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The Mark Zuckerberg Is a Lot Less Impressive Than the Movie Version

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Re: The Mark Zuckerberg Is a Lot Less Impressive Than the Movie Version

#12
post #4

Movie dialogue is scored on being interesting but there are a lot of interesting responses to Congressional inquiry, including interesting and true responses, which pessimize for your tactical or strategic goals. They also plausibly pessimize for Congress' goals. If you wanted to learn when Zuckerberg learned of a topic, you could send him a letter, and he would check his notes and send you a letter, and then you wou…

Congressional inquiries haven't been about finding truth since TV was invented. They are a platform for the parties involved to signal their positions. MZ is talking to his investors, AOC to her constituents.

My point is: there is no conversation going on. Just people talking.

Re: The Mark Zuckerberg Is a Lot Less Impressive Than the Movie Version

#13
I had at few meetings with Zuck at Facebook after Wit.ai was acquired in 2015. To me, the real version is at least as impressive as the movie version.

Then, of course, maybe was I biased by the movie and everything else I already heard about him? I'm sill wondering.

Re: The Mark Zuckerberg Is a Lot Less Impressive Than the Movie Version

#14
post #6

Slightly off-topic - why doesn't FB just ban all political ads? Is it really worth continuing to display them? Either have a coherent policy that the CEO can explain or just don't do it.

There’s no clear separation of “political ads”:

- candidates can be serious or not so much, but it’s unclear where the line is between the GOP and Vermin Supreme.

- PACs represent the bulk of “political” spending: it’s also unclear where you set the line there; clear attack ads are not the same as a more generic charity defending the environment and supporting a candidate; you can’t ban one without banning the other, or you have to define clear rules that allow “Vote for a candidate that supports your values” but not anything more specific, where using the same symbol, colour, font, as a specific campaign becomes a problem.

- If you ban any communications about the environment, gender equality, etc. commercial companies who bolster their ecological credential or empower women are becoming liminal and problematic when they really shouldn’t.

- None of those questions can accept a US-centric answer: Facebook hosts political ads from 190 countries, where all of the above is slightly different. What counts as controversial in other countries would definitely surprise you.

What counts as true, another argument in that debate isn’t clear: a lot of political promises like “we have the budget to pass that reform” can seem… “very bold and optimistic” to some fact-checkers. Facebook has struggled with fact-checkers in the past and felt it was preferable to downplay their role, given that previous scandal.

Re: The Mark Zuckerberg Is a Lot Less Impressive Than the Movie Version

#16
There was a very inspiring response from the original founding Facebook team about Sorkin’s movie (right around the time they had the entire company go and see it): like most people here know, starting a company isn’t glamorous, at all, certainly in 2004-2006. Servers going down, impossible hiring; they remember a blur of incessant crisis. They thought romanticised version of that story where they look good, say witty things and kick ass was surprising but inspiring for them.

Zuckerberg has gone through media training and can be very good when he’s prepared for specific questions (see his public Q&A). He’s also notoriously focused and happy to delegate. Asking him to come talk about Libra and ask questions about Cambridge Analytica is an easy way to get vague answers.

Re: The Mark Zuckerberg Is a Lot Less Impressive Than the Movie Version

#17
post #13

I had at few meetings with Zuck at Facebook after Wit.ai was acquired in 2015. To me, the real version is at least as impressive as the movie version. Then, of course, maybe was I biased by the movie and everything else I already heard about him? I'm sill wondering.

Care to share an anecdote?

Re: The Mark Zuckerberg Is a Lot Less Impressive Than the Movie Version

#18

Preparing and asking a bunch of interview questions is a lot easier than being on the receiving end and having to think though the legal ramifications about what you’re about to answer. Contrasting the slickness of the interviewer with the interviewee and drawing conclusions based on that is not accurate.

I appreciate that answering questions in a grilling interview is more difficult than asking questions, but ... > “You don’t know? This was the largest data scandal with respect to your company, that had catastrophic impacts on the 2016 election. You don’t know?” ... but at the same time, I would certainly expect the chairman and CEO of a company to be more prepared to answer these difficult questions than what is rep…

Sure, we should not find this dodging acceptable, but shouldn't we start by using this standard on the politicians themselves first? At least Zuckerberg is offering a service we can opt out of, that's not the same for what the politicians do.

Re: The Mark Zuckerberg Is a Lot Less Impressive Than the Movie Version

#19

Preparing and asking a bunch of interview questions is a lot easier than being on the receiving end and having to think though the legal ramifications about what you’re about to answer. Contrasting the slickness of the interviewer with the interviewee and drawing conclusions based on that is not accurate.

I appreciate that answering questions in a grilling interview is more difficult than asking questions, but ... > “You don’t know? This was the largest data scandal with respect to your company, that had catastrophic impacts on the 2016 election. You don’t know?” ... but at the same time, I would certainly expect the chairman and CEO of a company to be more prepared to answer these difficult questions than what is rep…

> This was one of the biggest scams related to Facebook.

It actually wasn’t but no one will listen to people familiar with what happened.

Re: The Mark Zuckerberg Is a Lot Less Impressive Than the Movie Version

#20
post #6

Slightly off-topic - why doesn't FB just ban all political ads? Is it really worth continuing to display them? Either have a coherent policy that the CEO can explain or just don't do it.

In Germany every political party gets a fixed number of slots for TV-Spots basically free of charge ahead of an election. There is no other political advertisement allowed (only the parties themselves are allowed to advertise). Unfortunately neither newspapers nor internet advertisement is as strictly regulated, but I feel like it should be eventually as well.
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