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Facebook's Little Red Book

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Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#201

Post by dredmorbius »

sneak wrote: post #141
emilfihlman wrote: post #130

It's refreshing to see it said out loud today as an ideal, even if they didn't really believe it then nor today, the idea on page 24: "But what happens when everyone can put their message in front of a lot of people? When the playing field is level? When everyone has a printing press, the ones with the best ideas are the ones people listen to, Influence can no longer be owned, It must be earned." I wish people believ…

They should have known that if they built a giant centralized platform, the government would eventually come knocking.

s/government/governments/

Also corporations, political parties, propagandists, hucksters, and others.

Pathogens co-evolve with their hosts.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#202

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

jhbadger wrote: post #161
paxys wrote: post #52

I think people here are too young to remember the tech industry in 2012. None of the images and ideas conveyed in this book (printing press, cave art, fall of the Berlin wall, Arab Spring, particle accelerators) were outlandish for the time and space it was printed in. Tech was all about optimism and idealism. Everyone in silicon valley knew they were changing the world for the better, and tech was the missing piece…

But except for the Arab Spring of 2011 none of these events had anything whatsoever to do with social media. It is just absurd to see Facebook try to associate themselves with the fall of the Berlin Wall. It reminds me of the 1990s ad campaign Apple used to have about "thinking different" featuring people like Einstein, Martin Luther King, and Gandhi, none of whom obviously used Apple's products.

"But except for the Arab Spring of 2011 none of these events had anything whatsoever to do with social media"

There is an argument I saw made in a documentary that the Arab Spring also had nothing to do with social media.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#203

Post by MichaelZuo »

jhbadger wrote: post #161
paxys wrote: post #52

I think people here are too young to remember the tech industry in 2012. None of the images and ideas conveyed in this book (printing press, cave art, fall of the Berlin wall, Arab Spring, particle accelerators) were outlandish for the time and space it was printed in. Tech was all about optimism and idealism. Everyone in silicon valley knew they were changing the world for the better, and tech was the missing piece…

But except for the Arab Spring of 2011 none of these events had anything whatsoever to do with social media. It is just absurd to see Facebook try to associate themselves with the fall of the Berlin Wall. It reminds me of the 1990s ad campaign Apple used to have about "thinking different" featuring people like Einstein, Martin Luther King, and Gandhi, none of whom obviously used Apple's products.

Why does it matter to you?

Unless you received assurances otherwise, trying different things every week seems like the default expectation for a big company.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#204

Post by squigz »

po wrote: post #199

Historically, those who controlled the media controlled the message. If you're the only one with a printing press, you control what people read. Same with radio. Same with TV. But what happens when everyone can put their message in front of a lot of people? When the playing field is level? When everyone has a printing press, the ones with the best ideas are the ones people listen to. Influence can no longer be owned.…

I think Zuckerberg is still alive and well aware of the current landscape.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#205

Post by pyrale »

mattmanser wrote: post #148
paxys wrote: post #52

I think people here are too young to remember the tech industry in 2012. None of the images and ideas conveyed in this book (printing press, cave art, fall of the Berlin wall, Arab Spring, particle accelerators) were outlandish for the time and space it was printed in. Tech was all about optimism and idealism. Everyone in silicon valley knew they were changing the world for the better, and tech was the missing piece…

This site is from that era, a bunch of posters on this thread are registered from then or before. There was plenty of cynicism in tech back then too, plenty of posters who always complained about 'micro$oft'. How Oracle had been corrupted, etc. What seems to be different now is that the optimism hype fades quicker. Back then Google kept it going for years. Recently things like Tesla and OpenAI the optimism gave way t…

There was always a next wave, a new movement to embody ideals. I’m not sure what the fresh utopia is these days.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#206

Post by melagonster »

jhbadger wrote: post #161
paxys wrote: post #52

I think people here are too young to remember the tech industry in 2012. None of the images and ideas conveyed in this book (printing press, cave art, fall of the Berlin wall, Arab Spring, particle accelerators) were outlandish for the time and space it was printed in. Tech was all about optimism and idealism. Everyone in silicon valley knew they were changing the world for the better, and tech was the missing piece…

But except for the Arab Spring of 2011 none of these events had anything whatsoever to do with social media. It is just absurd to see Facebook try to associate themselves with the fall of the Berlin Wall. It reminds me of the 1990s ad campaign Apple used to have about "thinking different" featuring people like Einstein, Martin Luther King, and Gandhi, none of whom obviously used Apple's products.

Do not social media cause the Rohingya genocide?

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#207

Post by umeshunni »

pie420 wrote: post #163
jonas21 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people are still optimistic about tech. They just generally don't have time to get into silly arguments about it on HN.

i'm sure there's lots of tech optimists in absolute numbers, but my personal experience in the bay area has been that a vast majority of my friends in tech and tech adjacent have become highly pessimistic of the current tech landscape, AI, VR, etc.

That's called a little blue bubble.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#208

Post by Liftyee »

lupire wrote: post #145
lelandfe wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And naive. "When everyone has a printing press, the ones with the best ideas are the ones people listen to" – in a room full of voices, uncommonly is the best idea heard.

Tomato, tomahto; Naive, cynical; potato, potahto. "Best" in a Darwinian memetic sense of "optimized for reproduction and dissemination", not "accurate" or "helpful".

I wonder how loudness factors into that. Maybe ideas which make their "host" express them loudly have a higher chance of "infecting" others?

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#209

Post by com2kid »

karmajunkie wrote: post #15
dgfitz wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There was the idea that person to person public discourse could resolve many societal problems. Nobody thought this.

I hate to break the news to you, but literally millions believed it. There's still more than a (very overprivileged) few who still believe it.

I still believe technology can be used for good. Diseases get cured every day, more people are able to make art of all kinds than ever before, families can keep in touch all around the world, people with disabilities can use technology to overcome what would have previously been hard limits.

It is unfortunate that we have allowed algorithmic social media content to destroy so much, and to allow for targeted ad based services to cause such drastic harm to society. However society pretty much now knows what the root problems are and if there is a will, many of the worst offenders can be legislated away.

Remove gacha/lootbox mechanics from games and remove personalized algorithmic social media feeds.

It turns out, as a species, it isn't good for us to carry around machines 24/7 that can hit the dopamine center in our brains, or that can deliver targeted outrage on demand.

How about all the other stuff though? A connected world where I can play games with people around the globe? Forums that let fans share their love of their favorite media/artist/singer/author. The hundreds of amazing YouTube chefs that have introduced authentic, sometimes hyperlocal, world cuisines to a global audience. The sheer number of in-depth documentaries that are getting made about every possible niche topic now. The independent media organizations that have popped up (Curiosity Stream, Dropout, to name just two).

All that stuff is good.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#210

Post by pyrale »

ncpa-cpl wrote: post #182
dluan wrote: post #153

Facebook somehow acquiring 小红书 would actually be a prescient move, but even that era seems forever ago.

I came looking for this, Is the Chinese instagram’s name, Little Red Book (小红书), related to Facebook’s Little Red Book, or just a coincidence?

There’s another little red book which has ties to China and quite a bit more fame.
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