10 ms·

Shouldn’t that take only a few minutes?

malermeister 4y ago
Haha, not in the codebase I was working in at the time. Paddings being manipulated programmatically all over the place. Also, what a clear signal the CEO is not focusing on what matters. This was during the time the Cambridge Analytica thing broke... There's really nothing more important that needed his attention?
- bayindirh 4y ago
  Maybe he needed something to direct his stress into and distract himself. I'm not saying what he did was right, BTW.
  - malermeister 4y ago
    That was kind of my read too. Focus on the small things you can control to make up for the loss of control over the big things. I just didn't like to be on the receiving end of his coping strategy.
    - bayindirh 4y ago
      > I just didn't like to be on the receiving end of his coping strategy. That's a very fair need. Hope your life turns out better than you ever hope it to be.
frankincense 4y ago
At a company the size of Facebook, the CEO should not be involved at that level.
- charcircuit 4y ago
  Why not? It's his company. He can do what he wants.
  - malermeister 4y ago
    Should not, not must not. He can do what he wants, but he shouldn't.
  - onion2k 4y ago
    His company pays design and UX experts a huge amount of money to come up with designs that work for users, not for him personally. Meta isn't Zuckerberg's toy. Ignoring that expertise, and designing for himself instead of users, is failing the shareholders by wasting money and not maximizing revenue. The parallel to Steve Jobs is a fair one, except that Steve was brilliant at design and UX and got things right. He wasn't bothered about tiny details like the padding on a single button but rather the design of the entire system, and he picked up on things that didn't sit in the overall architecture brilliantly. He also drove people to leave Apple, and that was a bad thing. Things aren't right or justifiable just because they're like things Steve did. Sometimes he got things wrong, particularly when it came to managing people.
    - charcircuit 4y ago
      CEOs dog fooding their products and leaving feedback on them is not failing shareholders. Would you prefer a CEO to completely ignore everything their company makes and just trust others to tell him how things are going?
      - jjav 4y ago
        A wise CEO doesn't bypass the product and engineering process he's delegated to be put in place. Bypasing the process not only interferes with someones sprint and product roadmap, but more importantly, tells the people who own the process that they don't really own it after all. Which leads to people quitting.
        andsoitis 4y ago
        If the CEO of my company prodded me about a feature I work on, I think that's actually a great opportunity to build rapport.
- beambot 4y ago
  Respectfully: Zuckerberg has earned the right to care about whatever he darn-well pleases at company the size of his.
  - eru 4y ago
    Sure. But random employees also have the right to quit, if they don't like that meddling.
  - KyeRussell 4y ago
    As soon as you start talking about “rights” you’re just having your own argument. We are obviously talking about what’s best practice.
- achow 4y ago
  Steve Jobs was famously known to be involved in even more micro product details than that.
  - martingoodson 4y ago
    “So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I’ve already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow” said Steve. “I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?” Of course this was okay with me.
  - Kye 4y ago
    Just like working hard won't make you rich on its own, it's not enough to be a micromanager. The directions you give have to actually produce results. Facebook is no iPod.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
trhway 4y ago
It takes a few minutes once, it takes a few minutes another time, ... and now you have an exec who is like Pavlov's dog got used to prompt completion of his/her caprices. That isn't a way to a happy life for you (well, until you a one of those who thrive in execs' attention). Instead you wait until second or third reminder (if it is important the exec would remind, if not - then there wasn't a reason to bother to start with, and given the ferret like attention span of a typical exec...), you similarly wait for reminders another time, ... and now you have an exec frustrated by such an impedance mismatch and who as a result would move their attention to somebody else to promptly care for his/her caprices :)

Haha, not in the codebase I was working in at the time. Paddings being manipulated programmatically all over the place. Also, what a clear signal the CEO is not focusing on what matters. This was during the time the Cambridge Analytica thing broke... There's really nothing more important that needed his attention?

bayindirh 4y ago
Maybe he needed something to direct his stress into and distract himself. I'm not saying what he did was right, BTW.
- malermeister 4y ago
  That was kind of my read too. Focus on the small things you can control to make up for the loss of control over the big things. I just didn't like to be on the receiving end of his coping strategy.
  - bayindirh 4y ago
    > I just didn't like to be on the receiving end of his coping strategy. That's a very fair need. Hope your life turns out better than you ever hope it to be.

frankincense 4y ago

At a company the size of Facebook, the CEO should not be involved at that level.

charcircuit 4y ago
Why not? It's his company. He can do what he wants.
- malermeister 4y ago
  Should not, not must not. He can do what he wants, but he shouldn't.
- onion2k 4y ago
  His company pays design and UX experts a huge amount of money to come up with designs that work for users, not for him personally. Meta isn't Zuckerberg's toy. Ignoring that expertise, and designing for himself instead of users, is failing the shareholders by wasting money and not maximizing revenue. The parallel to Steve Jobs is a fair one, except that Steve was brilliant at design and UX and got things right. He wasn't bothered about tiny details like the padding on a single button but rather the design of the entire system, and he picked up on things that didn't sit in the overall architecture brilliantly. He also drove people to leave Apple, and that was a bad thing. Things aren't right or justifiable just because they're like things Steve did. Sometimes he got things wrong, particularly when it came to managing people.
  - charcircuit 4y ago
    CEOs dog fooding their products and leaving feedback on them is not failing shareholders. Would you prefer a CEO to completely ignore everything their company makes and just trust others to tell him how things are going?
    - jjav 4y ago
      A wise CEO doesn't bypass the product and engineering process he's delegated to be put in place. Bypasing the process not only interferes with someones sprint and product roadmap, but more importantly, tells the people who own the process that they don't really own it after all. Which leads to people quitting.
      - andsoitis 4y ago
        If the CEO of my company prodded me about a feature I work on, I think that's actually a great opportunity to build rapport.
beambot 4y ago
Respectfully: Zuckerberg has earned the right to care about whatever he darn-well pleases at company the size of his.
- eru 4y ago
  Sure. But random employees also have the right to quit, if they don't like that meddling.
- KyeRussell 4y ago
  As soon as you start talking about “rights” you’re just having your own argument. We are obviously talking about what’s best practice.
achow 4y ago
Steve Jobs was famously known to be involved in even more micro product details than that.
- martingoodson 4y ago
  “So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I’ve already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow” said Steve. “I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?” Of course this was okay with me.
- Kye 4y ago
  Just like working hard won't make you rich on its own, it's not enough to be a micromanager. The directions you give have to actually produce results. Facebook is no iPod.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

trhway 4y ago

It takes a few minutes once, it takes a few minutes another time, ... and now you have an exec who is like Pavlov's dog got used to prompt completion of his/her caprices. That isn't a way to a happy life for you (well, until you a one of those who thrive in execs' attention). Instead you wait until second or third reminder (if it is important the exec would remind, if not - then there wasn't a reason to bother to start with, and given the ferret like attention span of a typical exec...), you similarly wait for reminders another time, ... and now you have an exec frustrated by such an impedance mismatch and who as a result would move their attention to somebody else to promptly care for his/her caprices :)