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"This is Tayo. He's 11 and showed me a game he built called Spike Rush"
- cmarschner 10y agoGreat to see Mark promoting talent from Nigeria. Africa is yet to untap the potential of its people, and Nigeria will play a central role.
- MusaTheRedGuard 10y agoI would say Africa is yet to tap the potential of its people in Africa. Nigerians and other west Africans have been making huge inroads in the US and UK for decades now
- ScotterC 10y agoAgreed. That's the central tenant of Andela [1]. I just got back from Kenya and was blown away by how talented the engineers were. Going to Nigeria next month and can't wait to compare and see what Zuck was seeing. 1. http://andela.com http://andela.com
- cheez 10y agoCan you elaborate what made them talented?
- hardwaresofton 10y agoMaybe I'm too much of a pessimist/cynic, but while I certainly love that Zuck is doing things like this, I hope he's not just trying to butter Nigeria up to the free basics anti-open-internet bullshit that he tried to pull on India. Nigeria and Africa are definitely the next big frontiers for the internet, and I honestly doubt that whatever facebook's got planned is mutually beneficial enough. Though if FB decides to establish and maintain a persistent, competent power company in Nigeria, it might actually be worth it, NEPA is shit.
- throwanem 10y agoI don't think you're overly pessimistic in this at all. Facebook does what's good for Facebook. So does Mark Zuckerberg.
- jhall1468 10y agoI can't stand this mentality. Why do people think that because someone is a shareholder/CEO in a company, all their deeds from that point on are purely self-interest? Same shit happened when he pledged 99% of his stock charitable causes. Everyone was up in arms about how the organization was an LLC instead of a charity, claiming he did it purely for the tax benefits, despite that being bullshit. I guess at the end of the day, once you are a billionaire for creating a successful company, everything you do is based entirely on greed. I'm sure we can come up with a self-interest reason Bill Gates is spending hundreds of millions eradicating malaria too.
- throwanem 10y agoYou assume a generalization I did not make.
- jhall1468 10y agoYou very clearly implied that in the context of this story, Mark Zuckerberg does what's best for Facebook.
- Relys 10y agoI fail to see where throwanem "clearly [implies] that in the context of [the] story, Mark Zuckerberg does what's best for Facebook". If anything throwanem is making an generalization of Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook based on the context of their previous actions.
- theobold 10y agoWhy do people think that because someone is a shareholder/CEO in a company, all their deeds from that point on are purely self-interest? Depends on the CEO and company. The behavior of a company reflects the behavior of its CEO. Microsoft and Facebook both have a a history of bad behavior.
- vegabook 10y agoFacebook's transparent attempt to own the internet in Africa is scary, distasteful, but strangely tinged with inevitability due to Mark Zuckerberg's unstoppable hunger and relentless competence. I hope Africa is as savvy as the West (has belatedly become) to his self-serving PR stunts, and gives him an almighty neo-colonial kick in the butt.
- sevenless 10y agoComparing a company to a colonial empire is a bit silly unless you're talking about the East India Company. I don't believe Facebook has its own warships yet.
- vegabook 10y agowho needs warships when you can destroy a country economically electronic payment-systems sanctions? I think the East India Company comparison is entirely reasonable, if not right now, soon. And it won't need anything so vulgar as actual physical force, but its tools of war will be just as effective.
- ucaetano 10y agoEnglish East India Company, Austrian East India Company, Danish East India Company, Dutch East India Company, French East India Company, Portuguese East India Company, Swedish East India Company, Hudson Bay Company, United Fruit Company, Danish West India Company, Dutch West India Company, French West India Company, Swedish West India Company, Royal African Company, etc. I'm not judging if they were good or bad, but there were (and still are) far too many.
- foxylion 10y agoIf someone is interested in the original Facebook post (also viewable without an account): https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10103109918599991 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10103109918599991
- dang 10y agoYes, we changed the url to that from http://naijafixer.com/programing/mark-zuckerberg-help-in-publicising-11-yrs-old-nigerian-tayo%27s-spike-rush-app/msg77/#new http://naijafixer.com/programing/mark-zuckerberg-help-in-pub..., since that one is just a copy of this one, and HN calls for original sources.
- dolftax 10y agoWhy are posts like these trending/upvoted?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]