4 ms·

I think you're right. English doesn't have the right term (does another language?). Paul Graham used the same term in another essay. Should we make one up rig

by ljlolel 14y ago

I think you're right. English doesn't have the right term (does another language?). Paul Graham used the same term in another essay. Should we make one up right now?

tgrass 14y ago
It reminds me more of the tourist attraction that promises to show you a creek that runs uphill. The kids scream from the backseat to see it, dad caves and turns in and pays $5 for parking. Kid gets disappointed and as an adult vows to never waste his own children's time.
zackzackzack 14y ago
I wish "Positive feedback cycle fuelled by new advertisers' naivete" had a better acronym. PFCFBNAN doesn't have the ring I was hoping it would.
- guscost 14y ago
  Maybe just "bubble" instead?
- dhugiaskmak 14y ago
  "Stock market"
squidfood 14y ago
How about just "bubble"?
- ryanholiday 14y ago
  Or Scam? Or Hustle?
jerf 14y ago
Petri dish growth. Cells in a petri dish can exhibit a behavior where they grow quickly, consuming the sustenance where they are, and expanding outward in a rapidly growing ring, as the middle starves, until the landscape is consumed and everything starves. The XScreenSaver "GLCells" [1] is a simulation of this effect. By all the simple metrics like cell count or cell mass, everything looks great... until it's not. A biology expert may be able to tweak this. If this phenomenon has a specific name, that would be even better, but I doubt I can google it up. (Incidentally, I'm just offering this up as a term. I think the title is premature; it has not been proved that this is the case for Facebook. If we are going to speculate that they may in the future not be able to continue making money as they are today, they still have a lot of runway. I'm not itching to buy shares, but I wouldn't personally guarantee they won't be able to make money.) [1]: http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/screenshots/ http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/screenshots/
- throwaway1979 14y ago
  I think you might be referring to the Bacterial Growth Curve ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_growth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_growth
  - jerf 14y ago
    Looks like it, thanks!
toemetoch 14y ago
How about just "facebook" as the word that describes this affair? After all, that's how we ended up with "Ponzi" scheme.

by ljlolel 14y ago

I think you're right. English doesn't have the right term (does another language?). Paul Graham used the same term in another essay. Should we make one up right now?

tgrass 14y ago

It reminds me more of the tourist attraction that promises to show you a creek that runs uphill. The kids scream from the backseat to see it, dad caves and turns in and pays $5 for parking. Kid gets disappointed and as an adult vows to never waste his own children's time.

zackzackzack 14y ago

I wish "Positive feedback cycle fuelled by new advertisers' naivete" had a better acronym. PFCFBNAN doesn't have the ring I was hoping it would.

guscost 14y ago
Maybe just "bubble" instead?
dhugiaskmak 14y ago
"Stock market"

squidfood 14y ago

How about just "bubble"?

ryanholiday 14y ago
Or Scam? Or Hustle?

jerf 14y ago

Petri dish growth. Cells in a petri dish can exhibit a behavior where they grow quickly, consuming the sustenance where they are, and expanding outward in a rapidly growing ring, as the middle starves, until the landscape is consumed and everything starves. The XScreenSaver "GLCells" [1] is a simulation of this effect. By all the simple metrics like cell count or cell mass, everything looks great... until it's not. A biology expert may be able to tweak this. If this phenomenon has a specific name, that would be even better, but I doubt I can google it up. (Incidentally, I'm just offering this up as a term. I think the title is premature; it has not been proved that this is the case for Facebook. If we are going to speculate that they may in the future not be able to continue making money as they are today, they still have a lot of runway. I'm not itching to buy shares, but I wouldn't personally guarantee they won't be able to make money.) [1]: http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/screenshots/ http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/screenshots/

throwaway1979 14y ago
I think you might be referring to the Bacterial Growth Curve ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_growth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_growth
- jerf 14y ago
  Looks like it, thanks!

toemetoch 14y ago

How about just "facebook" as the word that describes this affair? After all, that's how we ended up with "Ponzi" scheme.