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Working at Facebook Sounds Like Joining a Cult (gizmodo.com)
Vanity Fair has run some excerpts from an upcoming book by a former employee that gives insight on how things work at the social network. The chapter, among other things, details Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's actions when Google launched its own social networking service Google Plus. The extract finds Zuckerberg's behaviour so intense that it calls it "bordered on the psychopathic." It reads: [...] hit Facebook like a bomb. Google Plus was the great enemy's sally into our own hemisphere, and it gripped Zuck like nothing else. He declared "Lockdown," the first and only one during my time there. As was duly explained to the more recent employees, Lockdown was a state of war that dated to Facebook's earliest days, when no one could leave the building while the company confronted some threat, either competitive or technical.â [...] Rounding off another beaded string of platitudes, he changed gears and erupted with a burst of rhetoric referencing one of the ancient classics he had studied at Harvard and before. "You know, one of my favorite Roman orators ended every speech with the phrase Carthago delenda est. 'Carthage must be destroyed.' For some reason I think of that now."
Sociopaths manipulate in various ways:
intimidation, anger, suppression, force, charming, acting emphatically.
Many are admired or shunned and often failed to be recognized as such.
Oh please! It's a requirement for the job. It is the dominant trait of the business world.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Unemployment is so high that workers feel powerless and afraid and employers can abuse their power.
Duh....
Just because the company's run like a cult doesn't mean the employees are communists.
Just because employees form a union doesn't mean they are communists.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Facebook is being led by a leader who promptly reacts to challenges facing his company. If this was supposed to paint Facebook/Zuck in some sort of negative light... it managed to do the completely opposite.
It sounds like neither a cult nor your theory of bold leadership. It sounds like Zuck panicked based on the assumption that Google would likely eat his lunch. Plus failed, but it's not clear to me that FB's mad scrambling had anything to do with it.
Google shipped Plus in 100 days. Google's employees were off enjoying their weekends while Zuck had his employees chained to their desks.
Zuck got punked.
If you think the aim of studying the classics is to learn Latin then you're an idiot.
But then anyone who argues in terms of humans "using up valuable memory" is an idiot.
As was duly explained to the more recent employees, Lockdown was a state of war that dated to Facebook’s earliest days, when no one could leave the building while the company confronted some threat, either competitive or technical.
"I can't leave the building? Well, here's my badge. Fuck you."
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
How about "get fucked." No job is worth having to suffer somebody who feels they have the right to exercise that kind of absolute authority over you. Even if there weren't dozens of other tech companies in the bay area ready to gobble up talent - and there are - that would be immediate cause for walking, no question.
Quoting Latin is a bit like riding a unicycle. It might impress if you can pull it off, even though everyone will wonder why the hell you do it, but if you fuck it up, everyone will just laugh at you.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
That's like saying you deleted a file without overwriting it. You didn't delete shit. It's still there. With social media the only winning move is not to play.