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Re: NASDAQ:FB

#311

Post by maigret »

larrys wrote: post #208
paul wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. The growing levels of envy and cynicism on hn is unhealthy. Trashing other people's efforts doesn't make your own more successful.

"cynicism" Because it's a boatload of money. Over twice the value of HP and almost half the value of Walmart. Slightly higher market cap than Amazon. It's absurd. I think there is plenty of reason for cynicism. And I didn't know that HN readers were supposed to all be cut from the same bolt of cloth.

Agree with your first statement. But there is quite a reason for that - Zuck succeeded at making FB a brand people like and are emotionally bound to. Every entrepreneur should aim at that. Hackers are often low on emotion (so is said to be Zuck also), but they succeeded at that. That's why everyone is so crazy at that IPO and letting all reasonnable calculations go.

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#312

Post by jiggy2011 »

kamaal wrote: post #287
beedogs wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't honestly look at Facebook's contribution to the Arab Spring (and similar social justice causes) or the millions of people it has reconnected (long-lost family/friends) and think that SpaceX has any chance of creating comparable positive impact at any point in the near future. You absolutely can. The telephone did those things, too. So does Twitter. If it weren't Facebook, something else would've been used…

>>You absolutely can. The telephone did those things, too. So does Twitter. If it weren't Facebook, something else would've been used instead. Why wasn't something else you say was actually present when it was needed? Why didn't somebody else execute it and build it. The fact is that who can build awesome is difficult to find is the crux of this whole debate.

I imagine it was useful simply because it was the biggest social site online. If facebook had not existed I'm sure they would have found other ways to accomplish similar goals.

It's not as if they set facebook up with the intent on making it easy to organise revolutions.

If they could have got similar eyeballs by posting a video on xtube.com would that have made xtube a great innovation?

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#313

Post by jiggy2011 »

Facebook is (apparently) worth 80 Billion and it employs 3539 people and I somehow doubt that they are employing many contractors either.

Is this possibly a scary thought for the future in terms of job creation? If you can be on track to becoming the biggest communications (and advertising) provider on the planet whilst employing close to nobody, what happens if other industries end up following this model?

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#314

Post by f45s8g2 »

kamaal wrote: post #284
38f0ia wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is the new AOL. Exactly. And the worst part of it is there is a kid acting as CEO calling himself a "hacker". Hackers do not turn websites into corporations. Imagine if all ISP's were turned into "AOL's". Facebook did not connect billions of people. They were already connected. All they needed to do was share their contact details. And the facility for that already existed in thousands of other websites. Peo…

>>Facebook is the new AOL. There is nothing wrong with that actually. >>And the worst part of it is there is a kid acting as CEO calling himself a "hacker". Hackers do not turn websites into corporations. Imagine if all ISP's were turned into "AOL's". Please define what a hacker is. Seriously you make it look as though a hacker as just somebody who keeps doing tech work for free or a throw away price. What is wrong w…

"There is nothing wrong with that actually."

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#315

Post by f45s8g2 »

f45s8g2 wrote: post #282
rauljara wrote: post #130

[Kilgore Trout had written a novel call the Big Board.] It was about an Earthling man and woman who were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212. These fictitious people in the zoo had a big board supposedly showing stock market quotations and comodity prices along one wall of their habitat, and a news ticker, and a telephone that was supposedly connected to a…

What's that early Star Trek Episode? The Menagerie? The one with Colonel Pike.

Correction: Captain Pike.

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#316

Post by paul »

jacquesm wrote: post #249
paul wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The top comment has shifted place.

No it hasn't :) Anyway, what the top comment actually is will not change my feelings towards what it was when I wrote that. I thought it was quite appropriate and a lot more in line with what I'd expect of HN than gushing praise.

Unless the top comment is also the very oldest, then by definition the order must have changed at some point. I do like the Vonnegut quote though.

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#317

Post by crasshopper »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #238
ramanujan wrote: post #181

This is Hacker News. The top-voted comment on this thread really should be words of praise for what Zuckerberg and his team have accomplished. Every hacker, every entrepreneur, every creator should derive inspiration and uplift from Facebook's story. It's a rare bright day in the middle of the worst economic environment since the 1930s. It doesn't matter whether the company will grow into a $100B valuation. It does m…

Over the years I've watched this exact conversation play out, dozens of times. I personally was inspired to leave Sun by a guy I know who worked there, and seemed like a complete idiot, who joined a startup and subsequently got reasonably wealthy [1]. The other bit of experience I brought to the table was growing up in Las Vegas Nevada where money was a sort of 'quantum' thing in that sometimes you had it, sometimes…

One of my favourite HN comments ever.

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#318

Post by crasshopper »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #254
noname123 wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And all during that time/process people will be trying to sort out how much of the success or lack of success of their peers reflects on their own success or lack of success. As folks work through that process they sometimes become enlightened, sometimes bitter, often cynical, and ideally wiser. As someone who will be facing his 5 year college reunion, do you have any tips to deal with this floodgate of emotions? Per…

Forewarned is forearmed, but seriously we all come to realize that emotion comes more quickly than reason. So take the emotions, note them, then when reason shows up evaluate. I've trained myself, and tried to impart on my kids, the notion that when ever a situation brings up an emotion the first thing to do is to note it and see if you can figure out where it is coming from, from there you can use it as data in dete…

Sounds Zen.

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#319

Post by crasshopper »

PKop wrote: post #285
ChuckMcM wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forewarned is forearmed, but seriously we all come to realize that emotion comes more quickly than reason. So take the emotions, note them, then when reason shows up evaluate. I've trained myself, and tried to impart on my kids, the notion that when ever a situation brings up an emotion the first thing to do is to note it and see if you can figure out where it is coming from, from there you can use it as data in dete…

Should one ignore emotions altogether, rule them out of one's life entirely? AYN RAND: Of course not. One should merely keep them in their place. An emotion is an automatic response, an automatic effect of man's value premises. An effect, not a cause. There is no necessary clash, no dichotomy between man's reason and his emotions -- provided he observes their proper relationship. A rational man knows -- or makes it a…

That sounds creepy. As if emotions are some kind of enemy to keep in check, rather than the substance of life.
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