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The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

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Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#71
post #61
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 th…

I +1 you and agree with you. Its funny how people say "just dont use it". Well, I would have stopped using it have I had opportunity to educate all my friends (at once at one sit!!) that your privacy is at huge risk. But since this is impossible to happen, you keep protecting yourself as much as you can and keep "partying" with friends and family online. Its like with government. Take paying high taxes, for example. Nobody likes it but everyone has to do it, and unless everyone takes on the issue, noone can legally quit it.

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#72
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…

Seeing him speak at Startup School last year was absolutely inspirational for me. I don't like Facebook that much, but he's built a great company, and you can tell he's got a lot of interesting things to say http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWKUoabjjxg

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#73

Zuckerberg deserves many of the accolades he's received for his maturation at the helm of Facebook, but I can't help but wonder what would have happened to him had Facebook failed?

He'd probably be a mid-level software engineer at Sony, a division of Myspace.

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#74
post #46
post #37

great discussion. interesting topic. garbage article. really. read it. it's absolutely atrocious.

Why is it atrocious? Care to explain?

sure. the line that was toughest to swallow was this one:

"In a market where ­speed is critical, venture-capital funding allows young companies to move faster than they could if they had to rely only on revenues to fund product development. Entrepreneurs who understand that tend to stick around to make plenty of money later"

really? do they really stick around to make plenty of money? sentence 1 may be true, but that doesn't make sentence 2 true.

i couldn't finish the article. here are a few more choice phrases:

"Many promising tech companies place too much emphasis too soon on the business rather than the product"

"Most entrepreneurs are creative and impatient, an often fatal combination—trying to do too many things, they spread their tiny companies too thin"

it's just not my style of writing. at all.

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#75

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…

Exactly. 1 billion people is a pretty broad target market.

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#76
post #52
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"rise to the top"? I think you mean protecting his position at the top from "executives". Some of who may have little skill to offer the company (as someone above said, age is a factor) but are who are quite adept at maneuvering their way into higher salaries and greater powers of decision-making.

rise to the top of the social network mountain (or dungheap if you prefer)

Gotcha. ;)

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#77
post #62
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ah, interesting. I was actually referring to this talk he gave here at CMU -- http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18392445 -- but he says the same thing almost word for word (spent ~15 minutes trying to find where he says it; I couldn't find it, but I remember him saying it).

Re: The Maturation of Mark Zuckerberg

#78
post #3

"It is a huge sum, even in context. Zuckerberg’s impending fortune is more money than Wal-Mart’s 10,000-plus stores made last year." This line is a little disingenuous. It's more money than Wal-Mart "earned" last year, not "made". Wal-Mart earned ~$15B on revenues of $447B in 2011. Still, sort of surprising given the company has annual revenues higher than many countries' GDPs...

I disagree. When I hear/read about someone "making money" I interpret that to mean profit.

For example, if revenues were less than costs I don't think anyone would say that they made any money at all.

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