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Ask HN: What is so special in working for Facebook?

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Re: Ask HN: What is so special in working for Facebook?

#11

Post by prodigal_erik »

poet wrote: post #4
citizenkeys wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah... but does any of that work benefit man-kind at all? More than 500 million people also use a toilet every day. So what? 500 million people and the most interesting thing on it is a "virtual farm". That's just plain ridiculous.

Bad example. Without toilets our cities would be disease ridden, awful places. You're obviously trolling, but I just thought I'd point that out. :)

Blue Man Group put it best:

> Right now, there is a virtually invisible network which links together millions of people who would otherwise be completely isolated from each other. This exciting technology has grown to become an incredibly complex web of connections that is so large and difficult to track that it would be practically impossible to estimate its total size. And even though most of us live alone, in urban isolation, this system represents one of the few ways all of our lives are intertwined. This system is: modern plumbing.

Re: Ask HN: What is so special in working for Facebook?

#12

Post by dclaysmith »

citizenkeys wrote: post #3
BarkMore wrote: post #2

It's rewarding when your work is used by 500 million people.

Yeah... but does any of that work benefit man-kind at all? More than 500 million people also use a toilet every day. So what? 500 million people and the most interesting thing on it is a "virtual farm". That's just plain ridiculous.

His example is a bit trollish but his point is valid. The amount of people who use something doesn't make it valuable. The only reason I would take a job at Facebook would be because it's pre-IPO and because you'd get to tackle some pretty unique technical issues (scaling/social graph).

Re: Ask HN: What is so special in working for Facebook?

#13

Post by richardw »

There's a potential with Facebook that isn't there with many other companies. It has an enormous social graph but hasn't found a way to fully unlock its value. The challenge is to help find Facebook's business-model and technical equivalent of Adwords, if such a thing exists.

Re: Ask HN: What is so special in working for Facebook?

#15

Post by kristiandupont »

dclaysmith wrote: post #12
citizenkeys wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah... but does any of that work benefit man-kind at all? More than 500 million people also use a toilet every day. So what? 500 million people and the most interesting thing on it is a "virtual farm". That's just plain ridiculous.

His example is a bit trollish but his point is valid. The amount of people who use something doesn't make it valuable. The only reason I would take a job at Facebook would be because it's pre-IPO and because you'd get to tackle some pretty unique technical issues (scaling/social graph).

How do you define value then? Is something only really valuable if it, say, saves lives?

Re: Ask HN: What is so special in working for Facebook?

#16

Post by random42 »

toolate wrote: post #9
tgriesser wrote: post #5

I'm sure any pre-IPO stock issued to their employees, while not being a really rewarding thing right now, is going to pay off big in a relatively short timeframe... see: http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/01/google-making-extraordinary...

How does the stock thing work? Is it given to all engineers? It seems to be just Silicon Valley companies who give away stock/options as a matter of course, so I'm a little mystified.

The two startups I worked in so far (Incorporated in the US, working in India), have offered me stock options, so its certainly not a "Valley only" thing.

Re: Ask HN: What is so special in working for Facebook?

#18

Post by nirajr »

dclaysmith wrote: post #12
citizenkeys wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah... but does any of that work benefit man-kind at all? More than 500 million people also use a toilet every day. So what? 500 million people and the most interesting thing on it is a "virtual farm". That's just plain ridiculous.

His example is a bit trollish but his point is valid. The amount of people who use something doesn't make it valuable. The only reason I would take a job at Facebook would be because it's pre-IPO and because you'd get to tackle some pretty unique technical issues (scaling/social graph).

Ask Facebook users how many of them would be fine with paying a dollar every month to use it if its easy to make the payment. You will get a good idea of its value.

Re: Ask HN: What is so special in working for Facebook?

#19

Post by grovulent »

dclaysmith wrote: post #12
citizenkeys wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah... but does any of that work benefit man-kind at all? More than 500 million people also use a toilet every day. So what? 500 million people and the most interesting thing on it is a "virtual farm". That's just plain ridiculous.

His example is a bit trollish but his point is valid. The amount of people who use something doesn't make it valuable. The only reason I would take a job at Facebook would be because it's pre-IPO and because you'd get to tackle some pretty unique technical issues (scaling/social graph).

The commonsense oracle agrees:

http://commonsenseoracle.com/2010/10/the-value-of-facebook-i...

Re: Ask HN: What is so special in working for Facebook?

#20

Post by joezydeco »

tgriesser wrote: post #5

I'm sure any pre-IPO stock issued to their employees, while not being a really rewarding thing right now, is going to pay off big in a relatively short timeframe... see: http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/01/google-making-extraordinary...

At this point in the game, can any new employee expect to get options that are not insanely diluted?

I guess if you're a Lars Rasmussen-class talent you're going to get some special class of stock to entice you to come over, but what about the rest of the new hires?

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