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A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

washingtonpost.com

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Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#51

Post by fyrn_ »

nine_k wrote: post #41
jjeaff wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to look like a visionary leader when people will rewrite history for you. Facebook was famously late to mobile and almost missed the boat. Luckily, they had the resources to plow into catching up around 2012.

Who were the mobile pioneers who blazed the trail? Where are they now? Let's exclude Apple and Google from the competition because they own the mobile platforms.

They own the mobile platforms because they blazed the trail as you put it. That was the prize they were competing for, Meta was late with the HTC First / Facebook phone, and so they lost. Of course they would have liked to own their own little mobile fiefdom, they are incredibly valuable platforms

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#52

Post by vallsurf »

bastardoperator wrote: post #9
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.

Sure, if you're talking about a pre-seed stage startup with a single product 20 years ago. Meta/Facebook isn't that anymore, and hasn't been that for a very long time. Say what you want about Zuck, but the fact he more or less successfully has been running one the worlds largest tech companies of the century is pretty impressive.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#53

Post by kibwen »

monero-xmr wrote: post #40
roydivision wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a few friends != large number of people will do the same.

I take the entire breadth of my lived experience when trying to predict the future, and I place high value on anecdata. My strategies have served me well thus far, but if you want to outsource all of your thinking to “experts”, good luck to you.

You don't need to "outsource all of your thinking to experts" to understand that data is not the plural of anecdote.

I, too, know people who met their future spouse online. However, after meeting online, they invariably meet in person before getting married, and then live together after getting married. Even the most plugged-in exemplars of the metaverse can't escape from the desire to interact outside of it.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#54

Post by kibwen »

jstanley wrote: post #37
muglug wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem of VR goes beyond hardware innovation: most people don’t want to completely shut themselves off from the world for hours on end.

100 years ago people would have said the same about having the internet in your house and using the computer of an evening. In the future, if everything you care about is in VR, then not being in VR would be shutting yourself off from the world, the same as not using the internet is shutting oneself off from the world today (for some of us).

A future where "everything that you care about is in VR" describes a hellish dystopia. Even in a future where humans spend large amounts of time in virtual spaces, our meat bodies still appreciate going for walks in the park.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#55

Post by mingus88 »

jstanley wrote: post #37
muglug wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem of VR goes beyond hardware innovation: most people don’t want to completely shut themselves off from the world for hours on end.

100 years ago people would have said the same about having the internet in your house and using the computer of an evening. In the future, if everything you care about is in VR, then not being in VR would be shutting yourself off from the world, the same as not using the internet is shutting oneself off from the world today (for some of us).

I quit social media in 2012 (including FB properties like Whatsapp), but I'm still active on many forum/aggregator sites like Reddit and HN

Ten years in I def feel like I've cut myself off from the world in a significant way. I feel like my Boomer parents now, seeing local events advertised in traditional media instead of on Facebook or in some feed.

The _major_ upside is that I am pretty out of the loop with so much meme-based misinformation and influence. It's crazy to see what people are consuming daily.

I just really hope that VR doesn't go the same way. The 90s cyberpunk vision was you'd jack into this wild west and have access to everything. The current reality is that you're just getting another Marc Zuckerberg-esque curated reality. Thanks but no thanks.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#56

Post by amelius »

neel8986 wrote: post #12

Meta is still a 600B company and large credit goes to Zukerberg. His insight into jumping to mobile at the very beginning, making critical acquisitions, relentlessly going to new geographies, investment in AI all played off. Every major company made mistake including Google ( Google Plus ), Microsoft ( Windows phone ) and apple ( entire 90s ). A company making mistake just means they are still taking risks and not sa…

> Just one or two cycle hardware innovation may make VR successful.

Yes, especially if you consider that now AI can create entire 3D worlds at near-zero cost ...

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#57

Post by MuffinFlavored »

neel8986 wrote: post #12

Meta is still a 600B company and large credit goes to Zukerberg. His insight into jumping to mobile at the very beginning, making critical acquisitions, relentlessly going to new geographies, investment in AI all played off. Every major company made mistake including Google ( Google Plus ), Microsoft ( Windows phone ) and apple ( entire 90s ). A company making mistake just means they are still taking risks and not sa…

> making critical acquisitions

like who/what?

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#58

Post by riku_iki »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #57
neel8986 wrote: post #12

Meta is still a 600B company and large credit goes to Zukerberg. His insight into jumping to mobile at the very beginning, making critical acquisitions, relentlessly going to new geographies, investment in AI all played off. Every major company made mistake including Google ( Google Plus ), Microsoft ( Windows phone ) and apple ( entire 90s ). A company making mistake just means they are still taking risks and not sa…

> making critical acquisitions like who/what?

Instagram

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#59

Post by rubicon33 »

tsimionescu wrote: post #10
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 s…

I've been a strong advocate for VR since 2016. Over the last 6+ years I've managed to convince family and friends to all jump in and pickup VR, mostly the Quest 2.

What I can say is, the vast majority of them don't use their headset at all anymore. It sits on a shelf collecting dust, out of batteries, only to be picked up on the extremely rare occasion where they want to try it out again, and then after about 30-45 minutes they're done and it goes back on the shelf for another 3 months.

I've lost all hope for VR being anything other than a niche technology, and I am a member of this small group that finds it a fascinating and very fun technology. I'm willing to put up with the inconvenience and discomfort because the experiences are so much more visceral. But I have to now accept that for most people the experience isn't amazing enough to overcome the discomfort and hassle.

Most people will acknowledge that it's pretty cool in theory. If they could just flip a switch and be suddenly transported into their game world of course they'd do that every time v.s. playing on a flat monitor. Physical discomfort clunky controls and unintuitive interfaces, etc. all plague VR and make it only accessible to the most dedicated of fans.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#60

Post by timbit42 »

fallat wrote: post #46

Too much focus on VR. Apple's execution on AR will determine a lot.

VR will be huge for gaming and other more niche things, but AR will be what people use all day, every day in their lives. Meta is focused too much on VR when they are not a gaming company. They should be focused on AR. They will be playing catch up with Apple when Apple released their AR.
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