Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Instagram’s Co-Founders Said to Step Down from Company

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 231 posts

Re: Instagram’s Co-Founders Said to Step Down from Company

#121

Post by uuilly »

throwaway724 wrote: post #56

Posting anon. In 2009, the startup where I was working was hitting the skids, and our investors (correctly) were not willing to back us. We all kept grinding for a month or two in honorable futility, but after a while, my bank account depleted and I had to go. To make various ends meet and to keep my mental health during the wind down however, I took up some contract work that I found through various friends in the S…

You know how in war movies when the guy leaves the trench only to come back and find that all his friends have been killed?

In the valley you leave the trench and come back to find that all your friends are rich.

No words can alleviate that regret. But if you’re having near misses like this you’re actually really close to something good.

Re: Instagram’s Co-Founders Said to Step Down from Company

#122

Post by confiscate »

throwaway0255 wrote: post #116
confiscate wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is rationalization, where we try to apply "logic" to make ourselves feel better about a bad situation. The chances are low that life is better now, after losing out on a chance to be an early part of Instagram. That's like saying a homeless person's life may be better than if he had a home. Ya statistically that scenario is possible. But if you had a choice, do you really want that homeless person to stay homele…

It’s not at all difficult to imagine a scenario where his life is better after turning down Instagram. I wouldn’t even say it’s unlikely. Just name one important relationship he formed in NYC. Done. (Or any of the other infinite ways events could have unfolded more favorably in NYC than in a hypothetical SF) An engineer in America is wealthy, and has lots of opportunity to see and experience new and interesting thing…

Ya you can imagine any scenario you want. I can imagine a scenario where a homeless person's life is better than if he had a home. It's not hard to imagine. But if you had a choice, which would you choose?

I don't think the argument is conclusively "Done" after naming one important relationship he formed in NYC.

I can name one important relationship he would have formed if he stayed in SF. A relationship with the founders of Instagram. That relationship is valuable too.

What makes you doubt that this choice is less important than other choices he will make in the future?

You don't need to consider the infinite possibility of events that could have unfolded. You really only have to consider the origin event--if you had the chance to choose again, would you make the same choice.

Re: Instagram’s Co-Founders Said to Step Down from Company

#123

Post by thedailymail »

quintin wrote: post #77
throwaway724 wrote: post #56

Posting anon. In 2009, the startup where I was working was hitting the skids, and our investors (correctly) were not willing to back us. We all kept grinding for a month or two in honorable futility, but after a while, my bank account depleted and I had to go. To make various ends meet and to keep my mental health during the wind down however, I took up some contract work that I found through various friends in the S…

You know what they say: “When humans discover immortality, the person who will die the minute before will be the most …”

I think all the people who die unwillingly after humans discover mortality will have a good claim to be the most...

Re: Instagram’s Co-Founders Said to Step Down from Company

#124

Post by Apocryphon »

confiscate wrote: post #111
weego wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the more brutal reality is that just because you had been there then instead of someone else doesn't mean Instagram would have done what it did. Maybe as a first hire you'd have jerked around more than the actual person, or missed deadlines or just made bad choices which lead to zero traction. It's egotistical to assume that it being you instead leads to the same result

Ya I agree, but on the other hand, it's possible that if you had been there instead of someone else, you would have made better choices leading to 10x traction and made Instagram 10x what it is today I mean, what signals lead you to believe one scenario is more likely than the other? It didn't sound like he was a weak employee in any way--if anything, he sounded like a strong employee because the founder of Instagram…

Actually I think the point is that the universe is vastly complex and due to chaos theory and the butterfly effect all sorts of alternate outcomes may have resulted

Re: Instagram’s Co-Founders Said to Step Down from Company

#125

Post by laurieg »

throwaway724 wrote: post #56

Posting anon. In 2009, the startup where I was working was hitting the skids, and our investors (correctly) were not willing to back us. We all kept grinding for a month or two in honorable futility, but after a while, my bank account depleted and I had to go. To make various ends meet and to keep my mental health during the wind down however, I took up some contract work that I found through various friends in the S…

A lot of commenters seem to be bemoaning this poster as missing out on endless riches. Why? we already know that being super rich doesn't really make you all that much happier compared to being rich (and if you are a programmer in work in then you are pretty rich).

I feel that they missed out more on the rocketship journey of being on a startup. And even then that's not everyone's cup of tea.

Re: Instagram’s Co-Founders Said to Step Down from Company

#126

Post by stephen_g »

I find Instagram fascinating, because on the one hand it's one of my favourite social network apps, but on the other hand I kind of feel like they don't know what people like about it and are trying to kill it... Perhaps I'm just weird though and other people like the direction they're going in?.

A good example of what I'm talking about is the whole recent you've seen all the posts you care about, keep scrolling for things you're not interested in from people you don't care about "feature" that popped up a few weeks ago. They just seem to be incredibly determined to push the content of users I don't care about on me, when what I think made Instagram so great was that I could carefully curate what I follow to only see stuff by profiles I'm interested in... And what's the deal with not having a native iPad app? That's just insane!

I wonder how much of this is pushed on them by Facebook, and whether that had something to do with them leaving?

Re: Instagram’s Co-Founders Said to Step Down from Company

#127

Post by confiscate »

Apocryphon wrote: post #124
confiscate wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya I agree, but on the other hand, it's possible that if you had been there instead of someone else, you would have made better choices leading to 10x traction and made Instagram 10x what it is today I mean, what signals lead you to believe one scenario is more likely than the other? It didn't sound like he was a weak employee in any way--if anything, he sounded like a strong employee because the founder of Instagram…

Actually I think the point is that the universe is vastly complex and due to chaos theory and the butterfly effect all sorts of alternate outcomes may have resulted

Yes I agree. That's my point as well.

Re: Instagram’s Co-Founders Said to Step Down from Company

#128

Post by zumbof »

selectodude wrote: post #58
thrower123 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is dead. They have lost all momentum. The older people that have not moved on to snapchat or Instagram are exactly those that will be flummoxed by the changes.

Facebook owns Instagram, and Instagram Stories is eating Snap's lunch. I'm sure they'll be okay.

Why do people compare Instagram Stories to Snapchat? Instagram copied stories from Snapchat, but they didn't copy the core of the app, ephemeral pictures.

Re: Instagram’s Co-Founders Said to Step Down from Company

#130

Post by baud147258 »

checkyoursudo wrote: post #76
throwawaymath wrote: post #64

Here's an offtopic observation. This article (from the New York Times ) denoted the names of the Instagram founders as "Mr. Systrom and Mr. Krieger..." The Wall Street Journal has a corresponding article about this story. In that article, the Instagram founders' names are written, "Messrs. Systrom and Krieger..." Despite frequently reading both papers, I can't recall ever seeing "Messrs" before. I thought it was a ty…

Specifically, it's an abbreviation of the French messieurs , which is just multiple misters. Maybe it's more formal now, but it was ordinary and frequently used in the past in both French and English writing. (Obviously, still quite commonly used in, um, French today.) E.g., English https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=messrs&case_in... French https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=messrs&case_in...

As a French, it feels weird to learn something about my language on an English site :|. I don't remember seeing it written in French. Or I saw it, understood the meaning and forgot.
Post reply on HN