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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

#131

Post by wallflower »

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.

Thanks for your offer and for sharing your personal story! I do not think I am that serious and hopefully another HN reader will take your offer and see where it goes.

I look forward to checking out your library of articles that you have authored.

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#132

Post by frabcus »

masonhensley wrote: post #123
bane wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an interesting point. At my day job, I had an extensive discussion with a coworker who spends his days in sales and marketing. I was telling him that I'm not really the right person to talk to about marketing campaigns on the Internet because I'm virtually immune to them. Even on systems without adblock on, I rarely notice advertisements and I don't think I've ever clicked one. I don't like talking to sales peop…

Same for me- no ads. I thought it was a bug.

Maybe they don't show ads to anybody with the Developer app installed?

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#133

Post by RK »

danking00 wrote: post #111
frossie wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 s…

I know three very bright, young graduates who have decided to enter the Financial industry (i.e. Algorithmic Trading). One has a Bachelor's in Physics & CS, another a Bachelor's in Physics & Math, and the other is finishing a PhD in Astrophysics. They view the Financial industry as an intellectually stimulating game (I don't disagree), and an opportunity to make 6-figures in their early 20s. This really disappoints m…

Probably half of my friends earning physics graduate degrees are not continuing in academic physics, with most of them going into something like quant finance or quant insurance.

The reason for this is primarily that there are simply not enough jobs right now for them in academia.

When I was an idealistic undergrad physics major I honestly never once thought about the job market. I assumed that you'd just go get your PhD and you'd become a physics professor, sort of like going to med school and getting a job as a doctor. You'd follow all of the steps and you'd be set...

Now being on the verge of finishing my PhD, I have a very different perspective and am fortunately in a decent position with employment options. Some of my friends are only now scrambling to make sense of their options.

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#134

Post by bjelkeman-again »

mfalcon wrote: post #94
bjelkeman-again wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of projects working on peace, health and poverty where someone with your skills could could help or work.

Do you mind telling me about some projects in those fields(health specially)?. I'm learning about data mining/machine learning and I'd love to know how this fields are applied to solve important problems and what I can do to help.

I'll email you.

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#135

Post by jtheory »

scythe wrote: post #114
danking00 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know three very bright, young graduates who have decided to enter the Financial industry (i.e. Algorithmic Trading). One has a Bachelor's in Physics & CS, another a Bachelor's in Physics & Math, and the other is finishing a PhD in Astrophysics. They view the Financial industry as an intellectually stimulating game (I don't disagree), and an opportunity to make 6-figures in their early 20s. This really disappoints m…

>This really disappoints me. Sure, somebody needs to work in Finance for the sake of liquidity and other things I don't understand. But, 35% or so of my social group that are pursuing degrees in Physics are headed to Finance instead of research. Every cloud has a silver lining, and this one is as bright as it gets. Until the rise of e.g. finance and actuarial science, getting a physics or math degree meant just going…

But, but, but... thanks to modern technology, aren't there so many better options for seriously smart folks with physics and math degrees?

The "other" option isn't dusty academia and obscure research anymore. It also doesn't involve being a self-sacrificing saint and giving up any chance of ever having a nice car, though finance may still pay better in some cases than a high-math-content tech career.

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#136

Post by joe_the_user »

kahawe wrote: post #89
frossie wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 s…

I think the point he made that "the internet is stale" resonates heavily with something I have always been feeling and wondering about the twitters, myspaces and facebooks... the whole "web 2.0" shenanigans. Those were by no means "new inventions", it has all been there before on the web just on a different scale.. and now the non-techs are catching up and celebrating all the "great, new technology". But the last tru…

Actually,

As far as I can tell, what is really useful and really hard about maintaining and extending Facebook is that Facebook presents all the facilities of the Internet without the factors which tend to make these facilities feel "stale" in their 'native' form.

Facebook presents the equivalent of blogs, websites and emails in an appropriately filtered form. Their job is the job of a good host at a good party - keeping the conversation going without being visible oneself. And thus Facebook keeping its algorithms current is a very hard but fairly invisible job (the visible stuff is so simple a competent php programmer could do it in a month).

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#137

Post by JasonMoyMN79 »

FJCruiser79 wrote: post #122
frossie wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 s…

I disagree with the notion that "those who want it [Facebook] already have it..." In fact, there are billions of users that don't have access to Facebook but would benefit greatly from it. Many of these potential users have 1/2G mobile phones, with little or no access to a PC. Much of what Facebook needs to do to achieve growth targets will be extending it's platform to these users by creating a consumable experience…

Man, it's pathetic. All those clearly very intelligent people at Facebook, and they are working on what is basically a dating site, where you can poke people. Come on retards (yes you can be intelligent but still be a complete fucking idiot), why don't you go solve real problems in the world?

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#139

Post by bbgm »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #109
possibilistic wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa, hold on... I think medicine and biotech are misunderstood here. First of all, Big Pharma != Academia or biotech startups. The former group concentrates on profitability and marketable drugs, whereas the latter two do the heavy lifting for a broad spectrum of diseases. Secondly (and more importantly), we must realize that there are two issues at hand: the ease of developing an effective drug to combat a particul…

My take is that it's just too early in biotech. Back in 1973 it was certainly possible to envision Facebook and Twitter. For example, if you read Steven Levy's Hackers you'll learn about the Community Memory project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Memory But computers and their associated tech like telecom were so expensive in 1973 that Community Memory was impractical at scale. There was no Facebook around t…

And I know many many people who view programming as boring and love setting up experiments and assays. I was the only person in my group who looked at computers as anything more than a convenience.

Re: All these Brilliant People at Facebook Make Me Sad

#140

Post by code_duck »

georgieporgie wrote: post #120
gubatron wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd be more likely to connect on StackOverflow or GitHub than Facebook. Facebook is a place where you go to chill and waste time, connect with old friends, check pics of old crushes, catch up on gossip, play games, or share links. The last thing you'd do there would be to search for another student, it's not built for that.

I suspect that Facebook -- and its use -- will continue to change over the course of the next decade. Currently, it looks like the most promising technology for mass user interaction that has been developed. StackOverflow is basically a high signal-to-noise ratio content farm. It sells the illusion of fame in exchange for generating content. There is no meaningful social aspect to it. I don't see any signs of it evol…

Facebook is a mish-mash of previously existing communication technologies, mainly being presented to people who haven't used the prior forms extensively.

A chat system, a 'twitter' like system, a limited blog with comments system, photo sharing with comments, and the familiar followers/contacts that many site have these days.

While amazingly successful, I'd hesitate to call Facebook 'a technology'. They haven't pioneered much except for jamming all that stuff together for a very large audience..

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