A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

For me the big turning point at Meta was the acquisition of Oculus. At the time, it was great, forward-thinking and gave everyone a lot of hope for the future of Meta and even society if you believed the hype. This peaked at about 2020 when the opportunity for VR and remote work became real and necessary due to an unprecedented pandemic.

However, we all know the rest; hyperfocus on VR to the detriment of the rest of the company (most notably Instagram missing out on short-form video content) leading to the gradual slide off the cliff. VR is still important but Zuck needs to radically reshift and refocus to save the farm and stave off OpenAI. Interesting few years ahead.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#6

Post by jstummbillig » Sun, Apr 30, 2023, 4:40 PM UTC

quantumwoke wrote: post #5

For me the big turning point at Meta was the acquisition of Oculus. At the time, it was great, forward-thinking and gave everyone a lot of hope for the future of Meta and even society if you believed the hype. This peaked at about 2020 when the opportunity for VR and remote work became real and necessary due to an unprecedented pandemic. However, we all know the rest; hyperfocus on VR to the detriment of the rest of…

> However, we all know the rest;

That does make everything a lot simpler, doesn't it.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#7

Post by pharmakom » Sun, Apr 30, 2023, 4:41 PM UTC

mtsolitary wrote: post #3

He did also build it though…

It’s my company and I’ll ruin it how I like!

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#8

Post by JKCalhoun » Sun, Apr 30, 2023, 4:43 PM UTC

> In a statement, Meta spokesman Dave Arnold said the conditions that led to the layoffs are “well known and reverberating throughout the industry.”

Sad that you can get away with a statement like that.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#9

Post by bastardoperator » Sun, Apr 30, 2023, 4:44 PM UTC

mtsolitary wrote: post #3

He did also build it though…

If we want to forget about the other 3 co-founders that were basically robbed by Zuckerberg then sure, he built it all by himself.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#10

Post by tsimionescu » Sun, Apr 30, 2023, 4:45 PM UTC

quantumwoke wrote: post #5

For me the big turning point at Meta was the acquisition of Oculus. At the time, it was great, forward-thinking and gave everyone a lot of hope for the future of Meta and even society if you believed the hype. This peaked at about 2020 when the opportunity for VR and remote work became real and necessary due to an unprecedented pandemic. However, we all know the rest; hyperfocus on VR to the detriment of the rest of…

Is there any kind of indication VR (or its cousin, AR) is important to any extent? Everything I know suggests it's a niche technology that has little chance of becoming anything but a niche technology. It's not made any significant headway in gaming, in entertainment of other kinds, nor in general business settings.

There are some specialist domains where 3D visualization is worth the cost and inconvenience, but it seems to me very unlikely that it will ever escape those. Meta's gigantic investment with little to show for it seems to me to support this observation.