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Unpopular opinion but I think a talent exodus and turnover are likely at fault here as well. The people who stood up this juggernaut are no longer here, and Fa

Unpopular opinion but I think a talent exodus and turnover are likely at fault here as well. The people who stood up this juggernaut are no longer here, and Facebooks ability to consistently attract talent that is competent enough to maintain such a formidable beast is hampered by repetitive revelations that it operates at the net-loss of humanity as a whole. Facebooks no longer an innovator, just a mining operation with a dwindling population of hateful elderly and bots.

bsedlm 5y ago
I'd say the same thing about Google.
- erhk 5y ago
  Yes well lets have this outage again in that flavour in say... 11 months?
  - bhawks 5y ago
    Taking a bet that complex systems will fail is usually free money :). Having been a part of Google the only thing more awe inspiring than the sheer complexity of production is the fact that it all worked so well. This is not a dig at current Googlers but entropy is cruel and uncaring. Perhaps parts of the stack which have been kept fit & fresh in people's minds due to constant rewrites will last longer but there are tons of places in the depot that are unowned despite serving production query traffic and the number of engineers that have any context to support it grows smaller over time.
    - cornel_io 5y ago
      Google (at least the good parts) has a pretty good culture of documentation, which helps a bit. While it drove me batty to need to spend a month writing up 10 page specs and getting sign off from directors for a minor feature that nobody would see and would take 3 days to code up, it was nice to be able to trace through the historical evolution of abandoned features when trying to figure out how they worked. No idea if Facebook is similar.
tjpnz 5y ago
I'm sure the people who go to work for Facebook are fully aware of what they're getting into.
goatlover 5y ago
Isn’t Facebook huge in some Asian countries? Supposedly 3.5 billion people use one or more of its services. WhatsApp, Instagram and Oculus certainly aren’t just used by the elderly.
- josephg 5y ago
  Sounds plausible, but how does that change the ethical calculus of working there?
- numpad0 5y ago
  Depends on which specific country you mean by Asia, as nations are kind of culturally segregated by sea and by heritage in Asia - I mean, Instagram is but Facebook itself is smol in Japan[1] and Twitter is bigger unlike anywhere[2] (taken from page 110 and page 170 of "The Digital 2021 Global Overview Report" from we are social/Hootsuite[3]). 1: https://image.slidesharecdn.com/datareportal20210308gd001digital2021globaloverviewreportjanuary2021v03-210308032633/95/digital-2021-global-overview-report-january-2021-v03-110-1024.jpg https://image.slidesharecdn.com/datareportal20210308gd001dig... 2: https://image.slidesharecdn.com/datareportal20210308gd001digital2021globaloverviewreportjanuary2021v03-210308032633/95/digital-2021-global-overview-report-january-2021-v03-170-1024.jpg https://image.slidesharecdn.com/datareportal20210308gd001dig... 3: https://wearesocial.com/blog/2021/01/digital-2021-the-latest-insights-into-the-state-of-digital https://wearesocial.com/blog/2021/01/digital-2021-the-latest...
- thorin 5y ago
  Anecdotally around 90% of the people I know in the UK (40s age group ) have Facebook and use it for something (even if it's just for checking restaurants/gigs etc), almost everyone uses Messenger or Whatsapp. Also for those saying they use Facetime, stats suggest that half phones in the UK are Android. FB is relevant, even if you want to be, maybe in the same ways Windows/Microsoft is relevant for a whole load of people.

bsedlm 5y ago

I'd say the same thing about Google.

erhk 5y ago
Yes well lets have this outage again in that flavour in say... 11 months?
- bhawks 5y ago
  Taking a bet that complex systems will fail is usually free money :). Having been a part of Google the only thing more awe inspiring than the sheer complexity of production is the fact that it all worked so well. This is not a dig at current Googlers but entropy is cruel and uncaring. Perhaps parts of the stack which have been kept fit & fresh in people's minds due to constant rewrites will last longer but there are tons of places in the depot that are unowned despite serving production query traffic and the number of engineers that have any context to support it grows smaller over time.
  - cornel_io 5y ago
    Google (at least the good parts) has a pretty good culture of documentation, which helps a bit. While it drove me batty to need to spend a month writing up 10 page specs and getting sign off from directors for a minor feature that nobody would see and would take 3 days to code up, it was nice to be able to trace through the historical evolution of abandoned features when trying to figure out how they worked. No idea if Facebook is similar.

tjpnz 5y ago

I'm sure the people who go to work for Facebook are fully aware of what they're getting into.

goatlover 5y ago

Isn’t Facebook huge in some Asian countries? Supposedly 3.5 billion people use one or more of its services. WhatsApp, Instagram and Oculus certainly aren’t just used by the elderly.

josephg 5y ago
Sounds plausible, but how does that change the ethical calculus of working there?
numpad0 5y ago
Depends on which specific country you mean by Asia, as nations are kind of culturally segregated by sea and by heritage in Asia - I mean, Instagram is but Facebook itself is smol in Japan[1] and Twitter is bigger unlike anywhere[2] (taken from page 110 and page 170 of "The Digital 2021 Global Overview Report" from we are social/Hootsuite[3]). 1: https://image.slidesharecdn.com/datareportal20210308gd001digital2021globaloverviewreportjanuary2021v03-210308032633/95/digital-2021-global-overview-report-january-2021-v03-110-1024.jpg https://image.slidesharecdn.com/datareportal20210308gd001dig... 2: https://image.slidesharecdn.com/datareportal20210308gd001digital2021globaloverviewreportjanuary2021v03-210308032633/95/digital-2021-global-overview-report-january-2021-v03-170-1024.jpg https://image.slidesharecdn.com/datareportal20210308gd001dig... 3: https://wearesocial.com/blog/2021/01/digital-2021-the-latest-insights-into-the-state-of-digital https://wearesocial.com/blog/2021/01/digital-2021-the-latest...
thorin 5y ago
Anecdotally around 90% of the people I know in the UK (40s age group ) have Facebook and use it for something (even if it's just for checking restaurants/gigs etc), almost everyone uses Messenger or Whatsapp. Also for those saying they use Facetime, stats suggest that half phones in the UK are Android. FB is relevant, even if you want to be, maybe in the same ways Windows/Microsoft is relevant for a whole load of people.