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The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

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Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#61
post #54

People who bash Zuckerberg fall into 3 categories. Haters, entitlists or are jealous of Mark. If you are so pissed off at Facebook's privacy stance, don't use them (Yes it really is as simple as that). If you cry foul and say this is unfair because you won't be able to keep in touch as well with all of your family/friends just remember this. YOU are not entitled make your own rules when using someone elses' company s…

>If you are so pissed off at Facebook's privacy stance, don't use them (Yes it really is as simple as that). While I agree with you in general I think that the matter is not so simple. Of course, it is in fact true that when you don't like something, you simply won't buy/use it. However, many people have had similar view with regards to Microsoft and Google (and other big companies). But when a big company does somet…

In this case, it really is that simple. Unlike Google, which provides a necessary service, Facebook is not necessary. I have lost nothing at all from not using Facebook. Social media might be important for advertising, but chances are that you personally really don't need Facebook.

Delete your account and go on with life. Some people might not forward you an invite to some event, but they are really not friends if they choose to do this. Writing a short email is not a big time investment. Hell, you can write one email to all your non-Facebook using friends!

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#62
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But machines are rational and logical, people are not. :|

Actually, Zuck made a statement exactly like that last fall. He basically described his model of running a company as just another engineering problem, comparing delegating tasks to writing subroutines.

I've found the video of him saying that at StartupSchool

http://www.justin.tv/startupschool/b/298808358

Seek at 9:30.

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#65
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Age group is not the determining factor there.

It is, but in the reverse factor, I mean the normal factor, that which is stating the common sense fact that the more experienced you are the more you can do difficult things (including putting yourself in the shoes of young immature people) It seems crazy that just for 2 examples of youngster having been promoted on the front page of magazines suddenly everyone seem to think only young people can do that. As far as…

I think the best founders are those that have (1) experience and (2) are still hungry.

Zack bypassed requirement #1 simply because it received enough funding to not worry about the first problem you have when starting a business (having revenue). He's also smart and probably picked up the required experience on his way.

On the other hand there are plenty of youngsters that fail because of a lack of experience, once confronted with the harsh realities of running a business, and there are also plenty of seniors that fail simply because they are not hungry enough, which limits their creativity.

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#67

The crazy thing to me is how well suited people of Zuck's age group are to running companies suited to web technology. A more "mature" CEO would not have the right mindset to steer something as pliable as a web app into a product that keeps up with the non-stop competition for users' attention. If something cooler comes around the corner and enough people latch onto it, you're fucked. Zuck gets this because he probab…

I don't understand your point. What does maturity have to do with "the right mindset to steer something as pliable as a web app into a product that keeps up with the non-stop competition for users' attention?"

My point was the product is geared towards the immature, and his being immature for so many years gives him an advantage in understanding both the product and his target audience. Yes you could train a mature person to think like a college kid, and maybe they could even hearken back to their college days for reference, but the times they are a-changin' and what's been considered cool for the past decade won't be next decade. Thus my point was: will Zuck be able to keep up with what's cool as he gets old and out of touch? My opinion is that being mature is actually a detriment here.

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#68
post #36

As much as you can criticize Facebook for its privacy fumblings and other missteps I have an enormous amount of respect for Zuck for one simple reason: For someone of that age with so little experience to guide something that started from his dorm room into a (potentially) $100B company in ~10 years while still maintaining effective control of it is a truly remarkable accomplishment. There would have many, many oppor…

What happened at All Things D?

I think this is what they're talking about: http://allthingsd.com/video/?video_id=f403bcce-661b-451b-8bc...

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand your point. What does maturity have to do with "the right mindset to steer something as pliable as a web app into a product that keeps up with the non-stop competition for users' attention?"

My point was the product is geared towards the immature, and his being immature for so many years gives him an advantage in understanding both the product and his target audience. Yes you could train a mature person to think like a college kid, and maybe they could even hearken back to their college days for reference, but the times they are a-changin' and what's been considered cool for the past decade won't be next…

The only person who seems to have been able to do this on a grand scale even when he matured was Jobs.

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#70

The crazy thing to me is how well suited people of Zuck's age group are to running companies suited to web technology. A more "mature" CEO would not have the right mindset to steer something as pliable as a web app into a product that keeps up with the non-stop competition for users' attention. If something cooler comes around the corner and enough people latch onto it, you're fucked. Zuck gets this because he probab…

What target audience? Doesn't everyone and their mom use Facebook now, pretty much? Seems to me its biggest competitor for attention is TV.

To me this stuff is fairly simple - but I don't use Facebook anymore fwiw.

There were a bunch of prior attempts at large scale social networking like this and they pretty much all ran into issues with scaling. Facebook handled this adeptly, plus they didn't allow their user-base to turn into a total cesspool through ridiculous customizations + features that made it act like a hookup service ala MySpace, which is why they ate their lunch.

Now the network effects are extreme with nearly a billion served - so it's not exactly hard to keep users' attention when most of their friends and family use the service as well. And I haven't seen any viable competitors come across except Google+ which doesn't seem to be a real threat. So I'm not sure who exactly is nipping at their heels unless we're thinking of a different way of attacking social ala Pinterest (and formerly Instagram :)... which I think is what it will take. You won't outdo them by being a better them. It seems to me most of their innovation has been in a way to set up better ways to monetize or lock in their mass of user data.

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