

Working with Mark Zuckerberg - raghus
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=339013388919

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ajju
No offence, but am I supposed to expect a blog post on the Company blog about
working with the founder to be unbiased?

Given that and the reverential tone, I am inclined to discount it.

Bonus exercise: Replace "Zuck" with "Chuck Norris" in the entire post and note
how it doesn't seem any less ridiculous :)

~~~
raghus
One sentence that caught my attention was "He doesn't care what he said
yesterday, even if he was presented with the same product."

~~~
ajju
I am beginning to wonder if the guy who wrote the post put some of this stuff
in intentionally.

~~~
kmavm
I work at facebook (not speaking offically, mind) and can vouch for the fact
that this was originally not intended for public consumption. It was written
and circulated on an internal mailing list months ago. We only put it up on
the engineering blog after it "leaked" in a WSJ article yesterday, and we
realized the "leak" really did more good than harm.

I can see how this email can make it sound like there's a "personality cult"
surrounding Mark Zuckerberg. It's not really that strange. Inside facbeook,
he's a force of nature, like all other founder-CEOs: "working with Zuck" is
properly a special topic, and facebook employees pay special attention to it,
as I assume Apple employees do to "working with Steve", google employees do to
"working with Larry and Sergey", and I did to "working with Diane" while at
VMware.

~~~
ajju
O.K. It makes more sense now.

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codeslinger
I would argue with the assertion that he doesn't look at other products when
evaluating Facebook. Its clear they've been copying from Twitter and
FriendFeed for years, so I don't know where the Boz is getting that from.

~~~
byrneseyeview
He had the same idea as Twitter, some time before it launched. His version
involved aggregating AOL Instant Messenger away messages--and that's the
closest thing to Twitter, before Twitter.

~~~
quellhorst
I had that idea too, and so did thousands of other people. Twitter is the one
who executed on that idea.

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pedalpete
clearly change is a big part of the facebook environment, and I guess we can
credit Zuck fostering that.

The question I have is, seeing as most users don't come to the computer with
fresh-eyes every day, can too much change eventually end up hurting the
company.

They clearly do change extraordinarily quickly, and so far it has worked well
for them, but is it just a matter of time before they go too far. The most
recent redisign, I don't think added any benefit to the site, I don't think it
looks as good, and I don't see where there was an improvement in
functionality.

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defen
Yes, I've heard. Kills competitors by the hundreds. And if HE were here, he'd
consume the Google with fireballs from his eyes, and bolts of lightning from
his arse!

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swombat
How cretinous the comments are. Facebook clearly fails as a blogging platform
for this sort of content.

~~~
jrockway
I am getting very close to writing a Firefox extension called "CommentBlock".
If people want to comment on blog posts and newspaper articles, fine, but I
don't want to see them. They just make me mad.

~~~
raimondious
You might like <http://stevenf.com/pages/shutup/>

~~~
jrockway
Brilliant. Thanks for the link.

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endlessvoid94
I dislike the fact that "zuck" is worthy of writing about like this. He's no
genius, he seems to have gotten very lucky, which is fine.

He's a terrible public speaker and he's terrible at conveying his ideas. This
smells, given that it's written on FACEBOOK's blog. What's the point of this?

~~~
hyperbovine
IIRC he built a million dollar product while still in hs. "Luck favors the
prepared mind."

I see an inordinate amount of vitriol directed at him online. I assume it's
mostly jealousy. He built a monster product that in hindsight seems very
obvious, and you didn't.

~~~
bonsaitree
IMO, the bulk of the vitriol comes from two issues (not that I think much of
it is sound):

\- Multiple claims of outright dishonest behavior and undue credit-taking
entitlement from his co-founders (even prior to the lawsuits)

\- His extremely privileged background. Given his family's political
connections, wealth, ivy-league legacy, and prep-school pedigree, he risked
very little (compared to most entrepreneurs) when giving a pre-undergrad
start-up a go.

~~~
pw0ncakes
I'm not impressed by Mark, but I don't see a good reason to hate him,
especially regarding the second, which is not at all his fault.

~~~
bonsaitree
Exactly. It's the silver-spoon opportunity cost fallacy over which he has ZERO
control.

It's irrational and wrong, but sadly makes for more "press" and "drama". A
prime example is the plethora of rich-kid "reality" t.v. shows which leverage
those atavistic reactions it to the hilt.

