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Mark Zuckerberg directed Meta to create a prediction markets app

nytimes.com

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Re: Mark Zuckerberg directed Meta to create a prediction markets app

#61

Post by JsonDemWitOster »

alberth wrote: post #37
etothet wrote: post #26

I've always felt that Mark Zuckerberg got lucky with Facebook and that he has no real lasting talent as a technologist or visionary. He seems to attempt to chase the latest "it" thing and has very few original ideas that actual stick long-term. He's quite the charlatan.

While I know criticizing Meta is popular, I'm not sure I'd agree with above. Social networks didn't really exist before The Facebook. Understanding the potential market that could be created and turning down a $1B acquisition from Yahoo 20-years ago, at the time, seemed insane. Also making the shift to mobile, when people thought that would be the death of FB is a remarkable story. Identifying to acquire WhatsApp & I…

> Many people I see underestimate what it takes to build a business. It is the classic “I could have built that in a weekend” critique.

My dude, no one in your reply thread is making that claim. We bristling at the claim that "Social networks didn't really exist before The Facebook". Unless you're saying FB's innovation is its business model and is what made it dominate, well, your original statement just didn't substantiate that.

IMO, the only thing I'd credit Zuck for is sticking (at least at the start) to his singular vision of what a social network should be; first it was just open for .edu emails, then when it was released more broadly their product roadmap stuck to fostering a social environment online.

And then he lost that vision. I'd say it was circa Cambridge Analytica when engagement---often ragebait because it gave them more and stronger of that sweet sweet monetizable ad signals---replaced fostering an online social environment. Others would say it's the algorithmic news feed. Either way, losing that vision started FB's demise.

IME, FB was best when it was a supplement and not a replacement for real life. FB had value to me because we could plan parties there and even keep in touch after, get that social buzz going for a little while longer. But it was _never_ the party.

But their recent efforts---Metaverse, all the AI crap---has all the hallmakrs of trying to replace real life. They now want to be the party but good luck with that. Judging by the blowback and lack of adoption consumers see what they're up to a mile away. Zuck has no idea how to stay relevant so now we have a platform more concerned with its market cap than having actual utility.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg directed Meta to create a prediction markets app

#62

Post by JsonDemWitOster »

leosanchez wrote: post #59
seydor wrote: post #58

They even call it "Arena". The place where gladiators kill each other, lions eat christans , criminals are exectuted brutally and animals are hunted. What an apt name chosen by the most moral company of our times.

> lions eat christans Could you explain this bit ?

I don't think he meant you ate Christians, more that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Christians_in_t...

Re: Mark Zuckerberg directed Meta to create a prediction markets app

#63

Post by sometimelurker »

dang wrote: post #57
etothet wrote: post #26

I've always felt that Mark Zuckerberg got lucky with Facebook and that he has no real lasting talent as a technologist or visionary. He seems to attempt to chase the latest "it" thing and has very few original ideas that actual stick long-term. He's quite the charlatan.

Please don't post personal attacks to HN, regardless of $Person. A comment like this does not gratify curiosity, only indignation, and we're here for the former not the latter. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

um, I'm not sure exactly why what motivated that comment, but its extremely possible to believe every word there from a purely logical perspective, as opposed to an emotional one. yes we shouldn't post personal attacks, but saying 'Zuckerberg got lucky' and 'seems to chase the latest "it" thing' doesn't need to qualify as a personal attack. these can just be normal observations. see I wouldn't say the same things about sama, because I don't think they're true, and I dislike the both of them.

as for the newsguidelines, I think it "gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" to think about what motivates tech ceos and talk about how they do things

Re: Mark Zuckerberg directed Meta to create a prediction markets app

#64

Post by JsonDemWitOster »

NikxDa wrote: post #4

I can‘t help but wonder what goes on inside of the upper management of these big companies, and why nobody ever stops for a moment to think about whether what they are up to does any good for the end users beyond making more money. But then again, this is very on brand for Meta/Zuck, so I‘m not surprised.

Cliché cynic's comment: the end users they are concerned about are the companies they sell ads to. If you're not that, tough luck.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg directed Meta to create a prediction markets app

#65

Post by sometimelurker »

I wonder how/if they'll use AI for this. maybe this would give them access to some very highquality pretrain data (like who made which bet on what at what time), which I can definitely imagine them needing. I've heard they have a lot of spare compute they run experiments on, and if this goes well for them maybe they could make a really good prediction bot

Re: Mark Zuckerberg directed Meta to create a prediction markets app

#66

Post by etothet »

alberth wrote: post #37
etothet wrote: post #26

I've always felt that Mark Zuckerberg got lucky with Facebook and that he has no real lasting talent as a technologist or visionary. He seems to attempt to chase the latest "it" thing and has very few original ideas that actual stick long-term. He's quite the charlatan.

While I know criticizing Meta is popular, I'm not sure I'd agree with above. Social networks didn't really exist before The Facebook. Understanding the potential market that could be created and turning down a $1B acquisition from Yahoo 20-years ago, at the time, seemed insane. Also making the shift to mobile, when people thought that would be the death of FB is a remarkable story. Identifying to acquire WhatsApp & I…

Those are fair points, though I didn't say he wasn't a good business person. I could probably concede that he is, but I don't see him as the tech visionary he's often propped up to be.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg directed Meta to create a prediction markets app

#67

Post by etothet »

dang wrote: post #57
etothet wrote: post #26

I've always felt that Mark Zuckerberg got lucky with Facebook and that he has no real lasting talent as a technologist or visionary. He seems to attempt to chase the latest "it" thing and has very few original ideas that actual stick long-term. He's quite the charlatan.

Please don't post personal attacks to HN, regardless of $Person. A comment like this does not gratify curiosity, only indignation, and we're here for the former not the latter. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I definitely didn't mean this as a personal attack.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg directed Meta to create a prediction markets app

#68

Post by bellgrove »

alberth wrote: post #37
etothet wrote: post #26

I've always felt that Mark Zuckerberg got lucky with Facebook and that he has no real lasting talent as a technologist or visionary. He seems to attempt to chase the latest "it" thing and has very few original ideas that actual stick long-term. He's quite the charlatan.

While I know criticizing Meta is popular, I'm not sure I'd agree with above. Social networks didn't really exist before The Facebook. Understanding the potential market that could be created and turning down a $1B acquisition from Yahoo 20-years ago, at the time, seemed insane. Also making the shift to mobile, when people thought that would be the death of FB is a remarkable story. Identifying to acquire WhatsApp & I…

Social networks definitely existed, they just didn’t gain the same momentum/popularity as Facebook. As others have pointed out there was MySpace - but even before that there was Friendster and Asian Avenue. I’m sure there were probably another one or two.

That’s not to take anything away from the success of early Facebook, but the idea of a social network was not created by fb.

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