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Having a miserable job and thinking that Facebook is largely a waste of great engineering talent are orthogonal things. I think a lot of good knowledge on the s

by ericd 13y ago

Having a miserable job and thinking that Facebook is largely a waste of great engineering talent are orthogonal things. I think a lot of good knowledge on the scaling front comes out of it, but I wouldn't say that it's the most efficient societal use of our best engineers by a long shot. I think it's everyone's right to choose how they spend their time, even if it squanders their potential impact, but we generally shouldn't feel proud when we squander it.

onedev 13y ago
Right, changing the way billions of people interact every single day isn't impactful?
- ericd 13y ago
  Of course it has an impact, I just don't think it's a net positive one.
  - onedev 13y ago
    Why not? Without FB, I wouldn't be able to connect as much with all the people I've met in multiple places around the world. All people that I care about. I've also met a ton of new people that I otherwise wouldn't have met (e.g. from groups). I connect with the CS community at my school through FB. I connect with people in my class through FB. A lot of discussion happens on FB that I'd otherwise miss or not have the chance to participate in (everyone is extremely busy)
    - ericd 13y ago
      I think the result is probably a larger number of shallower friendships than you'd have otherwise, or at least that's the pattern I've noticed, and I don't think that's necessarily better. The rest of most people's time on there is generally spent idly browsing the trivia of other peoples' lives. I just don't think it's a very effective use of users' or engineers' time. I used to use FB a lot, especially in college, but aside from being great for organizing parties, I've found that I like the old ways a lot better. For actually communicating and having conversations with people, IM and email are actually more robust/effective/universal, and aren't engineered and A/B tested to hell to suck up attention as effectively as possible.
      - onedev 13y ago
        Doesn't matter if you think they're shallow. I care about these people. I want to know more about them and I want to stay connected with them in hopes that we cross paths again some day (for those that I don't live near).

by ericd 13y ago

onedev 13y ago

Right, changing the way billions of people interact every single day isn't impactful?

ericd 13y ago
Of course it has an impact, I just don't think it's a net positive one.
- onedev 13y ago
  Why not? Without FB, I wouldn't be able to connect as much with all the people I've met in multiple places around the world. All people that I care about. I've also met a ton of new people that I otherwise wouldn't have met (e.g. from groups). I connect with the CS community at my school through FB. I connect with people in my class through FB. A lot of discussion happens on FB that I'd otherwise miss or not have the chance to participate in (everyone is extremely busy)
  - ericd 13y ago
    I think the result is probably a larger number of shallower friendships than you'd have otherwise, or at least that's the pattern I've noticed, and I don't think that's necessarily better. The rest of most people's time on there is generally spent idly browsing the trivia of other peoples' lives. I just don't think it's a very effective use of users' or engineers' time. I used to use FB a lot, especially in college, but aside from being great for organizing parties, I've found that I like the old ways a lot better. For actually communicating and having conversations with people, IM and email are actually more robust/effective/universal, and aren't engineered and A/B tested to hell to suck up attention as effectively as possible.
    - onedev 13y ago
      Doesn't matter if you think they're shallow. I care about these people. I want to know more about them and I want to stay connected with them in hopes that we cross paths again some day (for those that I don't live near).