How Mark Zuckerberg, Palmer Luckey, Josh Kushner & Scott Wu Think | Jeremy Stern

TL;DR Jeremy Stern writes profiles to reveal the human psychology of founders, not to extract business advice. He focuses on their personal histories and character traits to understand their impact on history.

Stern views Mark Zuckerberg as a unique historical figure rather than just a tech CEO.

• Zuckerberg is the last major founder from his generation who still leads his company.
• He identifies with Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, due to a long-standing interest in Latin and history.
• This comparison highlights his desire to build a stable, trade-based system rather than a chaotic republic.
• His competitive drive is intense but he remains personally nice to those around him.

The writing process involves exploring the entire life of the subject, not just their work.

• Stern spends five to six months interviewing the subject and nearly forty other people.
• He starts with a broad theme and lets the story develop through deep conversations.
• For Zuckerberg, he used interviews with parents to frame the narrative of his personal life.
• This method reveals the "universe" of relationships and psychology behind the public figure.

Scott Wu is an authentic genius who rejects media training and acquisition offers.

• Wu is considered the greatest competitor among math Olympiad winners despite being under thirty.
• He wants to win at everything, including casual games, showing a pure competitive nature.
• He refuses to sell his company because he wants to lead it to the end.
• Stern presents Wu’s voice directly to show his lack of corporate polish or pretense.

Josh Kushner’s profile explores the fear of loss rooted in his family’s Holocaust survival.

• His grandparents survived the Holocaust and built a massive real estate empire in one generation.
• This history creates a deep-seated fear that success can vanish overnight.
• Kushner sought advice from Rick Rubin to understand how to maintain creative magic.
• The piece connects his business anxiety to the trauma of his family’s past displacement.

Stern applies literary craft to technology stories instead of seeking personal business lessons.

• He sees technologists as the most culturally central figures in modern American life.
• His goal is to write lasting profiles with literary ambition, similar to mid-century magazine journalism.
• He does not expect these profiles to change his own behavior or provide actionable advice.
• His approach focuses on witnessing and documenting individual lives rather than self-improvement.