In the early days of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and his team famously adopted the motto “Move fast and break things.” Posters with the phrase reportedly adorned the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters, alongside other, similar sentiments like “Done is better than perfect,” and “Fail quicker.” The focus for the young company was clear: Being first was more important than getting it right first time.
As the company grew, Zuckerberg—in an interview with WIRED— started to distance himself from, or at least temper, those mantras. But with Wednesday's announcement of the Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, it feels like some of that old mentality might have started to creep back in.
“Our goal is to build great-looking glasses that deliver personal superintelligence,” said Zuckerberg yesterday at the very start of the Meta Connect event. He then immediately outlined some “clear values” that Meta holds sacrosanct for smart glasses. Number-one for Zuckerberg was “they need to be great glasses first” with “refined aesthetics” that “shave every millimeter” from the hardware. No doubt Meta has shaved every millimeter it can from its new flagship specs, but in a rush to fully realize these next-gen glasses it looks like Meta has broken that primary value right out the gate.
I got a chance to demo the Meta Ray-Ban Display, ahead of Meta Connect, at a preview event in London. The big news is they feature a small display built into the right lens that gives users visual prompts and guidance. They come with a wristband that understands hand gestures, which can be used to interact with the things displayed on the screen. Meta has labeled them the “world’s most advanced AI glasses,” and having tried them, it‘s easy to agree. They are undoubtedly impressive, and I think most people who get to try them will like them.