Exactly. Zuck stole the original idea to Facebook. Then bought a ton of companies after that for innovation. He has no good ideas of his own, when he does think of stuff, they are wild big company pivots that fail.
Zuck has never had an original idea in his head, ever. His initial claim to fame, prior to FB, at least on college campus' was making a "hot or not" clone utilizing photos from various Harvard facebooks. Every idea since then has been someone elses or he's tried to take the Apple approach of "let someone else do it first, then we improve on it" except he has never been able to nail down the second part. The only reason FB became successful was the initial exclusivity and it filled the gap of a post 20-something myspace/ICQ/AOL IM world.
I absolutely agree with you but I think that take is a bit short-sighted and undercuts just how evil this stuff is.
Tom Nicholas did a Youtube video on the metaverse a while back (oh my god it was 4 years ago, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM00M-dRMBk) and it's been stuck in my head ever since. The pivot towards VR was an attempt to get even deeper ahold of our attention and what better way to do that than with goggles that are constantly in front of our eyes? The same with AI as it attempts to insert itself as a substrate layer of all technologies, and again with the smart glasses.
It's easy to dismiss these efforts as hilariously misguided but they're not. They're extremely calculated and he only needs it to pay off once to make everything worth it, and I think there are others that realize this as well. We just gotta keep praying that these efforts burn him out before they strike it big. I'm neither a praying nor gambling man, but praying is all we got right now to stand in his way and I wouldn't put money on the certainty of Facebook's failures ...
It’s easy to dismiss these efforts as hilariously misguided but they’re not. They’re extremely calculated and he only needs it to pay off once to make everything worth it
Fortunately there seems to be a limit as far as what people are willing to tolerate. While I agree these moves are extremely calculated, they're being calculated by people who are almost completely disconnected from reality and whose egos cloud their judgment at every turn
Precisely. I make calculated decisions all the time. But I suck at math. Even "highly calculated" decisions can be very stupid. In fact, some levels of stupidity are only possible with some level of higher education.
They’re extremely calculated and he only needs it to pay off once to make everything worth it
Yes, someone else who's actually intelligent will do those things but zuckerberg himself is a talentless bastard who won't be able to execute those ideas.
I have to admit, I did wonder what his vr would look like and then he showed off something that looked like an early alpha release of a cheap second life clone in a giant global presentation, hilariously funny.
His is such a bad company but so poorly run by its dictator. He can't be ousted as he holds majority shares. It'd be funny as hell if it wasn't facilitating the progression of the end of our world. Dumping billions that could be used to feed and support people in need. Instead we got the metaverse and datacenters on every corner.
Yeah I don't think that deserves much praise, personally for a company destroying regulation, lobbying to elect a despot, profiting off of sex trafficking, effectively spreading disinformation and misinformation about a wide variety of scientific fields, etc.
I don't know if "improved" is as accurate as "accelerated" in that case. Oculus was already doing cool stuff they just needed the resources to really get going, and now Meta is all up in it so the service kinda blows.
I'm suggesting that he didn't run back to his dorm room and recreate what he saw someone else do all quick like and rather stole their completed or nearly completed code.
This video on how much of the debt these companies hold is hidden from their balance sheets is chilling. According to this, Meta "officially" owes $151B, but in reality has debt obligations closer to $572B.
That's over 40% of Meta's entire market capitalization, and they're rapidly adding to that debt. Meta's existing properties are losing users, and there's just no fucking way they'll be able to pay back this debt in the long term, because they have zero hope of deriving income from all this data center investment. At some point, BlackRock and the other private equity firms Meta owes money to are going to come looking for blood
I guess they’re waiting for Peter Thiel to save them, again, when he turns the data centers into data lakes for palantir and we go full surveillance state. I do believe there is some end game these tech billionaires believe is on the horizon that we aren’t really privy to, it’s just a matter of them making it come to fruition before reality crashes down on their heads. Bankrupting them faster through boycotts is a good way the average person can help speed up reality and slow down their progress.
Ugh. I'm so sorry and angry every time I think on this...
...Full surveillance state. I do believe there is some end game these tech...on the horizon...matter of them making it come to fruition before reality crashes down on their heads...
We should bankrupt them faster because it's what they deserve, and the progress needs to be slowed at all costs.
But the reasons why all this is unfolding? Very clear to see, and you even referenced them without really pausing to consider.
Fascism isn't stupider this time around (in so far as being beyond the already astronomical stupidity required to believe it's a solution to fucking anything).
It's desperate. They didn't pivot away from their little spaceship dreams and into AI because it's more profitable. They don't care to come ahead in an economically sound world.
I'm sorry. Time has ran out on the climate and our biosphere, as far as them retaining the properties that allowed us the 'Modern World'.
There is no longer an avenue that averts widespread desolation, and they've known it all along because they don't actually all ignore scientific consensus, they just pay for the masses to ignore it.
It's going to be a gnarly and awful time, but humans aren't wired to just give up and die.
Hence the total surveillance state. Hence the mass casual cruelty with mass deaths. Hence the persecution of anyone who might oppose or see through it.
The world as we know it will be reduced to ashes, in our lifetimes, and we'll have to scramble to do whatever our species will do just to barely persist in some form, as that is just what we do.
They dream of a techno feudalist dreamscape where each little Dragon has their manageable fiefdom composed of a diminished and controllable populace to continue to carry out their self-aggrandizing whims. They can burn all of the economy now, because they're trying to trade it for straight power.
Joke's on them, they'll die by the masses too, and those that don't, will die by the masses. It's not that hard for thousands of angry and with nothing to lose people to go after them.
Their dream of Autonomous Weapon guardians is as laughable as the rest of the stupidity they've attempted and failed at throughout the years: It will be as imperfect a solution to what they're attempting as anything else they've ever done.
But we collectively let them have control of the playground while it was fresh and clean, so now we gotta deal with their bullshit king of the hill fantasies and the results of their evil stupidity.
I do believe there is some end game these tech billionaires believe is on the horizon
I think it's just a variant of the standard republican "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter". They think financial wealth is something they can just create out of thin air using AI (the way that government creates wealth out of thin air by printing money, allegedly), so as long as they acquire the data centers to fuel it, by whatever means necessary, they'll be all right in the end.
They are all going into debt over datacenters. Google issued new shares... how? why? They all make so much money and still they can't cashflow this expansion.
It’s all saturated and nobody really needs anything new anymore. There’s nowhere to go. We should expect to see some of these firms suddenly collapse like Silicon Valley Bank did.
Cynically though... they've been peddling nothing for two decades now. Big data, the cloud, SAAS, web 3.0, metaverse, nfts, llms, there's always a new nothing born.
Tells you a lot about success and merit. He has absolutely no fucking clue what's going to be successful and what won't. He was just super lucky with Facebook.
The reason he's a billionaire is because the system is totally fucked up. He's a bug, not a feature.
The current Economic structure is designed so that the thing that makes the most Money is having Money and tilted so that the more the Money the bigger the effect.
This is why, for example, many if not most countries have higher taxes on income from work than on income from dividends.
It's not by chance that Social Mobility has collapsed to pretty much non-existence in most of the World, especially the US (were the saying "You can be anything" actually used to be true, but not anymore, not even close) - the Economy is so extremelly rigged for Money to make Money that the dumbest, laziest, most inept rich kid will keep on getting richer their whole lives no matter how much they fuck up.
Which does piss me off, BUT the world would be better if we took Meta, Reddit, Twitter, and all the other social media giants and gave them the Ole Yeller treatment
Becoming a billionaire really does seem to get to people's heads, the younger the billionaire the worse.
Zuck is being completely reckless, burning through hundreds of billions of dollars hopping on every futuristic idea, and doesn't listen to anyone's fair criticism anymore.
He probably even thinks he is some great visionary and everyone else is holding him back, and that's why they work for him, not the opposite.
In a sane socioeconomic system we wouldn't people get this rich and powerful for their own good, especially young people.
Outside of Facebook what has he been responsible for that didn't blow up in his face? The only other things Meta has that aren't thus far miserable failures are Instagram and Whatsapp, both of which they bought.
And Google built a search engine. Everything else they've tried to build has failed, other than maybe Gmail which was just a Yahoo Mail / Hotmail clone. Everything else that has been successful has been an acquisition: Maps (Keyhole), YouTube, Android, Google Photos (Picasa), Doubleclick...
We really need robust antitrust. How many of these acquisitions would be thriving companies in their own right, competing with the big tech giants if the tech giants hadn't been able to absorb them.
Google+ is an example of what happens when companies have to compete instead of acquiring other companies. Google poured billions into it and it flopped completely.
IMO it’s almost worse than if G+ flopped completely. Google+ was actually awesome for the specific world of smalltime pen and paper RPGs. But of course, that one creative community of people designing & publishing cool stuff wasn’t enough to justify its cost, or challenge Facebook for supremacy, so they pulled the plug even though plenty of people were still using it. Just a waste.
If it takes multiple billions of dollars to create a product that is useful for a niche group of pen and paper RPG players, that product is probably not going to succeed.
But, also, if Facebook didn't have such an unassailable monopoly on social networking, small, focused social networks that targeted a niche group of people might have a chance of surviving.
I recently saw a video of Zuckerberg being interviewed by Theo Von and I honestly thought it was AI slop at first. The way he sits, talks, even moves his head it's like he's constantly under interrogation. It's like some PR manager spent a couple days with him teaching him how to act and the dude took it way too literally.
If you are still actively using Facebook you are either over 40 or live in a rural area of the country. As an example, I live in a small rural town of less than 4000 people everybody still uses Facebook and the amount of AI that they are liking sharing commenting on is absurd.
In all honesty everyone of all ages here use Facebook religiously it’s kinda impressive. As an example, I have a coworker who is five years older than me. We were talking about old music from the 90s and I told him to look up a YouTube channel of old 90s rock music and he looked at me confused and said “what is YouTube?” I gave him a basic rundown of what YouTube is and his response was it sounds like woke bullshit. If it’s not on Facebook, I’m not watching it as far as I know that is his only connection to the outside world other than basic cable.
I just recently learned that is only true for some places on earth. In Hungary if you want to find any event, you have to still use Facebook. I have seen people using Facebook messenger on a phone, which i have never seen before 🤣.
Exactly, I do still have a Facebook. I rarely use it anymore, but because of the ubiquity of everyone here using it, you still have to log on once in a while to stay informed of events or anything going on currently there is a wildfire close to my hometown and most of the information is posted on Facebook, but the crazy thing is a lot of local people have been posting AI footage of the wildfire or AI god prayer quotes asking for help and protecting the firefighters and are also trying to turn this fire political for some reason.
Steals an idea to get rich. Buys companies to produce ideas for him but still fails somehow.
Gets called innovative genius because he has lots of money? I guess all he is that he was opportunistic and was able to realize a good idea (perhaps by chance) a long time ago and stole it. Now he is constantly failing on choosing good ideas but because he is stinking rich he is somehow able to keep himself afloat.
We should also mention he probably gained lots of money from low hanging non-ethical fruits like illegally providing user data to companies that analyse political motivations.
I hope that the whole facebook downfall and the inevitable enshitification of other facebook servies like instagram und whatsapp only accelerates the adoption of better alternatives, we'll see if people are actually willing to leave whatsapp if its gotten bad enough
I actually don’t mind this concept of a „town square“, but I think that it doesn’t work with so many people all just shouting into the void. The best form of social media seems to be this Reddit/lemmy forum style with categoriesed conversations in sub spaces
I hope so too, but I'm not holding my breath. People keep showing that critical thinking is an old paradigm that most of humanity is unwilling to interact with. In short, not happening! 🤣
critical thinking is an old paradigm that most of humanity is unwilling to interact with
Critical thinking is a mechanism for digesting large amounts of information over time, in order to make informed policy decisions.
If you don't have useful information, you don't have spare time, and you don't have any actual input into policy, it lacks value.
I see folks consistently trying to make this an individualist problem. "I figured it out because I think critical! You didn't because you're a dumb-dumb!"
But more often than not, it's two people talking past each other, working off different bodies of data (of debatable quality) that they've incompletely digested. And then all they know how to do with their conclusions is yell "You're an idiot!" at people who disagree.
How do you reach large numbers of people to form a consensus? How do you collaborate with them towards a tangible benefit?
Curiously enough, Facebook used to provide a mechanism for this purpose. And the fact that it doesn't anymore - that it is largely a trap for weak, confused, vulnerable people to scream at one another while they get scammed - speaks more to the profit engine of the service than the core competency of any of its members
There was a brief period of time where they were actually on the "right" track IMO. You'd pop the headset on, call your friend(s), and when they answered, immediately your VR avatars would be standing in the same virtual space or in your room if you're using passthrough mode, and you could "look at" and speak to each other in a way that felt extremely natural. You'd start gesturing and naturally moving your body as you speak in the same way you would in a face-to-face chat. The same way you can be at a Halloween party and after a few minutes, you're having a completely normal conversation with Abe Lincoln or a frog or whatever. Even though the avatars weren't perfect, there were times that three of us just stood around for 30-45 minutes just chatting and catching up before anyone suggested playing an actual game.
To me, the main selling point of VR is that it's the best way to feel present with someone who isn't physically there. It's better than a video call or a traditional online game. It's really the closest thing to just "hanging out" with someone who's somewhere else.
Of course, it only worked that way for a month or two before they made it so that you couldn't gather like that unless you were inside the horizon worlds app, which everyone always hated. Typical dark pattern enshittification as usual.
This is all beside the fact that it's Zuck, Facebook, and all the other things everyone hates, but much like the perv glasses seem to be catching on, I think Zuck's metaverse could have been somewhat popular if they hadn't done... basically everything they've done to it.
If he made thin AR glasses, that could have been neat. Should have specialized in a set of consumer glasses that is smart enough to take over basic phone use. Including a type of FaceTime but through the glasses. They could have designed a weird system that uses fancy cameras and embedded AI to construct your face in real time. They could have specialized in making them very lightweight. All the stuff you might expect out of futuristic glasses, then allowed them to take eSIM. They could have reasonably considered entering consumer phone/data services under some weird niche.
They've been trying to build that, and they even demo'd a prototype after spending a few billion, but it was too expensive to sell.
Slim AR displays are science fiction technology, and the best they can do right now is still quite limited compared to passthrough VR. They can't hit nearly the same FOV or resolution yet in transparent displays, you either get readable text or a wide FOV, but not both. There's a reason Google Glass was only a tiny thing in the corner of your vision.
The popular author Michael Crichton named this effect after his physicist friend Murray Gell-Mann, who had noticed how newspaper readers, for example, after studying an erroneous article on a subject in which they themselves are very knowledgeable, just shake their heads and find the reporting on it distorted, erroneous and lacking in understanding. However, if they then turn the page and read an article on another topic in which they themselves have little knowledge, they trust the information in this article almost without reservation.
At least he didn't have to spend all that money on higher salaries. How you boys liking the rocket game? I'm thinking about blowing a few dozen billion on that, just as a hobby. Not trying to make money off it.
I believe a lot of these people had the right idea at the right time but are by no means a good judge for these kinds of things. And should not in the least bit believe everything they touch turns to gold. You were FaceBook, you did good once. Enjoy your money and just stop.
greed by money can lead to infinity of chase happiness that they will never touch repeat the cycle until major diversion (usually lose everything) also you are correct as altman was going to be fired by cofounders for his malice had the timing didn't hit it's worst causing employees to almost leave to microsoft had they didn't hire him and fired themself and you know why did empolyees were doing this because they were gonna lose money that was tied to altman which is gonna be their biggest mistake cause in exchange of temporary wealth they sold themself and everyone into a resession making there wealth from $ to 0
Would you be kind enough to rephrase your post in a way that even us, non-(whateverthatwas)-speaking individuals, can potentially make out what you said?
I'll give it a go. It's not that terrible, just mostly a lack of punctuation.
Being greedy for money can lead to infinite time spent chasing happiness that they will never obtain. The cycle repeats until something happens to stop it - usually they lose everything.
Your comment is spot on - Altman was going to be fired by cofounders for his malice. [I'm a little unsure here and didn't pay attentio to Almatn's difficulties, but I think the point is that he screwed up to the point of driving Microsoft employees away, but he stepped away rather than being fired. Employees were pushing for this because if they left, they would have lost money [vested, I assume] so in exchange for trying to protect thier wealth, they put up with Altman and that was a mistake. Also that contributed to recession that is going to hurt everyone's wealth]
I believe that's the gist. Granted, as it went on, it got a bit worse, but I think we can get much of the basic idea, which I think boils down to asshats seeking money at the cost of everything else will always contribute to everyone being hurt.
The only way to get him out of the CEO chair is for him to retire or die. He never gave up voting control during the IPO and controls more than 50% of the vote.
Hmmmm people like services which are actually better than what Facebook currently offers. Maybe free dating apps, cool games and meet up services could attract new users. Get me a team and some beers and pizza, and I will make new Facebook.
However I will never be able to outcompete META. That is a different story. That is an insane company with the craziest infrastructure.
We shouldn't give up, but not everything that is possible happens, so just be aware that most ventures fail. But of course keep trying. Like with Lemmy.
A good product and marketing strategy can bootstrap an audience. You likely need to provide something beyond just a phone book. Even outside of Facebook there's a million of those but getting an audience for a new product is far from impossible, tons of new games do it all the time.
145 Comments
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 227 pts · 1d
You mean, just like his pivot to VR?
oh_@lemmy.world · 164 pts · 1d
Exactly. Zuck stole the original idea to Facebook. Then bought a ton of companies after that for innovation. He has no good ideas of his own, when he does think of stuff, they are wild big company pivots that fail.
rozodru@piefed.world · 103 pts · 1d
Zuck has never had an original idea in his head, ever. His initial claim to fame, prior to FB, at least on college campus' was making a "hot or not" clone utilizing photos from various Harvard facebooks. Every idea since then has been someone elses or he's tried to take the Apple approach of "let someone else do it first, then we improve on it" except he has never been able to nail down the second part. The only reason FB became successful was the initial exclusivity and it filled the gap of a post 20-something myspace/ICQ/AOL IM world.
stoly@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
At the time the idea was super innovative and it was fun to see your classmate’s photos.
kestrel7_7@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 10h
Was it really that innovative? It was just myspace for college students
stoly@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 6h
It was innovative because it helped you meet up with your real-life college friends. MySpace and Friendster had you adding people manually.
audaxdreik@pawb.social · 60 pts · 1d
I absolutely agree with you but I think that take is a bit short-sighted and undercuts just how evil this stuff is.
Tom Nicholas did a Youtube video on the metaverse a while back (oh my god it was 4 years ago, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM00M-dRMBk) and it's been stuck in my head ever since. The pivot towards VR was an attempt to get even deeper ahold of our attention and what better way to do that than with goggles that are constantly in front of our eyes? The same with AI as it attempts to insert itself as a substrate layer of all technologies, and again with the smart glasses.
It's easy to dismiss these efforts as hilariously misguided but they're not. They're extremely calculated and he only needs it to pay off once to make everything worth it, and I think there are others that realize this as well. We just gotta keep praying that these efforts burn him out before they strike it big. I'm neither a praying nor gambling man, but praying is all we got right now to stand in his way and I wouldn't put money on the certainty of Facebook's failures ...
protist@retrofed.com · 32 pts · 1d
Fortunately there seems to be a limit as far as what people are willing to tolerate. While I agree these moves are extremely calculated, they're being calculated by people who are almost completely disconnected from reality and whose egos cloud their judgment at every turn
Dookieman12@piefed.social · 10 pts · 1d
Precisely. I make calculated decisions all the time. But I suck at math. Even "highly calculated" decisions can be very stupid. In fact, some levels of stupidity are only possible with some level of higher education.
sepi@piefed.social · 6 pts · 1d
I know some advanced university stupid people.
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 1d
Yes, someone else who's actually intelligent will do those things but zuckerberg himself is a talentless bastard who won't be able to execute those ideas.
mjr@infosec.pub · 7 pts · 1d
Praying , and encouraging more refugees into the fediverse and threadiverse!
sepi@piefed.social · 4 pts · 1d
The moves are very calculated. But boy, is suckerberg bad at math. This calculation lost them 80 billion.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 10h
Also stealing the name Metaverse, it was associated to something cool (made by the dude who invented the word), now it's associated with a moron.
TeaWithDani@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Or his pivot to threads?
Iusedtobeanalien@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 22h
I have to admit, I did wonder what his vr would look like and then he showed off something that looked like an early alpha release of a cheap second life clone in a giant global presentation, hilariously funny.
apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world · 87 pts · 1d
His is such a bad company but so poorly run by its dictator. He can't be ousted as he holds majority shares. It'd be funny as hell if it wasn't facilitating the progression of the end of our world. Dumping billions that could be used to feed and support people in need. Instead we got the metaverse and datacenters on every corner.
kestrel7_7@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 1d
Right? Imagine if all of the money spent "building out" the metaverse had been invested in improving infrastructure in real life...
plyth@feddit.org · 3 pts · 1d
Publishing their LLM wasn't such a bad idea. If China hadn't caught up, everybody would be praising Meta right now.
apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1d
Yeah I don't think that deserves much praise, personally for a company destroying regulation, lobbying to elect a despot, profiting off of sex trafficking, effectively spreading disinformation and misinformation about a wide variety of scientific fields, etc.
Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world · 77 pts · 1d
Has he picked a single winner since he stole the idea for facebook?
Maldaya@sh.itjust.works · 47 pts · 1d
Probably only when he bought out Instagram and Whatsapp, that's all I can think of
chaogomu@lemmy.world · 50 pts · 1d
Those were already popular before he bought them, and then he made them worse.
luciferofastora@feddit.org · 23 pts · 1d
...but no less popular
Jax@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1d
I feel like Oculus improved under them, but yeah - an exception proves the rule.
Soggy@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1d
I don't know if "improved" is as accurate as "accelerated" in that case. Oculus was already doing cool stuff they just needed the resources to really get going, and now Meta is all up in it so the service kinda blows.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 10h
Yeah, please tell me that he didn't take oculus & vr and drove it into the ground. Where is a nice cheap vr set (not locked in with some turd)?
cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works · 22 pts · 1d
He bought 100 lottery tickets through acquisition (probably more) and 2 of them hit.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 10h
What's the second one 😅
Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
Two other things I don't use.
PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
And Oculus
brsrklf@jlai.lu · 3 pts · 18h
He's working hard on destroying that one, don't worry. The quest experience has only gotten worse with every update.
PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 13h
Rip
stoly@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
I thought he actually stole the source code, not just the idea.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 10h
How on earth can you steal the working thing but not the idea? I mean if it was your idea.
stoly@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 6h
I'm suggesting that he didn't run back to his dorm room and recreate what he saw someone else do all quick like and rather stole their completed or nearly completed code.
the_wonderfool@piefed.social · 1 pts · 15h
Unfortunately for humanity, it seems that the pervert glasses are quite popular
protist@retrofed.com · 71 pts · 1d
This video on how much of the debt these companies hold is hidden from their balance sheets is chilling. According to this, Meta "officially" owes $151B, but in reality has debt obligations closer to $572B.
That's over 40% of Meta's entire market capitalization, and they're rapidly adding to that debt. Meta's existing properties are losing users, and there's just no fucking way they'll be able to pay back this debt in the long term, because they have zero hope of deriving income from all this data center investment. At some point, BlackRock and the other private equity firms Meta owes money to are going to come looking for blood
CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 1d
I guess they’re waiting for Peter Thiel to save them, again, when he turns the data centers into data lakes for palantir and we go full surveillance state. I do believe there is some end game these tech billionaires believe is on the horizon that we aren’t really privy to, it’s just a matter of them making it come to fruition before reality crashes down on their heads. Bankrupting them faster through boycotts is a good way the average person can help speed up reality and slow down their progress.
Aqivex@fedinsfw.app · 13 pts · 1d
Ugh. I'm so sorry and angry every time I think on this...
We should bankrupt them faster because it's what they deserve, and the progress needs to be slowed at all costs.
But the reasons why all this is unfolding? Very clear to see, and you even referenced them without really pausing to consider.
Fascism isn't stupider this time around (in so far as being beyond the already astronomical stupidity required to believe it's a solution to fucking anything).
It's desperate. They didn't pivot away from their little spaceship dreams and into AI because it's more profitable. They don't care to come ahead in an economically sound world.
I'm sorry. Time has ran out on the climate and our biosphere, as far as them retaining the properties that allowed us the 'Modern World'.
There is no longer an avenue that averts widespread desolation, and they've known it all along because they don't actually all ignore scientific consensus, they just pay for the masses to ignore it.
It's going to be a gnarly and awful time, but humans aren't wired to just give up and die.
Hence the total surveillance state. Hence the mass casual cruelty with mass deaths. Hence the persecution of anyone who might oppose or see through it.
The world as we know it will be reduced to ashes, in our lifetimes, and we'll have to scramble to do whatever our species will do just to barely persist in some form, as that is just what we do.
They dream of a techno feudalist dreamscape where each little Dragon has their manageable fiefdom composed of a diminished and controllable populace to continue to carry out their self-aggrandizing whims. They can burn all of the economy now, because they're trying to trade it for straight power.
Joke's on them, they'll die by the masses too, and those that don't, will die by the masses. It's not that hard for thousands of angry and with nothing to lose people to go after them.
Their dream of Autonomous Weapon guardians is as laughable as the rest of the stupidity they've attempted and failed at throughout the years: It will be as imperfect a solution to what they're attempting as anything else they've ever done.
But we collectively let them have control of the playground while it was fresh and clean, so now we gotta deal with their bullshit king of the hill fantasies and the results of their evil stupidity.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
I think it's just a variant of the standard republican "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter". They think financial wealth is something they can just create out of thin air using AI (the way that government creates wealth out of thin air by printing money, allegedly), so as long as they acquire the data centers to fuel it, by whatever means necessary, they'll be all right in the end.
TeaWithDani@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1d
They are all going into debt over datacenters. Google issued new shares... how? why? They all make so much money and still they can't cashflow this expansion.
What blood will there be to take?
stoly@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
It’s all saturated and nobody really needs anything new anymore. There’s nowhere to go. We should expect to see some of these firms suddenly collapse like Silicon Valley Bank did.
TeaWithDani@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1d
Cynically though... they've been peddling nothing for two decades now. Big data, the cloud, SAAS, web 3.0, metaverse, nfts, llms, there's always a new nothing born.
stoly@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
I think they supports my point. There really is no need for a Web 3.0. Progress for the simple sake of progress is really just marketing a money grab.
bad1080@piefed.social · 69 pts · 1d
amazing how many missteps you can make as a ceo these days without consequences...
Tja@programming.dev · 28 pts · 1d
It's what happens when you own a controlling share of the company. You can freely run it into the ground.
matlag@sh.itjust.works · 18 pts · 1d
Tells you a lot about success and merit. He has absolutely no fucking clue what's going to be successful and what won't. He was just super lucky with Facebook.
The reason he's a billionaire is because the system is totally fucked up. He's a bug, not a feature.
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 16h
The current Economic structure is designed so that the thing that makes the most Money is having Money and tilted so that the more the Money the bigger the effect.
This is why, for example, many if not most countries have higher taxes on income from work than on income from dividends.
It's not by chance that Social Mobility has collapsed to pretty much non-existence in most of the World, especially the US (were the saying "You can be anything" actually used to be true, but not anymore, not even close) - the Economy is so extremelly rigged for Money to make Money that the dumbest, laziest, most inept rich kid will keep on getting richer their whole lives no matter how much they fuck up.
Almacca@aussie.zone · 50 pts · 15h
Never interrupt your enemy while he's making a mistake.
Keep it up, Mark. You're doing great.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 8h
Zuck can only be interrupted into making an even bigger mistake, so no need to hold back.
ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one · 45 pts · 1d
Marky Zuckerberg may run Meta into the ground however the fucker will still be rich.
cmbabul@slrpnk.net · 14 pts · 22h
Which does piss me off, BUT the world would be better if we took Meta, Reddit, Twitter, and all the other social media giants and gave them the Ole Yeller treatment
FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 9h
Yeah, Same here honestly
late_pessimistic@slrpnk.net · 44 pts · 20h
Becoming a billionaire really does seem to get to people's heads, the younger the billionaire the worse.
Zuck is being completely reckless, burning through hundreds of billions of dollars hopping on every futuristic idea, and doesn't listen to anyone's fair criticism anymore.
He probably even thinks he is some great visionary and everyone else is holding him back, and that's why they work for him, not the opposite.
In a sane socioeconomic system we wouldn't people get this rich and powerful for their own good, especially young people.
FireWire400@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 10h
In a sane socioeconomic system there would still be a chance for him to lose it all
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 7h
In a sane system, he wouldn't have so much to lose.
But he's sitting on a functional monopoly bolted onto a surveillance state with infinite money. So he can keep fucking up forever.
FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 9h
Yeah, this unfortunately
Billionaires should not exist
Mangoholic@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 18h
But it is better he spends the money than hoarding it.
Almacca@aussie.zone · 7 pts · 15h
Not when he's spending it on creating the Torment Nexus.
nitroemdash@lemmy.wtf · -3 pts · 17h
Why so? Hoarding money, as well as burning them, is practically equivalent to returning them to the treasury. Spending them wastes labour.
hunnybubny@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 16h
Uh, this sounds as shallow as driponomics arguments.
flop_leash_973@lemmy.world · 43 pts · 1d
Outside of Facebook what has he been responsible for that didn't blow up in his face? The only other things Meta has that aren't thus far miserable failures are Instagram and Whatsapp, both of which they bought.
stoly@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 1d
Reminder that he stole Facebook
merc@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 18h
And Google built a search engine. Everything else they've tried to build has failed, other than maybe Gmail which was just a Yahoo Mail / Hotmail clone. Everything else that has been successful has been an acquisition: Maps (Keyhole), YouTube, Android, Google Photos (Picasa), Doubleclick...
We really need robust antitrust. How many of these acquisitions would be thriving companies in their own right, competing with the big tech giants if the tech giants hadn't been able to absorb them.
Google+ is an example of what happens when companies have to compete instead of acquiring other companies. Google poured billions into it and it flopped completely.
nothanks@lemmy.4d2.org · 2 pts · 9h
just wanted to add to the list that google bought writely and immediately started making it worse as google docs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalyr
kestrel7_7@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 10h
IMO it’s almost worse than if G+ flopped completely. Google+ was actually awesome for the specific world of smalltime pen and paper RPGs. But of course, that one creative community of people designing & publishing cool stuff wasn’t enough to justify its cost, or challenge Facebook for supremacy, so they pulled the plug even though plenty of people were still using it. Just a waste.
merc@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 9h
If it takes multiple billions of dollars to create a product that is useful for a niche group of pen and paper RPG players, that product is probably not going to succeed.
But, also, if Facebook didn't have such an unassailable monopoly on social networking, small, focused social networks that targeted a niche group of people might have a chance of surviving.
bananabread@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 1d
Oculus perhaps, although also bought
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 19 pts · 1d
And immediately blew it up after buying it.
Eheran@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1d
What is the state of VR? Still super niche?
vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 21h
always will be. I just don't afford a couple hundred grand for the "bigger living room" optional accessory
bananabread@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 17h
If you have to ask, you probably know the answer :)
rozodru@piefed.world · 40 pts · 1d
I recently saw a video of Zuckerberg being interviewed by Theo Von and I honestly thought it was AI slop at first. The way he sits, talks, even moves his head it's like he's constantly under interrogation. It's like some PR manager spent a couple days with him teaching him how to act and the dude took it way too literally.
NekoKoneko@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 1d
Dude doesn't need a PR manager. He needs a blue fairy.
errer@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 1d
He needs to take a deep sea submarine trip, that’s what he needs
OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1d
OceanBurg 2.0
MushuChupacabra@piefed.world · 37 pts · 1d
Destroying civilization, and destroying shareholder value.
What is his actual function?
lemmyng@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 1d
To be one of many examples of how a human can have net negative value?
Jax@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 1d
Shining a light on why rich people are the result of inadequacies in the system.
artyom@piefed.social · 33 pts · 1d
Well at least he has that thing he named the company after to fall back on, right?
deacon@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 1d
There’s always money in the…poorly rendered virtual banana stand in a digital wasteland
AmyAye@nord.pub · 8 pts · 1d
It extra funny when you consider a 23+ year old Virtual World is more popular than his stupid Metaverse.
jaybone@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 1d
He has the meta?
FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works · 28 pts · 1d
WanderWisley@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 1d
If you are still actively using Facebook you are either over 40 or live in a rural area of the country. As an example, I live in a small rural town of less than 4000 people everybody still uses Facebook and the amount of AI that they are liking sharing commenting on is absurd.
Tja@programming.dev · 10 pts · 1d
Over 40? I'd say over 60.
WanderWisley@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
In all honesty everyone of all ages here use Facebook religiously it’s kinda impressive. As an example, I have a coworker who is five years older than me. We were talking about old music from the 90s and I told him to look up a YouTube channel of old 90s rock music and he looked at me confused and said “what is YouTube?” I gave him a basic rundown of what YouTube is and his response was it sounds like woke bullshit. If it’s not on Facebook, I’m not watching it as far as I know that is his only connection to the outside world other than basic cable.
Tja@programming.dev · 4 pts · 19h
Scary.
polle@feddit.org · 9 pts · 1d
I just recently learned that is only true for some places on earth. In Hungary if you want to find any event, you have to still use Facebook. I have seen people using Facebook messenger on a phone, which i have never seen before 🤣.
WanderWisley@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
Exactly, I do still have a Facebook. I rarely use it anymore, but because of the ubiquity of everyone here using it, you still have to log on once in a while to stay informed of events or anything going on currently there is a wildfire close to my hometown and most of the information is posted on Facebook, but the crazy thing is a lot of local people have been posting AI footage of the wildfire or AI god prayer quotes asking for help and protecting the firefighters and are also trying to turn this fire political for some reason.
polle@feddit.org · 2 pts · 1d
I am just speechless.
Avicenna@programming.dev · 24 pts · 1d
Steals an idea to get rich. Buys companies to produce ideas for him but still fails somehow. Gets called innovative genius because he has lots of money? I guess all he is that he was opportunistic and was able to realize a good idea (perhaps by chance) a long time ago and stole it. Now he is constantly failing on choosing good ideas but because he is stinking rich he is somehow able to keep himself afloat.
motruck@lemmy.zip · 23 pts · 1d
Luck is a key part of success. Timing being one of the luckiest random factors.
Avicenna@programming.dev · 1 pts · 21h
We should also mention he probably gained lots of money from low hanging non-ethical fruits like illegally providing user data to companies that analyse political motivations.
Exatron@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 1d
Couldn't have happened to a more deserving bot.
sundray@lemmus.org · 23 pts · 1d
And yet again, Zuck walks away from a mountain of burning money without a scratch on him. 😡
espentan@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 1d
I'm wishing for more murderous things to blow up in his face.
hypno@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 18 pts · 14h
I hope that the whole facebook downfall and the inevitable enshitification of other facebook servies like instagram und whatsapp only accelerates the adoption of better alternatives, we'll see if people are actually willing to leave whatsapp if its gotten bad enough
uberdroog@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 8h
When you say better alternatives I suspect you do not mean a better town square?
hypno@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 3h
I actually don’t mind this concept of a „town square“, but I think that it doesn’t work with so many people all just shouting into the void. The best form of social media seems to be this Reddit/lemmy forum style with categoriesed conversations in sub spaces
jjlinux@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 9h
I hope so too, but I'm not holding my breath. People keep showing that critical thinking is an old paradigm that most of humanity is unwilling to interact with. In short, not happening! 🤣
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 8h
Critical thinking is a mechanism for digesting large amounts of information over time, in order to make informed policy decisions.
If you don't have useful information, you don't have spare time, and you don't have any actual input into policy, it lacks value.
I see folks consistently trying to make this an individualist problem. "I figured it out because I think critical! You didn't because you're a dumb-dumb!"
But more often than not, it's two people talking past each other, working off different bodies of data (of debatable quality) that they've incompletely digested. And then all they know how to do with their conclusions is yell "You're an idiot!" at people who disagree.
How do you reach large numbers of people to form a consensus? How do you collaborate with them towards a tangible benefit?
Curiously enough, Facebook used to provide a mechanism for this purpose. And the fact that it doesn't anymore - that it is largely a trap for weak, confused, vulnerable people to scream at one another while they get scammed - speaks more to the profit engine of the service than the core competency of any of its members
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 1d
He probably should have stuck with the Metaverse, I'm sure it would have worked eventually. I mean maybe, who knows...
raspirate@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1d
There was a brief period of time where they were actually on the "right" track IMO. You'd pop the headset on, call your friend(s), and when they answered, immediately your VR avatars would be standing in the same virtual space or in your room if you're using passthrough mode, and you could "look at" and speak to each other in a way that felt extremely natural. You'd start gesturing and naturally moving your body as you speak in the same way you would in a face-to-face chat. The same way you can be at a Halloween party and after a few minutes, you're having a completely normal conversation with Abe Lincoln or a frog or whatever. Even though the avatars weren't perfect, there were times that three of us just stood around for 30-45 minutes just chatting and catching up before anyone suggested playing an actual game.
To me, the main selling point of VR is that it's the best way to feel present with someone who isn't physically there. It's better than a video call or a traditional online game. It's really the closest thing to just "hanging out" with someone who's somewhere else.
Of course, it only worked that way for a month or two before they made it so that you couldn't gather like that unless you were inside the horizon worlds app, which everyone always hated. Typical dark pattern enshittification as usual.
This is all beside the fact that it's Zuck, Facebook, and all the other things everyone hates, but much like the perv glasses seem to be catching on, I think Zuck's metaverse could have been somewhat popular if they hadn't done... basically everything they've done to it.
partofthevoice@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 1d
If he made thin AR glasses, that could have been neat. Should have specialized in a set of consumer glasses that is smart enough to take over basic phone use. Including a type of FaceTime but through the glasses. They could have designed a weird system that uses fancy cameras and embedded AI to construct your face in real time. They could have specialized in making them very lightweight. All the stuff you might expect out of futuristic glasses, then allowed them to take eSIM. They could have reasonably considered entering consumer phone/data services under some weird niche.
xthexder@l.sw0.com · 4 pts · 1d
They've been trying to build that, and they even demo'd a prototype after spending a few billion, but it was too expensive to sell.
Slim AR displays are science fiction technology, and the best they can do right now is still quite limited compared to passthrough VR. They can't hit nearly the same FOV or resolution yet in transparent displays, you either get readable text or a wide FOV, but not both. There's a reason Google Glass was only a tiny thing in the corner of your vision.
OldChicoAle@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 1d
Such a punchable face. He and his wife are evil people. Stains on humanity.
demonsword@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 17h
anyone who owns 8-plus-digits fortunes are profoundly evil
dil@piefed.zip · 15 pts · 1d
They are automatically putting ppls pictures in image to video ai without permission and advertising it back to them
a1studmuffin@aussie.zone · 13 pts · 1d
For real? That is some dystopian Minority Report level advertising right there.
Cellari@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 8h
For those that want to read about the fault of human psyche:
https://technophilosoph.com/en/2024/06/09/why-we-trust-ai-despite-the-gell-mann-amnesia-effect/
Dojan@pawb.social · 12 pts · 1d
Gods I wish this was literal.
MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 1d
Fuck Zuck.
Supper@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 22h
Cuck Zuck?
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 11 pts · 23h
At least he didn't have to spend all that money on higher salaries. How you boys liking the rocket game? I'm thinking about blowing a few dozen billion on that, just as a hobby. Not trying to make money off it.
HC4L@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 14h
I believe a lot of these people had the right idea at the right time but are by no means a good judge for these kinds of things. And should not in the least bit believe everything they touch turns to gold. You were FaceBook, you did good once. Enjoy your money and just stop.
fodor@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 14h
Who, Mark? He wrote a creepy stalker website a few dozen years ago. Congrats?
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 7h
He wrote a creepy stalker website that became the foundation for a massive network of college educated socialites to communicate.
And then he sold their conversations to marketing firms and intelligence services.
best_redditor@leminal.space · -1 pts · 10h
greed by money can lead to infinity of chase happiness that they will never touch repeat the cycle until major diversion (usually lose everything) also you are correct as altman was going to be fired by cofounders for his malice had the timing didn't hit it's worst causing employees to almost leave to microsoft had they didn't hire him and fired themself and you know why did empolyees were doing this because they were gonna lose money that was tied to altman which is gonna be their biggest mistake cause in exchange of temporary wealth they sold themself and everyone into a resession making there wealth from $ to 0
jjlinux@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 9h
Would you be kind enough to rephrase your post in a way that even us, non-(whateverthatwas)-speaking individuals, can potentially make out what you said?
daychilde@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 8h
I'll give it a go. It's not that terrible, just mostly a lack of punctuation.
Being greedy for money can lead to infinite time spent chasing happiness that they will never obtain. The cycle repeats until something happens to stop it - usually they lose everything.
Your comment is spot on - Altman was going to be fired by cofounders for his malice. [I'm a little unsure here and didn't pay attentio to Almatn's difficulties, but I think the point is that he screwed up to the point of driving Microsoft employees away, but he stepped away rather than being fired. Employees were pushing for this because if they left, they would have lost money [vested, I assume] so in exchange for trying to protect thier wealth, they put up with Altman and that was a mistake. Also that contributed to recession that is going to hurt everyone's wealth]
I believe that's the gist. Granted, as it went on, it got a bit worse, but I think we can get much of the basic idea, which I think boils down to asshats seeking money at the cost of everything else will always contribute to everyone being hurt.
KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 9h
I think.. I think I'm having a stroke. Am I having a stronk? Sbrbjfufjjdks
daychilde@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 8h
Yrs, yor hrbbing stronk, plz cal amabulace
:)
jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 3h
Call the bondulance!
mountainRadish@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 22h
Is that his real name!? I thought it is Fart Fuckerber
KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 9h
Zucc the Cuck.
Taleya@aussie.zone · 8 pts · 1d
It wont matter four shits to him, its all just playthings
stoly@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1d
I keep asking myself why he’s still there. Even Bezos retired at this point.
jrs100000@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 22h
The only way to get him out of the CEO chair is for him to retire or die. He never gave up voting control during the IPO and controls more than 50% of the vote.
stoly@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 10h
He'd retain that control even after retiring.
NarrativeBear@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1d
What happened to the Metaverse?
bad1080@piefed.social · 6 pts · 1d
it's a dead mall
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 16h
Good, good - keep going, Mark.
Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 8h
Maybe I should just create the new Facebook as well
Magnum@infosec.pub · 4 pts · 7h
Drop the 'the', just call it 'new facebook'. Thank me later.
Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 5h
Hmmmm people like services which are actually better than what Facebook currently offers. Maybe free dating apps, cool games and meet up services could attract new users. Get me a team and some beers and pizza, and I will make new Facebook.
However I will never be able to outcompete META. That is a different story. That is an insane company with the craziest infrastructure.
daychilde@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 8h
It's all about networks. It's not creating platforms that's hard, it's getting people to use them.
Flightmussy@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 5h
It is super hard! However we should not give up just because it is hard or not possible. Anything is possible with right determination
daychilde@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5h
We shouldn't give up, but not everything that is possible happens, so just be aware that most ventures fail. But of course keep trying. Like with Lemmy.
oppy1984@lemdro.id · 1 pts · 2h
We choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because we thought they would be easy.
nandeEbisu@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 43m
A good product and marketing strategy can bootstrap an audience. You likely need to provide something beyond just a phone book. Even outside of Facebook there's a million of those but getting an audience for a new product is far from impossible, tons of new games do it all the time.
FE80@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2h
Tragic.
SethTaylor@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
ScrambledEggs@lazysoci.al · 1 pts · 18h
How much money did he make? Not if it failed, maybe that didn't matter. How many got fired because of it
adogg281@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2h
Yeah, it's getting tough for him to support AI, and FB is declining.