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Facebook's Little Red Book

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Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#241

Post by 52-6F-62 »

NetOpWibby wrote: post #173
jmyeet wrote: post #88

How far we've come in a little over a decade. If you're working for Big Tech now, you're basically working for a defense contractor. Amazon, Microsoft, Google or Meta are really no different to Boeing, Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman. Meta was culpable in the Rohingya genocide [1], builds AI for the military [2], silences content about Palestine (with deep ties to the Netanyahu government) [3] and Zuckerberg is c…

I work at a fruit company in Cupertino and I felt disgusted when the CEO of said company was in the list of tech CEOs groveling to the incoming president. As idealistic as I am, I do understand that certain things need to be done for waves hand reasons, but...ugh. At least I'm not (directly) supporting war? I think? The world is feeling rather Cyberpunk 2077-ish so it's only a matter of time before I have no choice t…

I think its a very good sign to see people deep within the industry having emergent intuitions about the direction of the entity that puts food on their table…

But please, please dedicate more time to reading outside your sphere and beyond video games. They can be a part of the path to enlightenment, but there is much more going on.

None of the current status quo is a surprise to anyone who has been studying media or history or polemics or even poetry. In fact it’s just been agonizing to watch the cycles.

Equip yourselves, because if you don’t people will use those unknown ideas against you and the wider world.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#242

Post by lotsoweiners »

gosub100 wrote: post #176
throwawayq3423 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Cuban government provides great health care, while keeping everyone desperately poor. It's not one or the other.

US Gov's decisions are also keeping millions of people desperately poor. what's your point?

How is the US Government keeping people poor? There are so many programs that provide financial or medical assistance to low income households.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#243

Post by 0x3444ac53 »

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.…

Whether or not Zuckerberg himself is alive (he is), this version of him is long dead. One of the sad realities of life under capitalism is that even if you go into something idealistic, hopeful, kind even, is that once it hits a certain scale the only thing you can do is succumb to some kind of greed.

Even if you yourself try to resist, you'll be beat down by market forces until eventually you either give it all up and let someone else do the evil, or discard the idealism and say "That's just the way it is!" and look back on your idealism with shame and grief.

Makes me sad too

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#244

Post by evanelias »

jbl0ndie wrote: post #143
evanelias wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some additional context: morale at Facebook was relatively poor around this time period, partially due to the disappointing stock performance right after the IPO, as well as a one-time company-wide reduction in bonuses a bit after that. So parts of this book may have been intended to help inspire a workforce that was becoming slightly disgruntled over compensation. fwiw they were still giving the red book to all new…

There's a school of thought in change management that suggests that a time comes when current stories aren't working for the culture you're trying to move an organisation towards. A few here have said morale was low at FB right then. At times like that, restating some important old stories and legends, salted with some useful new ones can help to galvanize people and create the culture change you want. A good example…

The car wasn't beat up (I don't see anyone claiming that here) or even all that old... it was just a very modestly-priced choice of vehicle for someone of Zuckerberg's wealth and position. I believe he was still driving it at the time of the red book.

Nor does the book really "embrace more excess" financially, at least as far as I can remember (and I don't see any of that flipping through my dusty copy briefly just now either). Instead it's the opposite: "Facebook was not originally created to be a company", "We don't build services to make money, we make money to build better services", etc.

Again, this was a period of disappointing post-IPO stock performance. The market wasn't convinced yet that FB could successfully transition to focusing on mobile. It took about 15 months after the IPO for the share price to start looking more positive.

So that was a factor, combined with an obvious desire to keep aspects of "chaotic small nimble startup" vibe/culture at a company that was definitely no longer a startup.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#245

Post by NetOpWibby »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #241
NetOpWibby wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a fruit company in Cupertino and I felt disgusted when the CEO of said company was in the list of tech CEOs groveling to the incoming president. As idealistic as I am, I do understand that certain things need to be done for waves hand reasons, but...ugh. At least I'm not (directly) supporting war? I think? The world is feeling rather Cyberpunk 2077-ish so it's only a matter of time before I have no choice t…

I think its a very good sign to see people deep within the industry having emergent intuitions about the direction of the entity that puts food on their table… But please, please dedicate more time to reading outside your sphere and beyond video games. They can be a part of the path to enlightenment, but there is much more going on. None of the current status quo is a surprise to anyone who has been studying media or…

I have "A People's History of the United States," I've been too busy to read it. What I've read so far though made the cycles obvious.

I didn't know the NYT has always been right-leaning and letting folks with dubious intentions guest write. I thought that was recent! Nope.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#246

Post by Ylpertnodi »

incog_nit0 wrote: post #236

As a jaded 40+ year old developer this got me choked up. I remember that optimistic view we all had of technology in our youth. For me the optimism was a little earlier than 2012 so maybe it goes hand in hand with being young and less experienced (jaded?). I agree with some of the other commenters that a corporate structure makes altruistic goals like these impossible. Only Wikipedia and The Internet Archive for me c…

>Perhaps we need a corporate structure between a non-profit and a for-profit.

....a...Government?

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#247

Post by dartharva »

fragmede wrote: post #183
PaulHoule wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the viewpoint of developer culture I think Facebook is better night and day than Google. Google's culture is hire 15 geniuses from the Ivy League with 130+ IQ and make them fight with a 40 minute C++ build and a balky Kubernetes culture because "we only hire the best"; YouTube and the advertising system are a money printing machine, the team works for 3.5 years at something that get canceled at the last minute.…

Microsoft stumbled into OpenAI and Google stumbled into Waymo. What's Facebook got?

Was thinking the exact same thing. My hypothesis is that Facebook is behind because just as the Red Book suggests, its overall culture has been to build things primarily for people (freeloaders), and not for enterprises (who are actually the ones paying) like Microsoft (originally) and Google (eventually) do. If you look at Microsoft and Google, a lot of their garage projects are to build products that are useful to enterprises first and are hence more successful because it's easier to bring in cash with them. Their end-user products, meanwhile, eventually end up getting extinguished.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#248

Post by dartharva »

oooyay wrote: post #162

Since this election has unfolded I've been thinking a lot about narratives and what they mean. Progress is largely based on narratives. They're the stories we tell ourselves to stay focused, motivated, and aligned. The narrative doesn't have to be true, it just needs to be a convincing story grounded in some reality (as it would seem). That got me thinking about the function of narratives versus truths, how they're r…

> Progress is largely based on narratives. They're the stories we tell ourselves to stay focused, motivated, and aligned. The narrative doesn't have to be true, it just needs to be a convincing story grounded in some reality (as it would seem).

The "some reality" phrase is not needed. This is exactly how all human faiths and religions developed.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#249

Post by dartharva »

0x3444ac53 wrote: post #243
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.…

Whether or not Zuckerberg himself is alive (he is), this version of him is long dead. One of the sad realities of life under capitalism is that even if you go into something idealistic, hopeful, kind even, is that once it hits a certain scale the only thing you can do is succumb to some kind of greed. Even if you yourself try to resist, you'll be beat down by market forces until eventually you either give it all up a…

I wouldn't be so hasty in giving out such judgements, especially when Zuck is the only one among all big tech magnates to push for Open Source AI and LLMs.

Re: Facebook's Little Red Book

#250

Post by dartharva »

yapyap wrote: post #34
grahamj wrote: post #30

[flagged]

haha, for real though. they poisoned the culture. of course not only them blah blah blah but they definitely played a BIG part.

It's hilarious to see people desperately put the blame on the connectivity platform when deep down they themselves know, it's the users. Just as always, the platform itself is indifferent; it is the people spewing poison.
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