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To me, this seems like the start of the decline of facebook. Gideon Yu's work has been stellar with Youtube and getting that $15B valuation. The reason may be t
by dtap 18y ago
To me, this seems like the start of the decline of facebook. Gideon Yu's work has been stellar with Youtube and getting that $15B valuation. The reason may be the board and not Mark. That being said he doesn't have the it factor I see in a lot of successful CEOs.
- unalone 18y agoThe "It" factor? Have you read anything about his past? Or read what he's written? He started a company in high school that Microsoft offered to buy just to land him as an employee. That's pretty impressive. It doesn't matter, because we'll criticize anybody who isn't Steve Jobs for thinking they're Steve Jobs, but Zuckerberg is largely responsible for Facebook's formation, from what I've read, and for all his criticism he's managed to get a hell of a lot done for his company. So I'm willing to give him a chance and see if he's as good as he thinks he is - and failing that, if he falls I'll hope he pulls an SJ and comes back in 10 years with something even better.
- dtap 18y agoMost of his writings are him trying to assuage his users after making them very upset (redesigns, terms, newsfeed). He just doesn't impress me on a personal level. And he still hasn't effectively monetized. Having just heard about Sam Altman a few days ago I am already much more impressed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m43t44WL8-w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m43t44WL8-w
- unalone 18y agoYou can't judge Zuckerberg by his Facebook blog. The guy is a complete recluse. Yeah, all he writes is apologies, because he can delegate everything else. But try to find some of the leaked letters he wrote people that he tries to suppress for privacy. Reading them you get the image of an extraordinarily focused mind. He's arrogant, but if you can judge people on the confidence of their writing alone the guy is pretty brilliant. I saw Altman's speech and was pretty impressed. He doesn't dick around. He's also a more confident speaker than Zuckerberg. But with respect to him, Facebook is better designed (Loopt is horrendously generic), and it's done more to change the web than most web sites. The Facebook Platform changed a lot. Making money isn't the only part of design.
- dtap 18y agoThe guy is a complete recluse. Part of being a great CEO is being a cheerleader. You can't do that being hidden. There are many different types of leadership, some of which Zuckerberg has. Making Facebook into the culture mainstay it is has been a huge accomplishment. I am sure a lot of this is due to him. But he needs to be an effective communicator both internally and externally in order to succeed. He can have awesome ideas that are technically groundbreaking, but he needs to make others believe.
- unalone 18y agoHe's the best cheerleader Facebook could have. He gives speeches, but hides personal information. If you're a spokesperson for a company whose number-one selling point is privacy, the best marketing move you can make is to stay hidden. When I was younger I wrote him a friend request and a little message, which he promptly ignored, and my respect for him swelled for that. In a Silicon Valley that's becoming infamous for celebrity and over-the-top drama, he's a breath of fresh air.
- seunosewa 18y agoYou respect him because he ignored you? Not the ideal reason to respect a person, imho. You don't have to be great to be an asshole.
- unalone 18y agoHe's not great because he ignored me, he's great because he made Facebook. So even if he was a complete socialite, he'd have my respect. But I like that instance because it made me think that he wasn't primarily making Facebook for money, he was making it for his own privacy. There are good reasons to be social to people. I'm a social person. That said, I respect immensely the people who don't feel pressured to talk to every person that writes to him.
- mingdingo 18y agoI would strongly disagree with this. I used to feel this way about Mark Zuckerberg, but not anymore. Just consider these observations about facebook: 1) When it started, there were already many social networks 2) Because it positioned itself as a social network for college students, it got the early growth and adoption any "social" website needs to survive 3) They've grown REALLY fast since then, and have started to really lock in the users 4) It's not unthinkable for them to have a billion users. Once they have all the users they want, they can pick and choose their business model. 5) Mark Zuckerberg can't be removed from the CEO position, and probably holds more than 20% of the company 6) Facebook is hiring top talent, on par with Google and probably better than Microsoft. These things don't just happen out of the blue. For someone who has consolidated power in a company that could rival Google, I don't think Zuckerberg gets enough credit. If I were pg, I would have put him in my top 5.
- brandonkm 18y ago> For someone who has consolidated power in a company that could rival Google I think you may be getting ahead of yourself on that one.
- kennyroo 18y agoFacebook/Google comparisons always strike me as way off base. It's like comparing a Central Park (busy, no money) with Disneyland (busy, big money).