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> I remember Mark sent me an email at 3 am telling me that I missed a period in one of our documents. A period (!!) > Mark didn’t accept anything less than per

> I remember Mark sent me an email at 3 am telling me that I missed a period in one of our documents. A period (!!) > Mark didn’t accept anything less than perfect. If he thought something was shit he would tell you and you’d have to start over. Perfection seems a bit incongruous with moving fast and breaking things. Maybe different standards for copy (assuming this was external facing and not an internal document) vs code? Still a bit weird.

southernplaces7 2y ago
>Perfection seems a bit incongruous with moving fast and breaking things. That particular right to flexible mistakes applies only to him. The employees get the privilege of 3 am emails nagging them about punctuation. I'd love to see the guy apply such harsh standards to his own firm place in the company.
- Aeolun 2y ago
  I mean, having mistakes pointed out to you is not incompatible with being allowed to make them in the first place. If you are still up at 3am that’s a problem in the first place, but being asked to fix a period when you are up is not.
- stackghost 2y ago
  This is the guy that deemed the Nintendo Wii avatar acceptable for his big Metaverse reveal. He also, I suppose, signed off on Meta's also-ran TikTok competitor. Perhaps being a billionaire changes your view on perfection but I'm not sure I buy the narrative about him being a perfectionist given how decidedly mediocre a lot of what he's touched is.
  - paradox242 2y ago
    Aping Steve Jobs without anywhere near the same sense of style. A perfectionist of crafting the mediocre experience. Also the line about caring that they were "humans" and not "users" is particularly rich. I am not doubting he probably said something like this, but I doubt his sincerity knowing everything we do about the man now.
  - hnbad 2y ago
    Turns out becoming a billionaire is not about being a super genius at everything for all eternity. Actually it's more like ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will, five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain. Wait, what were we talking about?
    - stackghost 2y ago
      I think it's way less than 20% skill, and way more than 10% luck.
      - hnbad 2y ago
        Oh, absolutely. I just got caught up by the lyrics to Fort Minor - Remember the Name.
- Sam_Odio 2y ago
  > That particular right to flexible mistakes applies only to him. Not true. Source: worked for Zuck.
- wyclif 2y ago
  That story resonated with me. I remember getting my first, forwarded, rite-of-passage "?" in the subject line Bezos email while at Amazon.
roenxi 2y ago
It seems easy enough to reconcile. A good enough algorithm to excellence is the old three-phase: Do it. Do it right. Do it fast. So in this case, Move Fast and Break Things means that when an aspect of the work is in phase 1, there should be evidence of things breaking so you know that progress is happening at the maximum possible speed. Then because things are moving fast, work quickly moves into phase 2 of taking the breakages and fixing them to a high standard. Although I make no claim as to how it actually worked at Facebook.
chiefalchemist 2y ago
Also, because you're willing to call shit as shit doesn't make him a perfectionist. It simply means he anti-shit. As for 3.00 am and a missing period. Well, trying to judge someone on a sample size of one is heavy handed.
- Jensson 2y ago
  If he read it at 3.00 am, noticed the missing period, should he just have ignored sending a comment that the period was missing? Not sure what people thought Mark should have done here, should he have remembered the error and send the email later? Email aren't meant to be responded to immediately.
  - chiefalchemist 2y ago
    Yup. And for all we know he queues them up and they're sent later so they're closer to the top of the inbox in the am AND it makes him look like a beast sending middle of the night emails.
  - benhurmarcel 2y ago
    In my company people who write emails outside work hours use schedule send to have them sent the next morning.
igornadj 2y ago
I assume the implication is that the author was allowed to ship the document or finalise it quickly i.e. move fast, but this is feedback for the next version or next document. In contrast to creating a draft and waiting 2 weeks for it to be approved?

southernplaces7 2y ago

>Perfection seems a bit incongruous with moving fast and breaking things. That particular right to flexible mistakes applies only to him. The employees get the privilege of 3 am emails nagging them about punctuation. I'd love to see the guy apply such harsh standards to his own firm place in the company.

Aeolun 2y ago
I mean, having mistakes pointed out to you is not incompatible with being allowed to make them in the first place. If you are still up at 3am that’s a problem in the first place, but being asked to fix a period when you are up is not.
stackghost 2y ago
This is the guy that deemed the Nintendo Wii avatar acceptable for his big Metaverse reveal. He also, I suppose, signed off on Meta's also-ran TikTok competitor. Perhaps being a billionaire changes your view on perfection but I'm not sure I buy the narrative about him being a perfectionist given how decidedly mediocre a lot of what he's touched is.
- paradox242 2y ago
  Aping Steve Jobs without anywhere near the same sense of style. A perfectionist of crafting the mediocre experience. Also the line about caring that they were "humans" and not "users" is particularly rich. I am not doubting he probably said something like this, but I doubt his sincerity knowing everything we do about the man now.
- hnbad 2y ago
  Turns out becoming a billionaire is not about being a super genius at everything for all eternity. Actually it's more like ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will, five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain. Wait, what were we talking about?
  - stackghost 2y ago
    I think it's way less than 20% skill, and way more than 10% luck.
    - hnbad 2y ago
      Oh, absolutely. I just got caught up by the lyrics to Fort Minor - Remember the Name.
Sam_Odio 2y ago
> That particular right to flexible mistakes applies only to him. Not true. Source: worked for Zuck.
wyclif 2y ago
That story resonated with me. I remember getting my first, forwarded, rite-of-passage "?" in the subject line Bezos email while at Amazon.

roenxi 2y ago

It seems easy enough to reconcile. A good enough algorithm to excellence is the old three-phase: Do it. Do it right. Do it fast. So in this case, Move Fast and Break Things means that when an aspect of the work is in phase 1, there should be evidence of things breaking so you know that progress is happening at the maximum possible speed. Then because things are moving fast, work quickly moves into phase 2 of taking the breakages and fixing them to a high standard. Although I make no claim as to how it actually worked at Facebook.

chiefalchemist 2y ago

Also, because you're willing to call shit as shit doesn't make him a perfectionist. It simply means he anti-shit. As for 3.00 am and a missing period. Well, trying to judge someone on a sample size of one is heavy handed.

Jensson 2y ago
If he read it at 3.00 am, noticed the missing period, should he just have ignored sending a comment that the period was missing? Not sure what people thought Mark should have done here, should he have remembered the error and send the email later? Email aren't meant to be responded to immediately.
- chiefalchemist 2y ago
  Yup. And for all we know he queues them up and they're sent later so they're closer to the top of the inbox in the am AND it makes him look like a beast sending middle of the night emails.
- benhurmarcel 2y ago
  In my company people who write emails outside work hours use schedule send to have them sent the next morning.

igornadj 2y ago

I assume the implication is that the author was allowed to ship the document or finalise it quickly i.e. move fast, but this is feedback for the next version or next document. In contrast to creating a draft and waiting 2 weeks for it to be approved?