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> He just wrote a crappy basic PHP backend. lol. citation needed. Among geniuses who can build a FAANG company from scratch, I'm sure Zuck is not the stronges

> He just wrote a crappy basic PHP backend. lol. citation needed. Among geniuses who can build a FAANG company from scratch, I'm sure Zuck is not the strongest software engineer or hacker or whatever. Like, Jeff Dean is undoubtedly a better engineer. Craig Silverstein, too. And Bret Taylor. But if you're going to tell me Zuck is a mediocrity -- not just "a lesser light than Jeff Dean" but an actual mediocrity like us rank-and-file HN-posting losers -- then I'm gonna want to see some evidence.

jll29 3y ago
I would say the fact that he had the drive to quickly learn Chinese and then went to China and actually gave a talk in Chinese suggests he has higher than average mental aptitude.
- margalabargala 3y ago
  He studied Chinese daily for four years prior to giving that talk. Studying a language daily for four years suggests determination and willpower, yes. But I would expect most people who have studied a language daily for four years to be able to give a talk in that language if they needed to and knew ahead of time. I'm not sure that's a non-average learning time.
drewcoo 3y ago
> citation Citations widely available via the obvious web searches. Here are responses on Quora with some details about how the hackers hired by Facebook worked around PHP's limitations. https://www.quora.com/Does-Facebook-still-use-PHP?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Does-Facebook-still-use-PHP?share=1
safety1st 3y ago
If Mark was a hacker of some kind, he was a growth hacker. That's what Facebook was (in)famous for in its early days - implementing various little psychological tricks that drove adoption. A lot of that came from Mark (initially, pretty much all of it). I'm not aware of any evidence that he was an exceptional engineer. So what? Why would he even care about being that? As long as you can hire engineers that are better than you, you don't need to be a great one to grow a social network. We're not talking about AI here.
- june_twenty 3y ago
  iirc, Zuckerberg did not think up the concept for the like button - which was one of the huge drivers for engagement on the site. Having said that, I think Zuckerberg was a hacker. He made a few small web apps and one took off. His success shouldn't mean he is not a hacker.
  - coldtea 3y ago
    I don't think the definition of a hacker is "made a few small web apps" or "one of his apps took off". That would make him an entrepreneur and a web programmer. Not a hacker, which (in this context) is about a great relationship with programming than "making a few web apps".

jll29 3y ago

I would say the fact that he had the drive to quickly learn Chinese and then went to China and actually gave a talk in Chinese suggests he has higher than average mental aptitude.

margalabargala 3y ago
He studied Chinese daily for four years prior to giving that talk. Studying a language daily for four years suggests determination and willpower, yes. But I would expect most people who have studied a language daily for four years to be able to give a talk in that language if they needed to and knew ahead of time. I'm not sure that's a non-average learning time.

drewcoo 3y ago

> citation Citations widely available via the obvious web searches. Here are responses on Quora with some details about how the hackers hired by Facebook worked around PHP's limitations. https://www.quora.com/Does-Facebook-still-use-PHP?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Does-Facebook-still-use-PHP?share=1

safety1st 3y ago

If Mark was a hacker of some kind, he was a growth hacker. That's what Facebook was (in)famous for in its early days - implementing various little psychological tricks that drove adoption. A lot of that came from Mark (initially, pretty much all of it). I'm not aware of any evidence that he was an exceptional engineer. So what? Why would he even care about being that? As long as you can hire engineers that are better than you, you don't need to be a great one to grow a social network. We're not talking about AI here.

june_twenty 3y ago
iirc, Zuckerberg did not think up the concept for the like button - which was one of the huge drivers for engagement on the site. Having said that, I think Zuckerberg was a hacker. He made a few small web apps and one took off. His success shouldn't mean he is not a hacker.
- coldtea 3y ago
  I don't think the definition of a hacker is "made a few small web apps" or "one of his apps took off". That would make him an entrepreneur and a web programmer. Not a hacker, which (in this context) is about a great relationship with programming than "making a few web apps".