
MySpace Tom beat Facebook in the long run - danso
https://theoutline.com/post/4137/myspace-tom-mark-zuckerberg-facebook
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JavaOffScript
I'm not sure exactly what point this article is trying to make. Being rich and
powerful is stressful? Yes, we all knew that.

Zuckerberg could retire at any point and do the exact same thing Tom is doing.
It's clear he wants to continue to be the CEO of Facebook, that it's something
he values more than traveling and taking pretty photos for instagram. Seems to
me like being one of the most powerful people in the world is a more
interesting prospect for him.

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ryandvm
> Being rich and powerful is stressful? Yes, we all knew that.

Uh, that's not the point at all.

Maybe it's overly simplistic, but the point of the article is that Tom went
from being on top to having his company become a punchline. But in retrospect,
having $650 million dollars and not a care in the world is quite possibly a
better place to be in than the guy who's worth tens of billions, but it is
spearheading one of the most socially destructive organizations on the planet.

It's obviously arguable, but in my opinion, Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg's
legacy so far, is a big fat net negative on the world.

At it's best Facebook offers me a paltry and superficial insight into the
lives of people that I don't really care about enough to talk to on a regular
basis.

At it's worst, Facebook feeds social insecurity and anxiety; builds and sells
terrifyingly accurate personality profiles of people; deepens partisanship and
tribal tendencies; and has become one of the premier conduits for falsehoods
and propaganda.

I won't demonize Zuckerberg because I can't presume to understand his motives;
and I will give him the benefit of the doubt that what he wants to do is make
the world a better place. But so far, like giving a time machine to a
chimpanzee, he's really making a fucking mess of things.

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Y7ZCQtNo39
Facebook isn't solving a real-world problem. Before Messenger, I could have
easily just kept in touch with those I care about via text message. Without
the ad targeting, echo chambers, and anxiety that social platforms create with
"keeping up with the joneses".

There's a bunch of negative externalities. I don't want to be a user anymore.
I will share things I care enough to share with my friends directly, not
through an abstraction of a "wall" where an opaque algorithm decides who sees
what. It's incredibly impersonal. It is by no means "connecting" us. Facebook
sows far more division than connection.

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ilamont
This started out as a tweet that went viral yesterday
([https://twitter.com/jeremypgordon/status/984123354415337473](https://twitter.com/jeremypgordon/status/984123354415337473)),
an Outline editor asked if he wanted to turn it into a column, 24 hours later
...

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marpstar
So what's driving Zuck to stay in the game? Does he really believe in the work
he's doing? Is he feeding his narcissism? Does he really want more money? Can
he just not let go of his baby?

~~~
conductr
This may be debatable and we'll never know how history will remember our time
but if you're Zuck, like Jobs/Gates/Musk, you have a potential to be a
memorable person in history. Like laymen know the names of a few famous
scientists, explorers, artists and politicians from centuries ago (Ceasar,
Columbus, Newton). Millions of people have come and gone in the centuries
since but only a handful of names are commonly remembered. In a sense, he has
a legacy to protect.

~~~
cft
Can you name a commonly known businessman from Ceasar's or Columbus' times?

~~~
conductr
We remember people who are the face of things that change the world;
inventors/discoverer/scientist/etc. (Edit: it sounds like you're ...) Implying
he's a businessman so will not be remembered makes no sense. If Musk colonizes
Mars, he will be remembered. Social media may be a footnote in history, or it
may be looked back on like the industrial revolution except there is no single
frontman for the industrial revolution. Zuck has inspired an Oscar winning
movie and now Congressional hearings, so I'm pretty sure he's the face of
social media and history will basically be written that he invented it;
although we know that's not entirely accurate.

Can you name the person who invented the printing press? The person who
invented the cotton gin?

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kristianc
I mean MySpace was eventually sold off to an AdTech firm (for its user data,
yes, literally selling the actual user data, and it ran annoying autoplay
audio ads on every single page), but if people want to remember MySpace as a
reminder of a simpler time, more power to them.

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tzakrajs
"the long run" is relative and subjective

