- Marc Andreessen wrote that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, who have embraced physical fighting, are good role models.
- The VC billionaire, who is trained in martial arts, argued that MMA teaches kids self respect.
Tech moguls Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg may not just be inspiring to wannabe tech bros and billionaires.
In a Substack post titled "FIGHTING," Marc Andreessen, the legendary venture capital investor who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into companies like Facebook and Twitter during their early days, shared his thoughts on the highly anticipated cage fight between Musk and Zuckerberg.
The post expanded on a panel discussion at the Sun Valley conference, where he was asked if the CEOs of Tesla and Meta can be seen as role models for kids given "their embrace of fighting."
"I said, enthusiastically, yes," Andreessen wrote in his blog post.
Andreessen said that mixed martial arts, in which both he and his wife are trained, teaches children how to fight; he also believes the sport helps kids learn values like "discipline, emotional control, respect, and a deep sense of responsibility."
"The message to kids is not, this is how you beat people up," he wrote. "The message is, this is how you protect yourself – and as important, this is how you protect your family, your friends, your community."
Learning how to defend yourself and your loved ones is especially important now, Andreessen wrote, adding that "the world is evolving" in a way that requires people to protect themselves because "cities in the United States have decided they don't need law enforcement" and "street level violence is on the rise."
In reality, the number of police and sheriff patrol officers in the US dropped from 665,380 workers as of May 2021 to 655,890 as of May 2022 – a 1.4% decrease, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the latest data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there has been no recent increase in violent crimes.
Regardless of the actual need for self defense, Andreessen also said that MMA is a great form of exercise.
Andreessen's thoughts on mixed martial arts comes after Musk challenged Zuckerberg, a jiu-jitsu enthusiast, to a cage match after a nearly seven-year feud between the two CEOs.
While curious observers predict the fight won't happen, Musk seems to be taking the cage match pretty seriously. Georges St-Pierre, a Canadian wrestler and UFC fighter, tweeted earlier this month that he had a "great training session" with Musk, along with martial artist John Danaher.
"I think it's great that MMA is the rising American national sport, that Mark is training so hard in it (and getting jacked), that Elon, a past martial arts aficionado in his own right, is challenging Mark to a fight," Andreessen wrote. "Both Mark and Elon are top-end role models for children in our society, including my own – whether they end up fighting in the Colosseum or not!"
During the same Sun Valley conversation, Andreessen had some other thoughts on how to raise children, urging the attendees to homeschool their kids.