All these comments, yet no mention of how Zuckerberg stole the project from the Winklevoss twins? My, the memory hole is really working great.
Sam Altman talks with Mark Zuckerberg about how to build the future [video]
191–200 of 292 posts
Re: Sam Altman talks with Mark Zuckerberg about how to build the future [video]
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was a lot of luck in Facebook, even if Zuck is a particularly talented individual. Also - if Harvard is a great school - how the F does someone find time to do the work and make a product at the same time? When I did Engineering, I didn't have time to take a shower.
You can say that about any successful person/company. Sure, luck may have played a large role in Facebook's initial success. But that was over 10 years ago. Many companies experience that initial success and then go nowhere, e.g. MySpace. Facebook, on the other hand, has continuously surpassed everyone's expectations. It's not until recently that people have began to accept that Facebook is here to stay. Discounting…
I agree that the luck angle needs to be tempered by considering that there are many ways to accidentally destroy a good thing. It should also be recognized that luck is required to prevent other, bigger companies from catching on to you before you're big enough to stand up for yourself.
I don't want to discount merit or work, but we too often seriously discount luck. Luck plays a large part in every success. That's not to say that people are justified in being unsuccessful; it's just to recognize that we're all involved in something larger than ourselves.
As failure doesn't always correlate to incompetence, success doesn't always correlate to competence.
Re: Sam Altman talks with Mark Zuckerberg about how to build the future [video]
#193Founders of successful companies don't spend their time reading about how other founders became successful. When Zuckerberg was 19 do you think he spent all his time reading interviews about billionaire startup founders? Thinking that copying their traits, following their do's and don'ts and imitating them will lead to success? No, he spent his time working on the product. That and being lucky. Some of these people l…
Absolutely correct. Zuckerberg lucked into Facebook after stealing the concept from a client. Zuck's self-esteem would be destroyed if he had this same honest evaluation of himself, so he has to tell himself that he made it due to his unusually high work ethic, intelligence, or other personal traits.
This is true. He did steal this concept and then create it. The execution made tons of money.
Re: Sam Altman talks with Mark Zuckerberg about how to build the future [video]
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Donating to a http://www.givewell.org/ recommended charity is probably a more scalable way to make the world a better place.
I suspect it's probably a wash. Donating to a Givewell charity has less risk certainly, but a successful startup on the order of Facebook will change the world by multiple orders of magnitude more. The expected value is probably similar.
It remains to be proven that Facebook's contribution is positive.
See e.g. http://nautil.us/issue/31/stress/is-facebook-luring-you-into...
Re: Sam Altman talks with Mark Zuckerberg about how to build the future [video]
#195Founders of successful companies don't spend their time reading about how other founders became successful. When Zuckerberg was 19 do you think he spent all his time reading interviews about billionaire startup founders? Thinking that copying their traits, following their do's and don'ts and imitating them will lead to success? No, he spent his time working on the product. That and being lucky. Some of these people l…
Absolutely correct. Zuckerberg lucked into Facebook after stealing the concept from a client. Zuck's self-esteem would be destroyed if he had this same honest evaluation of himself, so he has to tell himself that he made it due to his unusually high work ethic, intelligence, or other personal traits.
Probably the biggest thing I've learned through hard experience is that great ideas by themselves have very little value. At this point it's irrelevant whether he copied the idea from his client(s), or from Friendster or MySpace. Out of pure luck, Zuck's version appealed to the masses enough to get them to register for the site and use the contact importer. After that, skill took over - Zuck knew that if a high enough percentage of users allowed the site to spam their contacts, growth to billions of users was a mathematical certainty.
This is instructive for many startups. You don't need amazing or even original ideas. You do need to have growth features in place that, if users choose to use them, will make world domination an inevitable conclusion. Then it's just a matter of optimizing until a high enough percentage of users use that feature. If you are successful at this, you will have perpetual growth.
Re: Sam Altman talks with Mark Zuckerberg about how to build the future [video]
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a difference between loving Facebook, and begrudgingly using it because that's where my friends/family are. Facebook sucks, not just because of confusing UI, or because of silent changes to privacy settings, or because it's one stop shopping for scary three-letter-agencies, but because the network effect is so damned strong, it will take a monumental misstep for it to become the next Myspace.
> There's a difference between loving Facebook, and begrudgingly using it because that's where my friends/family are. Not to Facebook.
Even to Facebook.
Coercion - even subtle social coercion - only works up to a point. If you piss off people enough they'll reward you with zero loyalty, no matter how popular you think you are.
FB is vulnerable unless it keeps its users very happy. Currently it has a monopoly on a product that's actually quite mediocre and frustrating in many ways, and not seen as particularly cool.
If it has to face real competition, it's going to have issues.
There are specific times when you can unseat a behemoth, and those times are when new markets and new platforms arrive.
How is FB doing in China? How are the Chinese doing with AI, AR/VR, and mobile?
Anyone looking at China can see that it's becoming competitive with the US. So far the software markets are largely separate, but I think it's naive to believe that's still going to be true 10-20 years from now.
Re: Sam Altman talks with Mark Zuckerberg about how to build the future [video]
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
That they do, but the problem with taking the conversation in this direction is that it gets us all thinking in terms of how some people have had it easier, instead of what we can do that's valuable of our own.
True but that doesn't mean someone shouldn't even mention it.
It's more a question of how you mention it. The difference can have a big impact on the conversation. For example, snarky or cynical one liners produce more of the same, and so do thoughtful reflections. We're hoping for thoughtful reflections here.
Re: Sam Altman talks with Mark Zuckerberg about how to build the future [video]
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
And also be extremely lucky.
The entrepreneur pits his willpower against the entropy of nature. Nature is huge and moves randomly, while the entrepreneur is small and moves purposefully. There is definitely luck in nature's random movements. But the entrepreneur small purposeful movements add up over time and overcome nature.
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Re: Sam Altman talks with Mark Zuckerberg about how to build the future [video]
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a generically cynical statement that you don't seem to have any specific basis for. In such cases, for HN purposes you should practice the Principle of Charity and err on the side of giving others the benefit of the doubt. It won't affect Zuckerberg much, but it will make this community better.
Well, some people believe in charity, some in socialism. I'm more for a democratic guided way to spend money beneficial, than one rich person deciding what needs to be done with it.
"Charity" here doesn't refer to philanthropy, but to the principle of responding to the strongest plausible version of an argument: http://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/charity.html.
We're likely going to add this principle to HN's site guidelines.
Re: Sam Altman talks with Mark Zuckerberg about how to build the future [video]
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect it's probably a wash. Donating to a Givewell charity has less risk certainly, but a successful startup on the order of Facebook will change the world by multiple orders of magnitude more. The expected value is probably similar.
It remains to be proven that Facebook's contribution is positive. See e.g. http://nautil.us/issue/31/stress/is-facebook-luring-you-into...
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