Must be nice to retire a billionaire, making money off of other people's data, and getting out when the writing's on the wall.
Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO
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Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO
#392I increasingly believe that Facebook’s pivot to Meta will end up going down as one of the biggest misses in the history of business. The metaverse is a real idea yes - but strapping a phone to your face and walking through your coffee table isn’t it. Especially not with a mediocre centralized FB owned “virtual world” where they inflict heavy taxes and content moderation. Facebook has neglected its core businesses for…
Consider for a moment that Metaverse as a "product" is a thinly-veiled smokescreen to deflect government regulators away from monetization of their monopoly on the Western social graph, and it doesn't seem that misguided. And if the product somehow generates revenue in the future, then it's just fortuitous happenstance.
this is the correct answer. Everything from FB so far has been a huge PR campaign to make it seem as if they aren't a data mining company that hoards as much data as possible to serve ads. Most people are being fooled and FB is going the extra mile to distance themselves from their old image to avoid regulatory scrutiny.
Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO
#393Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO
#394Earlier quoted context omitted.
> She literally rode this generation of SV wave from the beginning. > she was the best thing to happen to FB and Mark Zuckerberg. Or -hear me out- the person most influential in current SV business is not the best thing to happen to a (very young, impressionable) founder trying to grow his business. Pre-Sheryl ads were businesses having fb pages and advertising when your friend bought a product (very social-based). P…
Which version actually worked?
We can never know what could’ve been. Clearly the method in use makes money. A lot of it.
But FB and Marks reputation have never been worse. He probably would be rich-enough either way.
Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO
#395Well... If your rocket ship is going down, don't ask which parachute.
Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
Zuckerberg and Google have far more share of responsibility than Sandberg, even though Sandberg is certainly also a morally bankrupt person who enthusiastically contributed to the poor state of modern society.
Except Sheryl is responsible ads at both FB and Google. Maybe it’s not just one company. But the industry. Or maybe it’s her ;)
Zuckerberg was the ultimate authority at Facebook. Everything the company did is his responsibility.
Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO
#397I am always deeply saddened by the fact that so much of our digital social infrastructure was built by a company with little humanity. How many interactions have been enhanced, as opposed to monetized, by Facebook technology? My understanding is Sheryl was a supporter of this numbers based approach to the business, and maybe this will be a change for the better.
I’m not convinced anyone else would have done anything different. I don’t believe this is a case of “the wrong people in the right place” since any unregulated massive opportunity in history has gone this way. Saying the wrong people were in charge robs us of learning for next time. More useful to say that this is a lesson in human nature and we should prepare for the next Facebook accordingly.
Not sure I believe this. Instagram could’ve conceivably killed Facebook a decade ago if they’d chosen not to sell. Reminds me of Steve Jobs talking about Microsoft bringing about the dark ages of desktop computing: https://512pixels.net/2010/05/the-desktop-computer-industry-....
Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO
#398Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would take the opposite side of this bet. I don't think she'll run for president. She has too many skeletons in her closet, especially related to protecting Bobby Kotick.
She seems squeaky clean compared to the Clintons, Trumps, and Bidens.
The key word is "seems".
She may be more clean than they are, but they convinced their voters that they're ethical people -- or at least ethical enough. And all of them (except Trump) started with a clean slate in their first election, before running for president.
Sandberg is starting from a bad spot. She has all the liabilities of Clinton without the decades of campaigning to give her a base of support.
Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO
#399Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve worked directly for Mark and closely with Sheryl for nearly 14 years and this is very accurate.
I gotta say, seeing the Meta CTO / Senior Fellow pop up on HN is an unexpected treat! (Oddly, a relative and an ex-boss of mine both worked with you at CenterRun back in the day. Silicon Valley is a small place indeed)
Wow small world indeed!!! The team at CenterRun was amazing
Re: Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO
#400I increasingly believe that Facebook’s pivot to Meta will end up going down as one of the biggest misses in the history of business. The metaverse is a real idea yes - but strapping a phone to your face and walking through your coffee table isn’t it. Especially not with a mediocre centralized FB owned “virtual world” where they inflict heavy taxes and content moderation. Facebook has neglected its core businesses for…
To play devils advocate, Facebook is more essential to my life than it ever was before.
* Marketplace was a huge success in terms of subsuming Craigslist. The quality of posts and the volume of postings makes me rarely even check Craigslist anymore.
* Small forums for various hobbies are almost entirely driven by Facebook groups now, instead of in the past where you’d find some custom bulletin board where the last post on most subforums was 3 years ago. It’s better than Reddit for certain things. Groups for communities (ie: your neighborhood or small town) are thriving, too.
* Messenger is the sole mechanism I have to keep in touch with friends from school that are now back overseas.
I think their general success is assured, even if the metaverse isn’t ready yet. They can afford to lose some money on a big bet.
On the other hand, I think that they missed the boat with the metaverse not being a big thing during covid lockdowns, because the cultural rebound of covid yields zero appetite for virtual existence. People want to make up for lost time.