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> no incentives that motivate individuals to dedicate their lives and souls in the creation, launching, running, and perpetual improvement of such platforms for

> no incentives that motivate individuals to dedicate their lives and souls in the creation, launching, running, and perpetual improvement of such platforms for the benefit of others. Except this is not just a problem with the owners (and to some extent you are wrong, there are CEOs motivated by that, they still by and large fail). Because ... There are no workers motivated like that either. People do not want this. In the vast majority of businesses, the CEO is the only one that cares about anything more than next month's pay check. Even if there are a few exceptions among the employees they remain big exceptions. This sort of business can't work unless CEO and everybody else cares about the mission of the company. And there are no such people.

swiftcoder 8y ago
Particularly in Big Tech™, a lot of engineers tend to be motivated by the company mission. You don't build companies like Facebook without a cadre of true believers.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  What do the FB "true believers" believe? Is the belief the same one now as it was five or ten years ago?
  - GauntletWizard 8y ago
    They believe everything and nothing. To them, It doesn't matter - they just need belief. They are sad, lonely, and afraid people who are rightly afraid, they just don't have the understanding that they're afraid because they're in an abusive relationship with themselves. Facebook gives them the belief that they're doing something important, part of something bigger. I left Google when I became disillusioned (when my own depression became too overwhelming - I left rather than be put on a PIP). Facebook seemed like a place where I could regain my purpose, but instead the illusion was shattered. I've let myself be taken in by that illusion since, but the reality is that the people who offer that illusion are predators, and should be treated with the suspicion that that entails.

swiftcoder 8y ago

Particularly in Big Tech™, a lot of engineers tend to be motivated by the company mission. You don't build companies like Facebook without a cadre of true believers.

jessaustin 8y ago
What do the FB "true believers" believe? Is the belief the same one now as it was five or ten years ago?
- GauntletWizard 8y ago
  They believe everything and nothing. To them, It doesn't matter - they just need belief. They are sad, lonely, and afraid people who are rightly afraid, they just don't have the understanding that they're afraid because they're in an abusive relationship with themselves. Facebook gives them the belief that they're doing something important, part of something bigger. I left Google when I became disillusioned (when my own depression became too overwhelming - I left rather than be put on a PIP). Facebook seemed like a place where I could regain my purpose, but instead the illusion was shattered. I've let myself be taken in by that illusion since, but the reality is that the people who offer that illusion are predators, and should be treated with the suspicion that that entails.