--- title: Mark Zuckerberg Responds to Date a Nerd Comment on Facebook description: Thousands of people liked and shared the post — and many weighed in with comments. canonical: https://time.com/4166007/mark-zuckerberg-advice-date-nerd/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-04T16:13:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:46.473Z og:title: See the Great Advice Mark Zuckerberg Gave a Facebook Commenter og:description: The woman joked about encouraging her granddaughter to "date the nerd" at school og:url: https://time.com/4166007/mark-zuckerberg-advice-date-nerd/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2db5677849a599ac/69887760cd1bba2b306febd0/gettyimages-4946527621.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: INDIA-INTERNET-FACEBOOK-COMPUTERS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See the Great Advice Mark Zuckerberg Gave a Facebook Commenter twitter:description: The woman joked about encouraging her granddaughter to "date the nerd" at school twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2db5677849a599ac/69887760cd1bba2b306febd0/gettyimages-4946527621.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See the Great Advice Mark Zuckerberg Gave a Facebook Commenter ## Video: Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Love Letter to Wife [Watch (HLS stream): Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Love Letter to Wife](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/riSXNceS.m3u8) (1:00)  _Published 2014-11-14. Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Love Letter to Wife_ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jan 4, 2016 4:13 PM UTC  Facebook chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks during a 'town-hall' meeting at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi on October 28, 2015. Facebook chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks during a 'town-hall' meeting at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi on October 28, 2015.MONEY SHARMA—AFP/Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jan 4, 2016 4:13 PM UTC On Sunday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared [a post](https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10102577175875681) detailing his plans “to build a simple AI to run my home and help me with my work.” Every year, Zuck explained, he likes to take on a personal challenge to learn and grow. (In the past, he’s challenged himself to read two books every months, learn Mandarin, meet a new person every day, and so on.) Thousands of people liked and shared the post — and many weighed in with comments. One comment in particular stands out the most, because Zuckerberg’s response has racked up more than 20,000 likes. “I keep telling my grand daughters to Date the nerd in school, he may turn out to be a Mark Zuckerberg! Thanks for FB, I’ve reconnected with family and many old friends and classmates,” Darlene Hackemer Loretto[ said](https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10102577175875681). Here’s how Zuck responded: “Even better would be to encourage them to \*be\* the nerd in their school so they can be the next successful inventor!” On Monday, Loretto clarified her remark with a post [on her own Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/darlene.loretto1/posts/10204246462201872?pnref=story). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4166007/mark-zuckerberg-advice-date-nerd/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4166007/mark-zuckerberg-advice-date-nerd/"},"headline":"See the Great Advice Mark Zuckerberg Gave a Facebook Commenter","datePublished":"2016-01-04T16:13:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:46.473Z","description":"The woman joked about encouraging her granddaughter to \"date the nerd\" at school","url":"https://time.com/4166007/mark-zuckerberg-advice-date-nerd/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2db5677849a599ac/69887760cd1bba2b306febd0/gettyimages-4946527621.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2db5677849a599ac/69887760cd1bba2b306febd0/gettyimages-4946527621.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"INDIA-INTERNET-FACEBOOK-COMPUTERS","caption":"INDIA-INTERNET-FACEBOOK-COMPUTERS","creditText":"MONEY SHARMA—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4166007/mark-zuckerberg-advice-date-nerd/","name":"See the Great Advice Mark Zuckerberg Gave a Facebook Commenter"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Love Letter to Wife","description":"Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Love Letter to Wife","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/riSXNceS/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-11-14T21:16:56.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/riSXNceS.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4166007/mark-zuckerberg-advice-date-nerd/","duration":"PT1M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4166007/mark-zuckerberg-advice-date-nerd/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```