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What if "all we know", "all we thought we knew" is the problem ? There is a really telling and truthful scene in the Social Network movie about that, when Save

What if "all we know", "all we thought we knew" is the problem ? There is a really telling and truthful scene in the Social Network movie about that, when Saverin wants to introduce ads and sponsoring opportunities way too early and Zuck refuses. Former-employees-turned-critics like the author of the "Chaos Monkeys" book also agree with that : I'm paraphrasing but he says 2 important things : 1) that the ads sales organization within FB often felt neglected because Zuck initially really, really didn't care or understand this industry. Sheryl basically ran that, and still does to some extent 2) They were really serious about "make the world more open and connected" mantra internally. It's a genuinely mission driven company (and I'm sure recent controversies must have made huge waves) I'm a former Facebook engineer. For sure, and especially since the IPO, it's definitely become an ads company, no point denying that. But it's also very fair to say it wasn't built to be one. Same goes for Google really : who believes Larry & Sergei were thinking "let's build an advertising behemoth !" when they came up with PageRank in a Stanford dorm ? Most ideas that became big weren't built from the get go with money as the end goal. That's just what follows after success.

willoremus 8y ago
Yes, I agree with all of this. I guess I was writing my explanation above at the same time you were writing this.
the_af 8y ago
> What if "all we know", "all we thought we knew" is the problem This is entirely possible and I acknowledged it in my post! I was mostly asking for evidence (and, I admit, expressing some skepticism). > Most ideas that became big weren't built from the get go with money as the end goal Agreed! To be honest, I'm more interested in the viable business stage than in the "two guys in a dorm" stage. I assume the people who built the first TV weren't all that interested in making tons of money either. But you have a point.

willoremus 8y ago

Yes, I agree with all of this. I guess I was writing my explanation above at the same time you were writing this.

the_af 8y ago

> What if "all we know", "all we thought we knew" is the problem This is entirely possible and I acknowledged it in my post! I was mostly asking for evidence (and, I admit, expressing some skepticism). > Most ideas that became big weren't built from the get go with money as the end goal Agreed! To be honest, I'm more interested in the viable business stage than in the "two guys in a dorm" stage. I assume the people who built the first TV weren't all that interested in making tons of money either. But you have a point.