3 ms·

Can't we just accept Mark wasn't the visionary mostly but the lucky guy? They all had some degree of luck but Mark seems to have had not much visionary insights

Can't we just accept Mark wasn't the visionary mostly but the lucky guy? They all had some degree of luck but Mark seems to have had not much visionary insights since the start. Jobs, Gates, Musk, Bezos even Ellison and McNealy all pushed or push visions: I cannot find anything when looking at Zuckerberg, from basically day one: there seems no greater vision and this article seems perfectly in line with that. Maybe I don't get it?

ryandvm 5y ago
Depends. If his vision was some sort of capitalistic dystopia where various agents of chaos are able to ricochet disinformation and hatred through the global zeitgeist, then I'd say he was remarkably successful.
- tluyben2 5y ago
  Yes, true. However, to push that vision forward in more aggressive ways, I would have expected even more vision. He did try for Xi to name their child... Joking aside. I am missing the debt here for the future.
vineyardmike 5y ago
While he seems to have way less visionary ideas than the rest of the technorati (eg. no space company), he seemed to have one vision... building a "platform". (but IMO VR is a "visionary" vision... and admittedly a personal favorite of mine). It was reported that Zuck was obsessed with the idea of building a "platform". As a young software developer, he was infatuated with the idea of others building off of what he (and co) created. Many of FB decisions were based on this vision (and the rest are reportedly SS decisions). The pinnacle example of this was the original friend graph+api was fb trying to be a platform for games and social content (ended by Cambridge Analytica scandal and firmly killed by GDPR data sharing regulations). Why else would FB host a developer conference? Because Zuck wanted to be like those other tech companies that build tech for tech people. Oculus seems to be the next platform bet - its cool new tech without a strong leading company yet so there's room to own it - and it directly has a store and SDK so easy "platform" touch points. It seems that pumping up the metaverse is the roadmap to getting FB/Oculus as the integration point for AR/VR tech.
- tluyben2 5y ago
  > Oculus seems to be the next platform bet - its cool new tech without a strong leading company yet so there's room to own it - Yes and that is exciting but I do not see another plan than more invasive ads? If there is a real plan that brings us further I would be applauding that. But is there? Facebook has enough money to push it but the plans seem, well, banal. And by now almost illegal in the EU.
  - vineyardmike 5y ago
    > I do not see another plan than more invasive ads I think right now making the tech affordable (through subsidy/ads/whatever) to get it in the hands of people and get the creative ideas flowing is great. That said, I agree and i'm sick of ads. My smart TV has ads, Apple is integrating ads and now even my f*king electric toothbrush tried to send me ads so i can't wait for this trend to die. I personally think that VR/AR is cool and will be big, but right now no one is sure how to use it, so everyone is painting as big a picture as possible to push a "complete vision" even if it sucks - the path will change soon enough. If you play VR games, many games have different modes of transport and interaction in the VR world. Most modalities suck. No one is quite sure how to acchieve it in a natural way (and without motion sickness). We're still in the learning phase, but i'm sure the market will eventually find a good solution and we'll find what works in VR. The more people excited about it and the more people with VR headsets the faster we'll figure these out.

ryandvm 5y ago

Depends. If his vision was some sort of capitalistic dystopia where various agents of chaos are able to ricochet disinformation and hatred through the global zeitgeist, then I'd say he was remarkably successful.

tluyben2 5y ago
Yes, true. However, to push that vision forward in more aggressive ways, I would have expected even more vision. He did try for Xi to name their child... Joking aside. I am missing the debt here for the future.

vineyardmike 5y ago

While he seems to have way less visionary ideas than the rest of the technorati (eg. no space company), he seemed to have one vision... building a "platform". (but IMO VR is a "visionary" vision... and admittedly a personal favorite of mine). It was reported that Zuck was obsessed with the idea of building a "platform". As a young software developer, he was infatuated with the idea of others building off of what he (and co) created. Many of FB decisions were based on this vision (and the rest are reportedly SS decisions). The pinnacle example of this was the original friend graph+api was fb trying to be a platform for games and social content (ended by Cambridge Analytica scandal and firmly killed by GDPR data sharing regulations). Why else would FB host a developer conference? Because Zuck wanted to be like those other tech companies that build tech for tech people. Oculus seems to be the next platform bet - its cool new tech without a strong leading company yet so there's room to own it - and it directly has a store and SDK so easy "platform" touch points. It seems that pumping up the metaverse is the roadmap to getting FB/Oculus as the integration point for AR/VR tech.

tluyben2 5y ago
> Oculus seems to be the next platform bet - its cool new tech without a strong leading company yet so there's room to own it - Yes and that is exciting but I do not see another plan than more invasive ads? If there is a real plan that brings us further I would be applauding that. But is there? Facebook has enough money to push it but the plans seem, well, banal. And by now almost illegal in the EU.
- vineyardmike 5y ago
  > I do not see another plan than more invasive ads I think right now making the tech affordable (through subsidy/ads/whatever) to get it in the hands of people and get the creative ideas flowing is great. That said, I agree and i'm sick of ads. My smart TV has ads, Apple is integrating ads and now even my f*king electric toothbrush tried to send me ads so i can't wait for this trend to die. I personally think that VR/AR is cool and will be big, but right now no one is sure how to use it, so everyone is painting as big a picture as possible to push a "complete vision" even if it sucks - the path will change soon enough. If you play VR games, many games have different modes of transport and interaction in the VR world. Most modalities suck. No one is quite sure how to acchieve it in a natural way (and without motion sickness). We're still in the learning phase, but i'm sure the market will eventually find a good solution and we'll find what works in VR. The more people excited about it and the more people with VR headsets the faster we'll figure these out.