16 ms·

Snap’s Secret Weapon Speaks

57 points by wallflower 7y ago

siquick 7y ago
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads, or automatically put pizza gifs on top of photos of pizzas”
- praneshp 7y ago
  This is quoted a lot by people in tech that are jealous of the high-earners of ads, but not smart enough to work on rockets.
  - vanderZwan 7y ago
    There are a lot of people out there who have issues with ads for ethical reasons. Don't poo-poo that as "jealousy of high-earners".
    - praneshp 7y ago
      That's why I said "a lot by people". I'm sure some people have ethical reasons to dislike ads.
      - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
        I'd think that the overwhelming majority here dislike ads for ethical reasons as opposed to "jealousy". HN is full of high earners working in various tech fields.
        praneshp 7y ago
        I think several people here are in tech, but earn non faang salaries. My personal opinion is that many of them are jealous.
        jddj 7y ago
        It might be worth spending some time reflecting on why you hold that position. Do you have any evidence for it? Perhaps more importantly, would you personally be generally more at-ease if this were more true than the alternative? I ask because it seems to me like it would be simpler to take them at their word (i.e that they are genuinely disappointed that advertising GIFs are where so much of this generation of tech's effort is spent). It doesn't seem out of character for people to express disappointment about that sort of thing without their personal salaries being a factor.
        praneshp 7y ago
        (the royal) You don't have evidence that the vast majority of user's care about ethics either. If you have numbers, please share, and I'm happy to apologize and reverse my position
        kvathupo 7y ago
        > makes claim without evidence > asks for evidence that the claim is false How about not making baseless claims that invariably reflect poorly upon you in the first place?
        praneshp 7y ago
        That's why I clarified in my comment that it's my opinion, and didn't attempt to pass it off as fact. The first person that claimed anything wasn't me either. Go away if you don't have anything to add.
        vanderZwan 7y ago
        That's not how opinions work and you can't hide behind them like that, as perfectly illustrated well over a decade ago by the Shortpacked! webcomic [0] https://shortpacked.com/comic/opinions https://shortpacked.com/comic/opinions
        7y ago
- economix 7y ago
  Show me the incentive, I’ll show you the outcome.
  - vaguesortof 7y ago
    What does this mean exactly? I've seen this around and I don't quite get it . Is it a reference to something?
    - pjc50 7y ago
      It's just a statement of orthodox economics; more people work on these things because they pay better. There's more money in advertising than difficult vague projects for the betterment of humanity.
      - mattkrause 7y ago
        To put some actual numbers on it, here are the NIH Postdoc salaries for 2019. https://www.bu.edu/researchsupport/2018/12/05/nih-announces-fy-2019-updates-to-nrsa-stipends-tuition-fees-and-other-budgetary-levels/ https://www.bu.edu/researchsupport/2018/12/05/nih-announces-... With a PhD + 7 years of experience, you make the princely sum of $61,308. Due to how research funding is structured, it is very difficult to negotiate a salary that's much above this. These jobs tend to cluster in expensive areas (Boston, NYC, California) too.
- ehsankia 7y ago
  It is fascinating how we are moving from traditional ads, as everyone has grown an automatic negative response, into these more subtle experiences. So instead of a video of Coke, we would have a fun filter that puts a bottle of coke in your hand. The whole GIF movement is relevant too, as it allows advertisement to penetrate something they weren't able before: Private Messaging.
  - egfx 7y ago
    Any investor interested message me. We’ll out innovate snap don’t even worry. (gif.com.ai)
  - karma20 7y ago
    > It is fascinating how we are moving from traditional ads, as everyone has grown an automatic negative response, into these more subtle experiences. Absolutely, and overlay AR sounds like their next step: > Snap recently released zanily animated beacons called Landmarkers — the Eiffel Tower can pop like a champagne bottle for tourists. Interesting that they've already tested this with an ad campaign [1] but don't want partners to dilute theirs IRL [2]. [1] https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/game-of-thrones-snapchat-dragon-flatiron-building-1203186788/ https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/game-of-thrones-snapch... [2] https://lensstudio.snapchat.com/templates/landmarker/ https://lensstudio.snapchat.com/templates/landmarker/
- adventured 7y ago
  I see that premise repeated ad nauseum. So the best minds of their generation aren't working on CRISPR? Immunotherapy and gene therapy? Who are the engineers and scientists that work at Illumina and Intuitive Surgical? Working at SpaceX or Blue Origin? Who were all those relatively young people I saw cheering when the Falcon Heavy lifted off for the first time? Right. Who are all the engineers working on 397 other uses for AI not related to ads? How about the thousands of engineers working on autonomous driving tech just in the US? We have 40,000 people dying every year in driving accidents. So those aren't the best minds, it's the people working on pizza gifs. How about the scientists working on ways to replace our current approach to raising livestock & consuming meat? How about the people working at TerraPower or on improving wind tech? The thousands of scientists & engineers working on improving battery tech just in the US? How about vertical & autonomous farming? The tens of thousands of engineers working on building out countless valuable cloud services that boost productivity or simplify technology for consumers and businesses? Those aren't the best minds - working on building out and realizing trillions of dollars in new business value and productivity gains - no, you see, it's the pizza gif people; it's not the engineers that have tripled the value of Adobe by bringing its most important products to the cloud in a wildly successful fashion and expanding how many people can easily use their products globally. How about the thousands of engineers and scientists working in the increasingly vast field of robotics? Whether consumer, business general or industrial. The people that work at Apple or Samsung or Applied Materials or TI or Taiwan Semi on semiconductor tech? The people that work at ARM or nVidia or Intel or AMD? Those aren't the best minds, it's the pizza gif people. I call bullshit on the notion that the best minds are working on pizza gifs and ad clicks. I don't believe it's even close to being true; I think it's closer to being a comical overstatement that should be mocked aggressively. I've thought about this a few times over the years, because it's a common premise. Here's what I propose instead: the premise, which is widely repeated, is actually a form of narcissism and undue self-aggrandizement. With some healthy skepticism and given the very large counter examples available to us (only a few of which I've mentioned), one might be prompted to question the 'best minds' premise entirely, because it seems to be non-sense right on the surface (and it is). Here's what I think is actually the case: the so called pizza gif people are more likely not the best minds of their generation, and they're simultaneously also not working on anything very important. You see, if, as a group, they subtly trumpet the premise that they're the best minds of their generation and they're merely collectively squandering their potential on pizza gifs, that's a far better comfort than the counter premise that I just floated (they're not the best minds of their generation and they're not working on anything important; ouch).
- whywhywhywhy 7y ago
  Not sure I'd put ads and something that allows people to express themselves to their friends in the same bucket.
  - illwrks 7y ago
    It's advertising as an extension of a personal brand. Just look at all the teens etc sporting airpods etc. It's the same as it was 15 years ago with the iPod earphones. I can afford this so therefore I'm a step higher on a social food chain.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
oska 7y ago
A paraphrase of the html title might be better than the current submission title, e.g. An interview with Bobby Murphy, cofounder of Snap
yetagainst 7y ago
Another website that is broken on Firefox.
- clouddrover 7y ago
  I'm on Firefox 69 beta. It worked fine for me. And Reader View works too.
- lordgrenville 7y ago
  Looks perfectly fine on my machine. Firefox 68 on macOS.
chasontherobot 7y ago
What a puff piece. Obviously paid for by Snapchat, with every single image in the article coming from them and the interviewer lobbing softball after softball.
- CPLX 7y ago
  > What a puff piece Absolutely > Obviously paid for That’s not obvious at all, in fact you’re making a pretty severe ethical accusation against specific people and it’s almost certainly untrue. I wish people could understand the difference.
  - abacadaba 7y ago
    Aww thats so adorable, he thinks journalists write this crap. When the PR firm writes the piece, fast company gets free content. It's a win win, that's how these things work. I have no evidence for this specific case, but assuming this until proven otherwise isn't a bad default strategy.
    - kgermino 7y ago
      Tone aside, there's a difference between being skeptical of what you read and actively accusing specific people of ethical violations based on that skepticism.
    - CPLX 7y ago
      I have extensive experience in journalism and media, what you're saying is just factually incorrect. Business publications like FastCompany run uncritical puff pieces all the time. There's similar content in in-flight magazines, on many blogs, on various TV profile segments and much more. You're free to decide if you enjoy reading light, superficial, and purposefully positive stuff like that. Often the writers and the subjects of the writing run in the same circles, are even friendly. The content is often predictable and boring. I'm not a huge fan of the genre either. But it's still journalism. There's a difference between paid placements and journalism and it's a distinction I believe is important.
late2part 7y ago
I don't know this secret weapon, but from people I know at Snap, I've heard it suggested they succeeded in spite of him and the CEO.

57 points by wallflower 7y ago

“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads, or automatically put pizza gifs on top of photos of pizzas”

praneshp 7y ago
This is quoted a lot by people in tech that are jealous of the high-earners of ads, but not smart enough to work on rockets.
- vanderZwan 7y ago
  There are a lot of people out there who have issues with ads for ethical reasons. Don't poo-poo that as "jealousy of high-earners".
  - praneshp 7y ago
    That's why I said "a lot by people". I'm sure some people have ethical reasons to dislike ads.
    - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
      I'd think that the overwhelming majority here dislike ads for ethical reasons as opposed to "jealousy". HN is full of high earners working in various tech fields.
      - praneshp 7y ago
        I think several people here are in tech, but earn non faang salaries. My personal opinion is that many of them are jealous.
        jddj 7y ago
        It might be worth spending some time reflecting on why you hold that position. Do you have any evidence for it? Perhaps more importantly, would you personally be generally more at-ease if this were more true than the alternative? I ask because it seems to me like it would be simpler to take them at their word (i.e that they are genuinely disappointed that advertising GIFs are where so much of this generation of tech's effort is spent). It doesn't seem out of character for people to express disappointment about that sort of thing without their personal salaries being a factor.
        praneshp 7y ago
        (the royal) You don't have evidence that the vast majority of user's care about ethics either. If you have numbers, please share, and I'm happy to apologize and reverse my position
        kvathupo 7y ago
        > makes claim without evidence > asks for evidence that the claim is false How about not making baseless claims that invariably reflect poorly upon you in the first place?
        praneshp 7y ago
        That's why I clarified in my comment that it's my opinion, and didn't attempt to pass it off as fact. The first person that claimed anything wasn't me either. Go away if you don't have anything to add.
        vanderZwan 7y ago
        That's not how opinions work and you can't hide behind them like that, as perfectly illustrated well over a decade ago by the Shortpacked! webcomic [0] https://shortpacked.com/comic/opinions https://shortpacked.com/comic/opinions
        7y ago
economix 7y ago
Show me the incentive, I’ll show you the outcome.
- vaguesortof 7y ago
  What does this mean exactly? I've seen this around and I don't quite get it . Is it a reference to something?
  - pjc50 7y ago
    It's just a statement of orthodox economics; more people work on these things because they pay better. There's more money in advertising than difficult vague projects for the betterment of humanity.
    - mattkrause 7y ago
      To put some actual numbers on it, here are the NIH Postdoc salaries for 2019. https://www.bu.edu/researchsupport/2018/12/05/nih-announces-fy-2019-updates-to-nrsa-stipends-tuition-fees-and-other-budgetary-levels/ https://www.bu.edu/researchsupport/2018/12/05/nih-announces-... With a PhD + 7 years of experience, you make the princely sum of $61,308. Due to how research funding is structured, it is very difficult to negotiate a salary that's much above this. These jobs tend to cluster in expensive areas (Boston, NYC, California) too.
ehsankia 7y ago
It is fascinating how we are moving from traditional ads, as everyone has grown an automatic negative response, into these more subtle experiences. So instead of a video of Coke, we would have a fun filter that puts a bottle of coke in your hand. The whole GIF movement is relevant too, as it allows advertisement to penetrate something they weren't able before: Private Messaging.
- egfx 7y ago
  Any investor interested message me. We’ll out innovate snap don’t even worry. (gif.com.ai)
- karma20 7y ago
  > It is fascinating how we are moving from traditional ads, as everyone has grown an automatic negative response, into these more subtle experiences. Absolutely, and overlay AR sounds like their next step: > Snap recently released zanily animated beacons called Landmarkers — the Eiffel Tower can pop like a champagne bottle for tourists. Interesting that they've already tested this with an ad campaign [1] but don't want partners to dilute theirs IRL [2]. [1] https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/game-of-thrones-snapchat-dragon-flatiron-building-1203186788/ https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/game-of-thrones-snapch... [2] https://lensstudio.snapchat.com/templates/landmarker/ https://lensstudio.snapchat.com/templates/landmarker/
adventured 7y ago
I see that premise repeated ad nauseum. So the best minds of their generation aren't working on CRISPR? Immunotherapy and gene therapy? Who are the engineers and scientists that work at Illumina and Intuitive Surgical? Working at SpaceX or Blue Origin? Who were all those relatively young people I saw cheering when the Falcon Heavy lifted off for the first time? Right. Who are all the engineers working on 397 other uses for AI not related to ads? How about the thousands of engineers working on autonomous driving tech just in the US? We have 40,000 people dying every year in driving accidents. So those aren't the best minds, it's the people working on pizza gifs. How about the scientists working on ways to replace our current approach to raising livestock & consuming meat? How about the people working at TerraPower or on improving wind tech? The thousands of scientists & engineers working on improving battery tech just in the US? How about vertical & autonomous farming? The tens of thousands of engineers working on building out countless valuable cloud services that boost productivity or simplify technology for consumers and businesses? Those aren't the best minds - working on building out and realizing trillions of dollars in new business value and productivity gains - no, you see, it's the pizza gif people; it's not the engineers that have tripled the value of Adobe by bringing its most important products to the cloud in a wildly successful fashion and expanding how many people can easily use their products globally. How about the thousands of engineers and scientists working in the increasingly vast field of robotics? Whether consumer, business general or industrial. The people that work at Apple or Samsung or Applied Materials or TI or Taiwan Semi on semiconductor tech? The people that work at ARM or nVidia or Intel or AMD? Those aren't the best minds, it's the pizza gif people. I call bullshit on the notion that the best minds are working on pizza gifs and ad clicks. I don't believe it's even close to being true; I think it's closer to being a comical overstatement that should be mocked aggressively. I've thought about this a few times over the years, because it's a common premise. Here's what I propose instead: the premise, which is widely repeated, is actually a form of narcissism and undue self-aggrandizement. With some healthy skepticism and given the very large counter examples available to us (only a few of which I've mentioned), one might be prompted to question the 'best minds' premise entirely, because it seems to be non-sense right on the surface (and it is). Here's what I think is actually the case: the so called pizza gif people are more likely not the best minds of their generation, and they're simultaneously also not working on anything very important. You see, if, as a group, they subtly trumpet the premise that they're the best minds of their generation and they're merely collectively squandering their potential on pizza gifs, that's a far better comfort than the counter premise that I just floated (they're not the best minds of their generation and they're not working on anything important; ouch).
whywhywhywhy 7y ago
Not sure I'd put ads and something that allows people to express themselves to their friends in the same bucket.
- illwrks 7y ago
  It's advertising as an extension of a personal brand. Just look at all the teens etc sporting airpods etc. It's the same as it was 15 years ago with the iPod earphones. I can afford this so therefore I'm a step higher on a social food chain.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

oska 7y ago

A paraphrase of the html title might be better than the current submission title, e.g. An interview with Bobby Murphy, cofounder of Snap

yetagainst 7y ago

Another website that is broken on Firefox.

clouddrover 7y ago
I'm on Firefox 69 beta. It worked fine for me. And Reader View works too.
lordgrenville 7y ago
Looks perfectly fine on my machine. Firefox 68 on macOS.

chasontherobot 7y ago

What a puff piece. Obviously paid for by Snapchat, with every single image in the article coming from them and the interviewer lobbing softball after softball.

CPLX 7y ago
> What a puff piece Absolutely > Obviously paid for That’s not obvious at all, in fact you’re making a pretty severe ethical accusation against specific people and it’s almost certainly untrue. I wish people could understand the difference.
- abacadaba 7y ago
  Aww thats so adorable, he thinks journalists write this crap. When the PR firm writes the piece, fast company gets free content. It's a win win, that's how these things work. I have no evidence for this specific case, but assuming this until proven otherwise isn't a bad default strategy.
  - kgermino 7y ago
    Tone aside, there's a difference between being skeptical of what you read and actively accusing specific people of ethical violations based on that skepticism.
  - CPLX 7y ago
    I have extensive experience in journalism and media, what you're saying is just factually incorrect. Business publications like FastCompany run uncritical puff pieces all the time. There's similar content in in-flight magazines, on many blogs, on various TV profile segments and much more. You're free to decide if you enjoy reading light, superficial, and purposefully positive stuff like that. Often the writers and the subjects of the writing run in the same circles, are even friendly. The content is often predictable and boring. I'm not a huge fan of the genre either. But it's still journalism. There's a difference between paid placements and journalism and it's a distinction I believe is important.

late2part 7y ago

I don't know this secret weapon, but from people I know at Snap, I've heard it suggested they succeeded in spite of him and the CEO.