Silicon Valley tech barons are full of self-pity, says Clegg

Silicon Valley is full of hubris and hugely wealthy macho men who think they are victims, the former politician and Facebook executive Nick Clegg has said.

- Lisa O'Carroll Gaby Hinsliff

The former leader of the Liberal Democrats makes the claims in a new book chronicling his three careers, as an MEP in Brussels, an MP and deputy prime minister in Westminster, and a communications and public policy strategist in San Francisco.

In an interview with the Guardian, Clegg heaps praise on his former boss, the Meta founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, but is scathing about the culture fostered in the world's tech capital, where wealth and power is interlaced with "self-pity".

"In Silicon Valley, far from thinking they're lucky, they think they're hard done by, they're victims. I couldn't, and still can't, understand this deeply unattractive combination of machismo and self-pity," he said.

He said none of this was directed at Zuckerberg, whom he described as thoughtful and endlessly curious about subjects he does not excel in.