3 ms·

Googler Paul Adams Heads To Facebook

43 points by ssclafani 16y ago

ssclafani 16y ago
The discussion of Adams' presentation: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1867807 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1867807
- joe_the_user 16y ago
  The thing about the presentation is that it seemed like an excellent outline of all things Facebook isn't because of its basic model. But maybe Facebook is smart enough to change that model - ie, be more open to people maintain multiple, intersecting identities rather than expecting a single, single transparent identity.
  - mtzb 16y ago
    I had not seen or read about this presentation but independently determined that the main flaw in Facebook is how it bunches up all of a user's connections into one group. A competitor can only gain traction in social networking if it is built ground up with the concept that a person's offline social network consists of smaller groups and that with each of these groups, a person behaves and shares differently. I feel this is a major weakness in the way Facebook is structured and any competitor should look to exploit this fundamental flaw. If I were building a competitor to Facebook (like Google may be), I would allow a person to create sub-profiles under a main login. For example, a user could have the sub-profiles for themselves: "Work", "Family", "Friends". Each sub-profile would have it's own profile picture, it's own contact info, it's own newsfeed. When someone wants to add you, you would have the choice of which sub-profile you want to give them access to. The main message that such a social network would need to give users is that each sub-profile is strictly walled off from your other profiles. So, now you won't have to worry about your boss seeing those photos from last night's party in which you had too much to drink since he only gets updates from your "work" sub-profile.
    - joe_the_user 16y ago
      I agree the main weakness of Facebook is "it bunches up all of a user's connections into one group". The problem a competitor face with this is: 1) Maintain multiple groups requires a significant mental overhead. Any UI would be hard but the thought the person would have to put plus the UI makes this impractical. I never use Facebook groups, my reptile brain processes it as "UI noise" before my rational mind even see it (ie, literally don't recall ever getting anything related to facebook groups). 2) There's a reflex for a person to think of themselves as using a single role even they aren't. Many people with a lot to hide will say and even sincerely mean "but I have nothing to hide" and only discover later they were bullshiting ... themselves. So Facebook's approach has strong leverage. Just as much, software people like to think they'll sell something based on "more features" when what people need ... is a single, clear feature. Essentially, a direct alternative would need to be presented as a single thing people can understand and use easily. Even more that single thing couldn't be framed as "you get to have multiple identities" but would have to be framed somewhat differently.
      - forkandwait 16y ago
        I think you have good points, but I disagree with "There's a reflex for a person to think of themselves as using a single role" -- weirdly enough, humans are so hardwired to manage complex social situations that they can manage a few different personas intuitively, along with linguistic and bodily cues about who they are trying to be. Even children do this. (Well, Zuckerberg might not find personas, roles, and code-switching intuitive, but I think super focused computer types are not representative... ;) ) There is scholarly work to back me up, but I can't think of any names to start with except Labov and Goffman -- they are completely brilliant mind fs if you bother to read them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Eve... Re the UI -- spot on, but maybe that is a UI problem, not a UI boundary condition, and we could start researching cues for persona switching on the computer screen. Avatars are a first attempt, but not all that inspiring if you ask me.
        joe_the_user 16y ago
- apu 16y ago
  Yes, as mentioned in the very first line of the linked article.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
joshu 16y ago
Great guy. Worked with him briefly at Google.
olalonde 16y ago
Why is it that every time there's an article about people leaving Google for Facebook it makes it to HN's front page?
- alexgartrell 16y ago
  To answer your question generally (that is, not specifically related to this particular departure) Google was the coolest place to work for the last decade. All of the sudden, high profile people are leaving for Facebook. I'm not arguing that this is proof of some underlying flaw of Google or anything conspiratorial like that, but it certainly qualifies as interesting to people who might end up making a choice between the two companies (either as an employer or as a platform on which to develop). Additionally, it's not completely unlikely that there's a small group of Facebook employees who are very happy when high-profile people join Facebook. It certainly makes me happy, and I haven't even started yet.
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    I'm curious, though, why it's never reported when Googlers go to FaceBook and then back to Google.
    - mwerty 16y ago
      It is: http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080818/the-curious-case-of-facebooks-benjamin-ling-and-sheryl-sandberg/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080818/the-curious-case-of-face... Do you know of others?
- axod 16y ago
  Because it supports the fashionable groupthink here that Google is old and facebook is hip.
maxawaytoolong 16y ago
What does a person in this type of position do on a day to day basis?
- poundy 16y ago
  Good question.. I am also eager to find out..
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    I work with a bunch of them. A UX designer's basic job is to figure out how a product should work: who is the user, what do they want, how should they interact with the product, and how should the product's UI be laid out to accomplish that? They use a bunch of tools, from Macromedia Fireworks and Photoshop on the static side down to JavaScript and Python/PHP on the dynamic side. At Google at least, it's very common for UX designers to be able to code in rapid prototyping languages, though they usually know nothing about large-scale software engineering (beyond what engineers tell them). A UX researcher's basic job is to figure out how users behave and what they want. This is basically applied social science. They work directly with users - sometimes through usability studies and one-way glass, sometimes through focus groups, sometimes through going out into the community and talking with people who use the product, and sometimes through logs analysis and quantitative data. This is not usually a technical position, but it requires someone with familiarity with the scientific method, a curiosity about people, and often good statistical/quantitative skills. Since he's a UX lead, however, my guess is his day job came down to two things: hiring new UX people, and prioritizing requests for the skills of his reportees.
oemera 16y ago
Anyone out there who can tell if Google is a terrible place to work or is Facebook just a awesome place to work? I really don't get it. I would love to know why people are leaving Google for Facebook. I really don't think it is because of the money. Is just more interesting these days?
- patd 16y ago
  For what I've read, Google is becoming too big and some people complain that things aren't moving as fast as they once did. Facebook is still younger, the teams are smaller, they still have to take shots at new ideas that will generate the revenue stream they need. But I'm sure that money is also a big part of it, with crazy valuation numbers, being paid in stocks could turn some of the new recruits into millionaires.
- nostrademons 16y ago
  Google is an awesome place to work, though like any big company, your experience will vary a lot based on your manager. FaceBook, I've heard, is also an awesome place to work.

43 points by ssclafani 16y ago

The discussion of Adams' presentation: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1867807 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1867807

joe_the_user 16y ago
The thing about the presentation is that it seemed like an excellent outline of all things Facebook isn't because of its basic model. But maybe Facebook is smart enough to change that model - ie, be more open to people maintain multiple, intersecting identities rather than expecting a single, single transparent identity.
- mtzb 16y ago
  I had not seen or read about this presentation but independently determined that the main flaw in Facebook is how it bunches up all of a user's connections into one group. A competitor can only gain traction in social networking if it is built ground up with the concept that a person's offline social network consists of smaller groups and that with each of these groups, a person behaves and shares differently. I feel this is a major weakness in the way Facebook is structured and any competitor should look to exploit this fundamental flaw. If I were building a competitor to Facebook (like Google may be), I would allow a person to create sub-profiles under a main login. For example, a user could have the sub-profiles for themselves: "Work", "Family", "Friends". Each sub-profile would have it's own profile picture, it's own contact info, it's own newsfeed. When someone wants to add you, you would have the choice of which sub-profile you want to give them access to. The main message that such a social network would need to give users is that each sub-profile is strictly walled off from your other profiles. So, now you won't have to worry about your boss seeing those photos from last night's party in which you had too much to drink since he only gets updates from your "work" sub-profile.
  - joe_the_user 16y ago
    I agree the main weakness of Facebook is "it bunches up all of a user's connections into one group". The problem a competitor face with this is: 1) Maintain multiple groups requires a significant mental overhead. Any UI would be hard but the thought the person would have to put plus the UI makes this impractical. I never use Facebook groups, my reptile brain processes it as "UI noise" before my rational mind even see it (ie, literally don't recall ever getting anything related to facebook groups). 2) There's a reflex for a person to think of themselves as using a single role even they aren't. Many people with a lot to hide will say and even sincerely mean "but I have nothing to hide" and only discover later they were bullshiting ... themselves. So Facebook's approach has strong leverage. Just as much, software people like to think they'll sell something based on "more features" when what people need ... is a single, clear feature. Essentially, a direct alternative would need to be presented as a single thing people can understand and use easily. Even more that single thing couldn't be framed as "you get to have multiple identities" but would have to be framed somewhat differently.
    - forkandwait 16y ago
      I think you have good points, but I disagree with "There's a reflex for a person to think of themselves as using a single role" -- weirdly enough, humans are so hardwired to manage complex social situations that they can manage a few different personas intuitively, along with linguistic and bodily cues about who they are trying to be. Even children do this. (Well, Zuckerberg might not find personas, roles, and code-switching intuitive, but I think super focused computer types are not representative... ;) ) There is scholarly work to back me up, but I can't think of any names to start with except Labov and Goffman -- they are completely brilliant mind fs if you bother to read them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Eve... Re the UI -- spot on, but maybe that is a UI problem, not a UI boundary condition, and we could start researching cues for persona switching on the computer screen. Avatars are a first attempt, but not all that inspiring if you ask me.
      - joe_the_user 16y ago
apu 16y ago
Yes, as mentioned in the very first line of the linked article.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

joshu 16y ago

Great guy. Worked with him briefly at Google.

olalonde 16y ago

Why is it that every time there's an article about people leaving Google for Facebook it makes it to HN's front page?

alexgartrell 16y ago
To answer your question generally (that is, not specifically related to this particular departure) Google was the coolest place to work for the last decade. All of the sudden, high profile people are leaving for Facebook. I'm not arguing that this is proof of some underlying flaw of Google or anything conspiratorial like that, but it certainly qualifies as interesting to people who might end up making a choice between the two companies (either as an employer or as a platform on which to develop). Additionally, it's not completely unlikely that there's a small group of Facebook employees who are very happy when high-profile people join Facebook. It certainly makes me happy, and I haven't even started yet.
- nostrademons 16y ago
  I'm curious, though, why it's never reported when Googlers go to FaceBook and then back to Google.
  - mwerty 16y ago
    It is: http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080818/the-curious-case-of-facebooks-benjamin-ling-and-sheryl-sandberg/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080818/the-curious-case-of-face... Do you know of others?
axod 16y ago
Because it supports the fashionable groupthink here that Google is old and facebook is hip.

maxawaytoolong 16y ago

What does a person in this type of position do on a day to day basis?

poundy 16y ago
Good question.. I am also eager to find out..
- nostrademons 16y ago
  I work with a bunch of them. A UX designer's basic job is to figure out how a product should work: who is the user, what do they want, how should they interact with the product, and how should the product's UI be laid out to accomplish that? They use a bunch of tools, from Macromedia Fireworks and Photoshop on the static side down to JavaScript and Python/PHP on the dynamic side. At Google at least, it's very common for UX designers to be able to code in rapid prototyping languages, though they usually know nothing about large-scale software engineering (beyond what engineers tell them). A UX researcher's basic job is to figure out how users behave and what they want. This is basically applied social science. They work directly with users - sometimes through usability studies and one-way glass, sometimes through focus groups, sometimes through going out into the community and talking with people who use the product, and sometimes through logs analysis and quantitative data. This is not usually a technical position, but it requires someone with familiarity with the scientific method, a curiosity about people, and often good statistical/quantitative skills. Since he's a UX lead, however, my guess is his day job came down to two things: hiring new UX people, and prioritizing requests for the skills of his reportees.

oemera 16y ago

Anyone out there who can tell if Google is a terrible place to work or is Facebook just a awesome place to work? I really don't get it. I would love to know why people are leaving Google for Facebook. I really don't think it is because of the money. Is just more interesting these days?

patd 16y ago
For what I've read, Google is becoming too big and some people complain that things aren't moving as fast as they once did. Facebook is still younger, the teams are smaller, they still have to take shots at new ideas that will generate the revenue stream they need. But I'm sure that money is also a big part of it, with crazy valuation numbers, being paid in stocks could turn some of the new recruits into millionaires.
nostrademons 16y ago
Google is an awesome place to work, though like any big company, your experience will vary a lot based on your manager. FaceBook, I've heard, is also an awesome place to work.