6 ms·

New Facebook Engineering campus

31 points by zacharytamas 14y ago

egfx 14y ago
moments like these are when big companies are most vulnerable to competitors. Facebook will be focused on expanding their campus to foster creativity and in the meanwhile creativity will foster elsewhere. But good for Facebook. Though in this part of town the Apple campus is still clearly boss.
- Uhhrrr 14y ago
  Indeed, the Silicon Valley new building curse is well-known: http://news.cnet.com/Can-Google-beat-the-new-office-curse/2100-1030_3-5884957.html http://news.cnet.com/Can-Google-beat-the-new-office-curse/21... Also: a "paradise workspace" with open seating? Bleah.
  - MartinCron 14y ago
    Open seating can either be a paradise workplace or a horrible nightmare. It depends on the nature of the work and the disposition of the people around you. One of my very favorite work environments was in a tightly packed open seating area.
ixacto 14y ago
Zuck will have fun explaining to the shareholders why they are spending money on this and not trying to get back to their IPO stock price.
- mattlong 14y ago
  Keeping his engineers happy and hopefully more productive would be a step in the right direction of that goal.
  - hsb 14y ago
    That's true and most if not all programmers know that. Shareholders are a different story. They might look at this as frivolous waste of money that should rather go towards "restoring" Facebook's image that has declined in the past months. I think this is fantastic and I look forward to seeing the outcome of this, secretly envying the employees from my cubicle :)
  - ixacto 14y ago
    Facebook started at $38. It is at $19.41 right now, If I was a Facebook shareholder I would be very worried that half my investment is gone, and that said FB engineers and early inverters had just cashed out after the latest lockup expired. It is a publicly traded company now, and like any CEO Zuck's job is to make money.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
- anamax 14y ago
  > Zuck will have fun explaining to the shareholders why they are spending money on this and not trying to get back to their IPO stock price. Zuck has 57% of the voting rights so listening to shareholders is a courtesy on his part. Facebook's new engineering campus is a judgement call. To argue that he's wrong, you basically have to argue that you're better at making that sort of decision than he is. Where's the evidence for that claim?
  - ixacto 14y ago
    Zuck has to listen to the market. If the market is dumping his stock like after the recent lock-up expired then there's a problem.
    - ojbyrne 14y ago
      Why exactly? He presumably has enough money cashed out that even if FB went bankrupt he'd be OK. And he controls the voting shares, so if that's what he wants, then that's what would happen.
- ojbyrne 14y ago
  Dual class share structure means that Zuck doesn't have to bother explaining anything.
johnrob 14y ago
The danger in building a beautiful campus is that you attract people who like beautiful campuses.
- bitsweet 14y ago
  Why is this a danger?
  - felipemnoa 14y ago
    Indeed. Being in a nice campus can make a huge difference for morale. In some corporations the engineering offices look like crap while the executive offices are beautiful. Based just on that you can tell that the corporation doesn't really give a crap about its engineers. I'd rather not work in a corporation who thinks that their engineers are not important enough to give them a beautiful working environment.
    - MartinCron 14y ago
      I once worked at a company (a software company, even) where the developer's office were behind a very long dark hallway filled with multiple years of accumulated garbage. There was an open desk with a peekaboo view of Puget Sound, but I wasn't allowed to sit there because someone with seniority might want to sit there, even though the more senior person didn't want to move. Hell yeah, I'll take a beautiful campus if you'll give me one.
  - rdl 14y ago
    I'd hardly consider basically a big warehouse/hangar full of mobile desks and some kitchens to be extravagant. It seems like the lowest cost way to warehouse lots of engineers in an open plan environment, which Facebook for some reason really likes.

31 points by zacharytamas 14y ago

egfx 14y ago

moments like these are when big companies are most vulnerable to competitors. Facebook will be focused on expanding their campus to foster creativity and in the meanwhile creativity will foster elsewhere. But good for Facebook. Though in this part of town the Apple campus is still clearly boss.

Uhhrrr 14y ago
Indeed, the Silicon Valley new building curse is well-known: http://news.cnet.com/Can-Google-beat-the-new-office-curse/2100-1030_3-5884957.html http://news.cnet.com/Can-Google-beat-the-new-office-curse/21... Also: a "paradise workspace" with open seating? Bleah.
- MartinCron 14y ago
  Open seating can either be a paradise workplace or a horrible nightmare. It depends on the nature of the work and the disposition of the people around you. One of my very favorite work environments was in a tightly packed open seating area.

ixacto 14y ago

Zuck will have fun explaining to the shareholders why they are spending money on this and not trying to get back to their IPO stock price.

mattlong 14y ago
Keeping his engineers happy and hopefully more productive would be a step in the right direction of that goal.
- hsb 14y ago
  That's true and most if not all programmers know that. Shareholders are a different story. They might look at this as frivolous waste of money that should rather go towards "restoring" Facebook's image that has declined in the past months. I think this is fantastic and I look forward to seeing the outcome of this, secretly envying the employees from my cubicle :)
- ixacto 14y ago
  Facebook started at $38. It is at $19.41 right now, If I was a Facebook shareholder I would be very worried that half my investment is gone, and that said FB engineers and early inverters had just cashed out after the latest lockup expired. It is a publicly traded company now, and like any CEO Zuck's job is to make money.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
anamax 14y ago
> Zuck will have fun explaining to the shareholders why they are spending money on this and not trying to get back to their IPO stock price. Zuck has 57% of the voting rights so listening to shareholders is a courtesy on his part. Facebook's new engineering campus is a judgement call. To argue that he's wrong, you basically have to argue that you're better at making that sort of decision than he is. Where's the evidence for that claim?
- ixacto 14y ago
  Zuck has to listen to the market. If the market is dumping his stock like after the recent lock-up expired then there's a problem.
  - ojbyrne 14y ago
    Why exactly? He presumably has enough money cashed out that even if FB went bankrupt he'd be OK. And he controls the voting shares, so if that's what he wants, then that's what would happen.
ojbyrne 14y ago
Dual class share structure means that Zuck doesn't have to bother explaining anything.

johnrob 14y ago

The danger in building a beautiful campus is that you attract people who like beautiful campuses.

bitsweet 14y ago
Why is this a danger?
- felipemnoa 14y ago
  Indeed. Being in a nice campus can make a huge difference for morale. In some corporations the engineering offices look like crap while the executive offices are beautiful. Based just on that you can tell that the corporation doesn't really give a crap about its engineers. I'd rather not work in a corporation who thinks that their engineers are not important enough to give them a beautiful working environment.
  - MartinCron 14y ago
    I once worked at a company (a software company, even) where the developer's office were behind a very long dark hallway filled with multiple years of accumulated garbage. There was an open desk with a peekaboo view of Puget Sound, but I wasn't allowed to sit there because someone with seniority might want to sit there, even though the more senior person didn't want to move. Hell yeah, I'll take a beautiful campus if you'll give me one.
- rdl 14y ago
  I'd hardly consider basically a big warehouse/hangar full of mobile desks and some kitchens to be extravagant. It seems like the lowest cost way to warehouse lots of engineers in an open plan environment, which Facebook for some reason really likes.