161–170 of 181 posts
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Of those 2,000 employees only about 300 are actually engineers, if I recall correctly. But the point is, I guess, more about quality then quantity.
I think the real cost is in the ~50,000 engineers* who are trying to clone Facebook, not in the ~300 who are actually working on it. * Made up number.
What kinda innovations and technology is facebook shipping out so fast? To me, facebook is a streamlined and polished way to keep in touch with people and share information, which the internet already offered and was made for. Whats more to it than that?
Google, IBM, Intel, Research and development, etc would be some of the places which I would be interested in working, as I see them as innovators. Facebook, twitter etc are just "apps" for me
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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…
I am working in finance because the professors I knew were not salty enough. I have to do a lot of scut work, and I really am not on an impressive salary, but I see massive real-world problems on a daily basis and get a live view of the things that really matter in the world economy. Running trading algorithms would be pretty pants, but managing risk is not quite so ignoble.
What?
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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…
The Web 2.0 movement was about opening up the data in computer consumable formats and APIs. Nothing more. While exchanging data over the internet is obviously nothing new, having large organizations provide easy programmable access to their private databases was somewhat revolutionary. The whole App craze was born out of being able to create new interfaces to existing services, thanks to Web 2.0. Web 2.0 was nothing…
You could do a lot if not all of that before as a tech and not-so-much tech but chances were that you did not. "Blog" made it hip and cool for everyone to write a lot about usually not a lot - but if you wanted to have a website you could very well do so before.
I assume you mean RSS and what followed the blogs back then - but this was not really the main idea of Web 2.0. Web services were happening at the same time but they are not "the" web 2.0, in my opinion.
It could be said that there's a lot of rubbish out there on facebook, and sites like meetup.com, last.fm, eventful, flickr are much better, but they don't have anything that ties them all together like facebook actually does.
The solution is not to stick your head in the sand, and ignore human interactions. You can't convieniently go 'humans, do this. I don't like it. I'm going to ignore them all'
Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing what the Diaspora approach evolves into: https://joindiaspora.com
What would be much worse is if all these talented engineers were working for a large advertising company with a poor human rights record and no respect for your privacy. Now there's a nightmare scenario.
What are "useful" jobs?
figuring out how to generate power cleanly and cheaply on every home in the world. A whole continent like Africa would surely have a great use for cheap+clean energy generation. making self driving vehicles. creating better battery technology. figuring out a way to get rid of lawyers. working on super intelligence. brain computer interface (the one input mechanism that would do away without keyboards) augmented reali…
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Any job that someone's willing to pay to have done - by paying for the job, they indicate that it's worth that much money, and hence at least as useful as that money was.
Lawyers, drug dealers, assassins, politicians, bankers, managers, accountants, stock traders, to mention a few: all paid significant amounts but not really that worthy, are they?
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And will a Chinese student meet a German one and bah blah etc. on Facebook in 10 years? I guess we'll see whether it's even around in 10 years. My belief is that people will have moved on by then. 10 years is a long time and there's nothing particularly special about Facebook.
I invite you to reread my original comment on the subject, particularly the bit in parentheses. The point isn't that Facebook is the place where things will happen, but that all this seemingly inane social software focus will likely reap indirect benefits that are being ignored by the original author.
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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.
>But, but, but... thanks to modern technology, aren't there so many better options for seriously smart folks with physics and math degrees? If people want to pursue money, who are you to judge? See, I don't think you quite get how much this sentiment pisses me off. I'm 19. I just got a bachelor's in physics. I've done research in a bunch of fields. And I'm going into graduate school next year. People who think I'm so…
But "finance" means theft these days. It's only wildly profitable because our economic/justice system is fundamentally flawed and nobody is allowed to stop playing.
That would be disappointing to see a useful person seduced by. Not because your skills make you a national resource or anything, but because the job is a net negative to society. We'd be better off if you took up mugging.