131–139 of 139 posts
Very entertaining! How did no one realize this was fake by the first graph? Does xkcd design the graphs for fb premium partners?
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I read 2-3 paragraphs into this and then thought, hmm, maybe I should check the comments first. Thank you.
Does it help that "Crossing the Rubicon" is a metaphor for crossing a point of no return?
I did think the PIG abbreviation was too good to be true and decided that I didn't want to read it if it wasnt anything to do with real life internals
Usually I read comments on HN before the article, but there were no comments when I saw the link, so I went straight to reading it. What a bizarre piece. How long did it take everyone else to realize it was fiction? For me, I did not realize until the very end -- and even then I still wasn't sure. It could just as well have been written by some delusional non-technical employee at Facebook.
(If there was really a PIG group in some company, I'd imagine that their work space would be known as the "PIG pen", not the "PIG pod".)
It's disturbing to me how many comments on here assert that the piece is fiction with little to no evidence. It occurs to me that perhaps Facebook is trying to make it seem like it's fiction by posting on various forums!
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Yep! I'd recommend reading the short story, skipping the novel: https://www.robinsloan.com/books/penumbra/short-story/ I felt like the book was mostly filler added after the popularity of the short story.
Ha -- the short story was, sorry to say, not that popular ;)
Popular enough to turn it into a book? :)
Well, maybe it was because I'd read the story before (and really enjoyed it) so I couldn't get the same enjoyment from the book.
Anyway, good work and keep writing.
Usually I read comments on HN before the article, but there were no comments when I saw the link, so I went straight to reading it. What a bizarre piece. How long did it take everyone else to realize it was fiction? For me, I did not realize until the very end -- and even then I still wasn't sure. It could just as well have been written by some delusional non-technical employee at Facebook.
wasn't yet sure but I started to pay attention, noticed extra "woolly" style of writing (not bad btw, just another marker), the bit where he said it was a neural network that accidentally started preducting the future sealed it.
Usually I read comments on HN before the article, but there were no comments when I saw the link, so I went straight to reading it. What a bizarre piece. How long did it take everyone else to realize it was fiction? For me, I did not realize until the very end -- and even then I still wasn't sure. It could just as well have been written by some delusional non-technical employee at Facebook.
"The last thing I want to do is write this down, but I’m doing it anyway, partially because people ought to know what’s happening with the things they post here, but mainly (like 99%) because of Julie Rubicon and the spike."
Oh, I've just discovered a world changing dark secret brewing in the heart of Facebook. I'd better tell the world! But first I must build some... suspense!
If it had turned out to be real, I'd thank the whistleblower right after I slapped them for being a twit.
Usually I read comments on HN before the article, but there were no comments when I saw the link, so I went straight to reading it. What a bizarre piece. How long did it take everyone else to realize it was fiction? For me, I did not realize until the very end -- and even then I still wasn't sure. It could just as well have been written by some delusional non-technical employee at Facebook.
The references to the Facebook offices are all a little bit off. For example building 20 is engineering, it wouldn't make sense for the author to go there for a walk without a good reason. Also, if you've ever analysed any traffic the graphs are clearly fake. Trends don't decay that quickly. And the normal levels would have waves due to seasonal changes, weekends and so on. Type "VW" into Google trends to see what I…