Mark Zuckerberg says his employees refer to his intense attention as 'the Eye of Sauron' after the menacing, flaming eye in 'The Lord of the Rings'

In "The Lord of the Rings" films, the eye is depicted as a flaming, disembodied eye and a metaphor for evil that watches over Middle-earth.

• Mark Zuckerberg's employees refer to his attention as "the Eye of Sauron," he said in an interview.
• In "The Lord of the Rings," the eye is a menacing presence that watches over Middle-earth.
• Zuckerberg said he tries to "diffuse" his energy so he can put all his attention toward a project.

For Meta employees, enduring Mark Zuckerberg's full attention can be a little too intense sometimes. 

Zuckerberg told author and podcast host Tim Ferriss as much during a recent interview on Ferriss' YouTube show. He said he struggles not to focus too hard on one particular thing, so much so that his employees have come up with a name for his attention: the Eye of Sauron. 

"They're like, 'You have this unending amount of energy to go work on something. And if you point that at any given team, you will just burn them,'" Zuckerberg told Ferriss. 

Sauron, the chief antagonist in the "Lord of the Rings" series, is depicted, at least in the films, as a flaming, disembodied eye and a metaphor for evil. While there are numerous interpretations of the eye, in the film adaptations, it acts as a watchful, menacing presence that looms over Middle-earth. 

To address his apparent similarities to the Eye of Sauron, Zuckerberg said he tries to "diffuse" his energy so that he can focus on an issue without coming on too strong. 

"I just think the engagement that you get of having, like, an immediate feedback loop around thinking about something and then getting to go talk to the people who are working on this is so much better than going and scheduling a meeting that you'll have three weeks later," he said. 

Zuckerberg, who's been the company's CEO for 18 years now, has been criticized several times over the years for his leadership style. Most notably the executive has drawn ire in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, around the 2016 presidential election, and in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol.

Zuckerberg told Ferriss that external criticism no long bothers him and that he's mainly focused on getting people excited about where the company is headed — namely, the metaverse. 

"At this point, I kind of feel like if people fully feel like they understand what we are as a company and what we're doing, then I'm not pushing it hard enough," he said.