Crypto News: Sheryl Sandberg’s legacy is both heroic and toxic

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a word-association game of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here.

Sheryl Sandberg has her pros and her cons.
There aren't enough kids in public schools.
Robot farmers and house batteries could solve some problems.
Maybe we should see gunshot victims.

If I say "Facebook," what words spring to mind?

For me, the top five are, like, "Zuckerberg, racists, conspiracies, birthdays, more racists." But if I think about it a little longer, pretty close to the top — running just ahead of "high school classmates who now seem to be 100 years old" — is "Sheryl Sandberg."

Aside from Zuckerberg, no other person has been as closely associated with the social-media behemoth. And now she's stepping down after 14 years as its chief operating officer and human face. Given her role, Parmy Olson writes, Sandberg bears much responsibility for turning Facebook (which we are now all forced to call Meta, because Zuckerberg) into a ruthlessly efficient engine for converting advertising dollars into societal poison. She leaves just as that engine seems to be running out of gas, Parmy notes.

But earlier in her career, back before we realized just how toxic ~~Facebook~~ Meta could be, Sandberg was most famous for speaking out about her experience as a woman in a high-profile professional role. The concept of "leaning in" at work is now so familiar as to be a cliche or even a joke. But when Sandberg first uttered the words back in 2010, they were revolutionary, Sarah Green Carmichael reminds us. Women refrained from advocating for their professional needs back then. Whatever the flaws in Sandberg's "Lean In" content, she sparked a conversation about gender roles we're still having, to the benefit of working women. Maybe more such advocacy today can help her atone for Facebook's ills.

America's corporate offices have been slow to refill after the pandemic (which remains extremely not over, but anyway). This is OK because, as Stanford economist Nick Bloom tells Justin Fox, working from home is scientifically proven to be more productive than working in an office. The best-run companies recognize this, no matter what Elon Musk may say.

Then again, half-empty office buildings make for half-empty city centers and mass transit, raising new problems. Even more troubling are half-empty public-school classrooms. Bloomberg LP founder Mike Bloomberg points out nearly 1.3 million students have left public schools since the pandemic began. Parents are voting with their (children's) feet and rejecting failing schools. Government efforts to throw money at the problem don't help because the money is being spent poorly. Accountability standards and money for charter schools could stop this mass exodus, but both will require political will.

More word association: When I hear the words "farming robots," all I can think of are the machines growing humans for energy in "The Matrix" (which makes no sense scientifically, by the way). But Amanda Little reports there are different, less-oppressive farming robots out there that could help solve several human problems at once. These crawl over crops and use AI to zap weeds with herbicides and edible plants with fertilizer, making farming less toxic and potentially more productive. Some of them could also do some of the back-breaking labor humans have to do now. Replacing humans with robots doesn't have to be all bad.

Like murderous robots, humans do need energy, and a lot of it. It's a constant problem that helps explain why TV news crews hang around gas stations so much. Anjani Trivedi suggests an overlooked solution is large power packs for homes and businesses that can store energy for use at times of peak demand or during the rolling blackouts that could be a regular part of our immediate future. Sounds far less dystopian than "The Matrix."

Maybe we should make people see what guns do to human bodies. — Tim O'Brien

President Joe Biden's White House is not really in disarray. — Jonathan Bernstein

Should people go to jail for insider-trading NFTs? — Matt Levine

Crypto is valuable partly because it's so volatile. — Tyler Cowen

Making a living in the creator economy takes hard work, multiple income streams and luck. — Erin Lowry

Britain is nothing like the country it was when Queen Elizabeth's 70-year reign began. — Adrian Wooldridge

OPEC+ might open the oil taps a bit.

Sanctions aren't hurting Vladimir Putin's wealth.

The home-buying process is enough to make you cry these days.

Is America heading for civil war?

CNN is dialing back the "BREAKING NEWS" hype.

Area town lets citizens review cops like Uber drivers.

You can't change circadian rhythms with tech.

Notes: Please send reviews and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net.

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