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All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

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Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#51

Post by notJim »

I see the value of Facebook (though I don't personally get a whole lot out of it), but at times I greatly sympathize with the author's broader point that brilliant minds are being put to use doing things I find empty.

I'm very into graphic design, and interaction design, but the fact that it all goes to selling soap and deodorant and candy makes it feel like such an empty pursuit for me. How many of the people coming with these things could instead be putting their talents toward more artistic or meaningful ends?

Of course, ultimately I'm a capitalist, and marketing does provide a valuable service to a capitalist society, and there are myriad reasons the people doing this kind of work should be doing it. Sometimes, I take a step back though, and can't help but wonder if there's a better way. Ultimately, if I want to change things, it is incumbent on me to provide an alternative, and I just don't have one.

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#53

Post by notJim »

dschobel wrote: post #3

Is it any worse than the reams of medical researchers working on giving old affluent men hard-ons and their hair back? I doubt it...

I don't know, ED is a pretty easy problem to trivialize, but when you think about how meaningful and important sex is in a relationship and life in general, I don't know if it's on the level of hair loss medicine. I'm not saying it's as ”important” as cancer, but I don't think it's trivial either.

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#54

Post by pagefruit »

aristus wrote: post #31
wallflower wrote: post #17

Facebook's number of active users served per employee is very impressive. The ridiculous number of photos uploaded every second. I've long ago figured out that I'd never be able to pass the screens for Facebook, Apple (and at one time, Microsoft). I do still dream of Apple, even after reading the $0.99 Fortune Kindle single on how 'it's not about getting hired at Apple, it's about being able to stay ' What makes me h…

What makes you think that you'd not make it in? I'm a community college dropout. Research the company, check out some of the "easy" puzzles, etc. And send me an email if you are interested.

Just curious, how has your experience been getting jobs as a dropout? I dropped out of college a couple years ago as well, but found that a lot people wouldn't even talk to me simply because I didn't have a degree (or stopped talking once I told them), so I graduated eventually.

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#55

Post by kfigaj »

True...but on the other hand FB is now the Internet for many people. What is more FB is just a begging of the communication revolution. It is so funny how many companies are now trying to get rid of the main role of email in business - to name just a few Chatter, Yammer, Discourse...

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#57

Post by qq66 »

wslh wrote: post #25
dschobel wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which one of those isn't furthered by the internet? It's not hard to argue the fundamental merit in people working on advancing communication across the globe.

I think that there are shorter ways to accomplish it beyond Internet communication.

You must be joking. An Egyptian couple recently named their daughter "Facebook" due to the instrumental role that Facebook played in the overthrow of the Egyptian government. Other rebellions have used Twitter extensively. YouTube was instrumental in publicly shaming a racist senator whose loss gave the Democrats the Senate.

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#58

Post by frossie »

patio11 wrote: post #24

My mother, who was disabled by a stroke some years ago, relies on no non-medical technology as much as she relies on Facebook. It is how she keeps up with the family, who are scattered across the country (and, er, world), without which she would never get to talk to aunts/uncles/cousins since they see each other only at events/reunions and she often isn't well enough to travel. I respect that folks don't find a lot o…

To be fair to the OP, their argument isn't "since I don't use it, nobody uses it".

Their argument was a (totally defensible IMHO) personal expression of disappointment about all the brain work going into something whose impact seems to have peaked (in that those who want it already have it, and the rest of us don't have a problem it can solve).

Sure, Facebook is a utility to millions or even billions of people, but so is electricity. I think the analogy is if thousands of brilliant engineers were working for a fossil-fuel power company - it would be a natural reaction to say "Gee I wish all those boffins were working on renewable energy instead".

You might not agree with it, but it is a legitimate sentiment.

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#59

Post by earl »

dekayed wrote: post #8

I was reminded of the following article when I read this blog posting: http://greaterseas.com/2011/05/the-future-of-innovation/ There's a great quote by Jeff Hammerbacher (an ex-Facebooker) that is great: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.”

That quote is really stupid. Better would be to say something like the best minds of my generation have decided an optimal strategy is to figure out how to make people click ads or to do financial engineering. Why is that. And then do something about the why.

Frankly, listening to people like Hammerbacher (who is almost certainly now rich from fb) or Alex the twitter dude who started bank simple (who essentially admitted he got rich from Twitter, see discussion surrounding his claim Conway threatened him) now whine about other engineers trying to get theirs just like Hammerbacher and Alex did is bullshit. Viz Alex dissing lifestyle businesses, etc.

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#60

Post by JoachimSchipper »

patio11 wrote: post #24

My mother, who was disabled by a stroke some years ago, relies on no non-medical technology as much as she relies on Facebook. It is how she keeps up with the family, who are scattered across the country (and, er, world), without which she would never get to talk to aunts/uncles/cousins since they see each other only at events/reunions and she often isn't well enough to travel. I respect that folks don't find a lot o…

Facebook gets lots of resources: really smart engineers (worth much more than their salary) and tons of time/attention (that could have been spent on worthier pursuits than Farmville). It's not just cash.

(Your estimate of their cash impact is mostly correct, though: $2B in revenues for Facebook, http://schoolcenter.k12albemarle.org/education/components/la...; claims to serve ~12.000 kids in a county on ~$145M requested budget, and I could see a city having ten times as many kids.)

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