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It's not relevant for understanding Facebook's current challenges whatsoever. Do you honestly believe that most human beings can't be judged just as harshly for

It's not relevant for understanding Facebook's current challenges whatsoever. Do you honestly believe that most human beings can't be judged just as harshly for things they said in private conversation when they were 19 years old? Most people don't make offhand, immature and puerile remarks as a teenager? Should those remarks be used to critically understand large companies a decade and a half later? It's also inane to keep citing it, because there is nothing new to the comment. It brings absolutely nothing new to the discussion that any of us can dig into. It's just an opportunity to fire off yet another short, low effort comment about Facebook. What drives me mad is that you don't need to cite this stupid quote to convince people Facebook has serious privacy issues. There's so much better material to choose from - more recent, more extensively documented, involving more people...

50656E6973 8y ago
>It's not relevant for understanding Facebook's current challenges whatsoever Yeah, it is. Looking at the original goals and intentions that FB was founded around is indeed quite relevant to understanding their current actions.
- throwawaymath 8y ago
  No, it's not. You ignored basically everything I just said. Facebook was not founded around principles written in a private conversation. And even if it was, those principles are not a suitable lens for understanding the massive enterprise it has become. Would you like any company you found in perpetuity to be criticized based on a private chat you had on AIM two decades ago? Judge Facebook's current issues according to substantive evidence we have in the present day. It's not like we're wanting for it! There's plenty of it, we don't need to rehash the words of a teenager who is now in their thirties every time their company pops up on HN! I don't get why this is so hard to understand. You'd think I'm defending Facebook here. I'm not! I'm telling people to stop injecting noise into discussions about Facebook's legitimate privacy concerns.
  - 50656E6973 8y ago
    >Would you like any company you found in perpetuity to be criticized based on a private chat you had on AIM two decades ago? Yeah, because that's relevant information, and that's how context works. We see this in courts of law. Why can't we look at history and consider the present at the same time?
    - tomhoward 8y ago
      > that's how context works When people invoke this quote they never examine the context. There's every possibility that this comment was self-deprecating as much as mocking his users, but that possibility is never explored. People just deliriously portray him as this deeply odious Dr Evil-like villain in the making, and can't actually imagine a goofy 19-year-old saying goofy 19-year-old shit.
darkpuma 8y ago
> "It's not relevant for understanding Facebook's current challenges whatsoever." Facebook's "current challenges" are all rooted in their unethical CEO's psychopathic disregard for other people. Why was Facebook so careless(fraudulent) when they mislead news organizations about video engagement numbers, leading many news organizations to invest heavily in video production and consequently get cratered? Because Zuckerberg has little regard for other people. That quote happens to be one time he said it about himself but he's proved it about himself numerous times in the subsequent years. A fish rots from the head; the trouble Facebook is constantly getting comes from Zuckerberg and the culture he has induced into the rest of the organization. It's the same story every time because the root of the problem is still there, unaddressed.

50656E6973 8y ago

>It's not relevant for understanding Facebook's current challenges whatsoever Yeah, it is. Looking at the original goals and intentions that FB was founded around is indeed quite relevant to understanding their current actions.

throwawaymath 8y ago
No, it's not. You ignored basically everything I just said. Facebook was not founded around principles written in a private conversation. And even if it was, those principles are not a suitable lens for understanding the massive enterprise it has become. Would you like any company you found in perpetuity to be criticized based on a private chat you had on AIM two decades ago? Judge Facebook's current issues according to substantive evidence we have in the present day. It's not like we're wanting for it! There's plenty of it, we don't need to rehash the words of a teenager who is now in their thirties every time their company pops up on HN! I don't get why this is so hard to understand. You'd think I'm defending Facebook here. I'm not! I'm telling people to stop injecting noise into discussions about Facebook's legitimate privacy concerns.
- 50656E6973 8y ago
  >Would you like any company you found in perpetuity to be criticized based on a private chat you had on AIM two decades ago? Yeah, because that's relevant information, and that's how context works. We see this in courts of law. Why can't we look at history and consider the present at the same time?
  - tomhoward 8y ago
    > that's how context works When people invoke this quote they never examine the context. There's every possibility that this comment was self-deprecating as much as mocking his users, but that possibility is never explored. People just deliriously portray him as this deeply odious Dr Evil-like villain in the making, and can't actually imagine a goofy 19-year-old saying goofy 19-year-old shit.

darkpuma 8y ago

> "It's not relevant for understanding Facebook's current challenges whatsoever." Facebook's "current challenges" are all rooted in their unethical CEO's psychopathic disregard for other people. Why was Facebook so careless(fraudulent) when they mislead news organizations about video engagement numbers, leading many news organizations to invest heavily in video production and consequently get cratered? Because Zuckerberg has little regard for other people. That quote happens to be one time he said it about himself but he's proved it about himself numerous times in the subsequent years. A fish rots from the head; the trouble Facebook is constantly getting comes from Zuckerberg and the culture he has induced into the rest of the organization. It's the same story every time because the root of the problem is still there, unaddressed.