Involvement in the details
(33:15) Building the News Feed
(37:28) Passion and career growth
(40:25) Exploring new opportunities
(42:02) The value of variety in experience
(45:01) Giving and receiving feedback
(47:38) Boz’s tattoos
(51:30) Communication is the job
(01:00:47) Comparing VR headsets: Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro
(01:10:41) Meta’s downturn and turnaround
(01:16:10) Navigating org changes
(01:20:43) Lessons from failure
(01:26:33) Closing thoughts
(01:29:57) Lightning round
Production and marketing by penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Пікірлер: 51

  • @ryanpeters3289
    @ryanpeters32892 ай бұрын

    So many gems in this one, I can already tell I'll be hitting replay on this one a lot. What surprises me is that Boz can clearly be a successful founder on his own, yet he opts to stay at Meta. Goes to show how much respect & admiration guys like him & Chris Cox have for Zuck

  • @inarte100
    @inarte1003 ай бұрын

    I want to thank you Boz and Lenny for amazing interview. Boz especially, he make me regret to quit from my Facebook account but still time to undone it and I will do so. Was immature reaction and unfair with my audience. Thank you a lot.

  • @user-gh6oe4uk4j

    @user-gh6oe4uk4j

    2 ай бұрын

    I was thinking you quit Facebook as an engineer early but here you regret closing a free account you can just get again 😅

  • @inarte100

    @inarte100

    2 ай бұрын

    @@user-gh6oe4uk4j I'ts up and running again! Thank you for the replay!

  • @josh9418

    @josh9418

    2 ай бұрын

    ​@@user-gh6oe4uk4j Same, I had to read it again. That account must have been something

  • @jonathanemeryarena
    @jonathanemeryarena3 ай бұрын

    Nice one Lenny. You extracted a lot of sage wisdom from a legendary builder.

  • @moshmoshpitpit
    @moshmoshpitpit2 ай бұрын

    Wow - this was incredible. This deserves a few re-listens. Excellent job!

  • @DanielleNewnham
    @DanielleNewnham3 ай бұрын

    Lenny, thank you for consistently keeping the bar high with your podcast and newsletter - I learn so much from both, and you of course. Keep up the good work!

  • @gabb05
    @gabb05Ай бұрын

    amazing interview, so many great nuggets of insight

  • @mPajuhaan
    @mPajuhaan3 ай бұрын

    Interesting interview, especially his approach to see what happened on Facebook before he joined and also about Mark.

  • @francismumbi49
    @francismumbi493 ай бұрын

    Awesome interview. Boz is a legend....

  • @brunomagalhaes5953
    @brunomagalhaes59532 ай бұрын

    One of the best podcasts ever...Congrats!

  • @ArturEjsmont
    @ArturEjsmont2 ай бұрын

    Awesome episode!

  • @ZastrowOtto
    @ZastrowOtto3 ай бұрын

    great interview! One suggestion @Lenny: I love hearing more more details around stories of past projects. E.g. I loved the lex interview with ackman, where they spent 20 minutes on each past project. Those first person view history lessons really help understand the world. The abstract advice is also great but should take up less time imO, otherwise the episodes start overlapping.

  • @LennysPodcast

    @LennysPodcast

    3 ай бұрын

    Thanks for the feedback! I definitely normally good deep and tactical, but also try to find the balance of not making them over 2 hours, as most people don't want to listen for that long. That interview with Ackerman was 3.5 hours long 😵‍💫 Was there a project you were hoping we'd have dug into longer?

  • @amriv6
    @amriv62 ай бұрын

    andrews talk 2.5x speed, i double check the playback speed ... twice!

  • @product_Vision
    @product_Vision2 ай бұрын

    I guess I have to go to the dealership and try the Mercedes-Benz AMG EQS. :) …. 'I'm driving a Mercedes-Benz AMG EQS, and I didn't know cars could be this nice. I grew up driving used cars, and, you know, whatever, I didn't know it was possible. It's the best augmented reality product, I think, you could buy in the market today. You know, when they have the display, it puts your turn in three-dimensional space. It has cameras facing your eyes, so it's positioned correctly on this display relative to your eyes, the turn. So when you come up, it's like you're hitting a little wall. You have to turn before you hit the wall. And I was like, "Oh my God, I think this car has great augmented reality.

  • @kirthikaparmeswaran-gupta3292
    @kirthikaparmeswaran-gupta32923 ай бұрын

    Love the "trust yourself" motto!

  • @gagandiesh2574
    @gagandiesh25743 ай бұрын

    Lenny, great interview as always. Curious why you didn't ask him about the "Ugly" memo. I would like his take on it now, many years later.

  • @nk91able
    @nk91able2 ай бұрын

    very clear thinker, lots of good thoughts and approaches shared

  • @felipepaiva6561
    @felipepaiva65612 ай бұрын

    legend and very humble

  • @NickEllis-nr6ot
    @NickEllis-nr6ot2 ай бұрын

    Boz is a treasure!

  • @insydian
    @insydian3 ай бұрын

    Immediate sub when you get boz on.

  • @alexiscao8749
    @alexiscao87492 ай бұрын

    What is that person Boz is referring to about embracing genuine curiosity?

  • @nw68686

    @nw68686

    2 ай бұрын

    Ami Vora, longtime Facebook employee and now chief product officer at Faire

  • @alexiscao8749

    @alexiscao8749

    2 ай бұрын

    Thank you ❤​@@nw68686

  • @Potenti4lz
    @Potenti4lz2 ай бұрын

    Maybe shoukd have touched on screen time balance.

  • @abhis9353
    @abhis93533 ай бұрын

    I liked it but dont agree with managers are rooting for you. As someone who is 5 yrs exp I think some people are just messed up due to issues during their childhood. Its not like a button they can switch on to switch on to be professional. Some people are just toxic. Ofcourse you need to identify when this is the case

  • @Potenti4lz
    @Potenti4lz2 ай бұрын

    I'm 6 months changer as well. Some have said it coukd be ADHD on reddit.

  • @Potenti4lz
    @Potenti4lz2 ай бұрын

    Business Suite app kind of sucks and you cant share as a pahe original post on Android FB app.

  • @JasonBrooksfuturelevel
    @JasonBrooksfuturelevel3 ай бұрын

    How is his camera game not stronger?

  • @LennysPodcast

    @LennysPodcast

    3 ай бұрын

    He was traveling, and was experimenting with a new camera he just got.

  • @JasonBrooksfuturelevel

    @JasonBrooksfuturelevel

    3 ай бұрын

    Got it. Totally fair. Such a great interview Lenny. You mined more from him that other interviews I've watched. thank you!@@LennysPodcast

  • @LennysPodcast

    @LennysPodcast

    3 ай бұрын

    @@JasonBrooksfuturelevel Music to my ears! I had so many more things I wanted to get into, but gotta pick my battles.

  • @Potenti4lz
    @Potenti4lz2 ай бұрын

    How to spin 15000 plates though?

  • @Potenti4lz
    @Potenti4lz2 ай бұрын

    55:38 he did it to avoid deep fakes haha.

  • @Potenti4lz
    @Potenti4lz2 ай бұрын

    At 23 I didn't take 2 Google offers

  • @OvercomerIdemudia
    @OvercomerIdemudia3 ай бұрын

    The title of this video is grossly reducing the reach. "Making Meta" is kinda confusing. How about "Facebook CTO talks about Building Facebook"?

  • @user-gh6oe4uk4j

    @user-gh6oe4uk4j

    2 ай бұрын

    Because he’s still there and has been since the start. Your title makes it sound like he left a while ago

  • @OvercomerIdemudia

    @OvercomerIdemudia

    2 ай бұрын

    @@user-gh6oe4uk4j still better than "Making meta".

  • @Potenti4lz

    @Potenti4lz

    2 ай бұрын

    That's true.

  • @Potenti4lz

    @Potenti4lz

    2 ай бұрын

    Or something like (Facebook/Meta CTO).

  • @Potenti4lz
    @Potenti4lz2 ай бұрын

    Micromanagers are the opposite

  • @Potenti4lz
    @Potenti4lz2 ай бұрын

    MSN

  • @Jason-rt6np373
    @Jason-rt6np3732 ай бұрын

    I could interview Boz and prove how stupid the politics is while finding actual value in tech and business strategy instead of feelings and relationships bs

  • @Potenti4lz
    @Potenti4lz2 ай бұрын

    Main? Tf?

  • @slodoco
    @slodoco2 ай бұрын

    And news feed still sucks today.

  • @Potenti4lz
    @Potenti4lz2 ай бұрын

    Australia isn't so good for tech jobs.

Келесі