Mark Zuckerberg has embraced a 'martial arts view of the world,' says Spotify CEO Daniel Ek

• Mark Zuckerberg has embraced a "martial arts view of the world," says Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.
• Ek shared his assessment of the public's perception of Zuckerberg in a Forbes interview published on Tuesday.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who spent the summer getting shredded and talking about a cage fight with Elon Musk, has embraced a "martial arts view of the world."

That's according to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, who discussed the public's perception of Zuckerberg with Forbes in a story published on Tuesday. Ek and Zuckerberg have known each other for years.

"When you go into a competition, you're not fighting another person, you're fighting yourself, right?" Ek said. "You're just trying to be a better version of yourself."

In August 2022, Zuckerberg spoke about his martial arts journey on an episode of the "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, saying he found the sport to be both physically and intellectually engaging.

"To some degree, MMA is the perfect thing because if you stop paying attention for one second you're going to end up on the bottom," he said on the podcast.

Zuckerberg, who will turn 40 in May, has taken a particular liking to Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He scored gold and silver medals at a tournament in California in May.

The Meta CEO is one among many tech bigwigs who have veered out of the boardroom and into a dojo recently, Insider's Jyoti Mann reported in June.

PayPal CEO Dan Schulman has been training in the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga and said the experience shaped the way he approached business and life. Joanna Pineda, the CEO of Matrix Group International, previously told Insider that practicing taekwondo and Korean martial art hapkido helped her develop mental toughness.

Meta is more than halfway through what it dubbed its "year of efficiency." The company made massive job cuts earlier this year. Collective losses from the metaverse unit Reality Labs zoomed past $40 billion in the second quarter.

Representatives for Zuckerberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via Meta outside of regular business hours. A spokesperson for Ek declined Insider's request for further comment.