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Working at Facebook Sounds Like Joining a Cult (gizmodo.com)

Posted by msmash on from the curious-case-of-Facebook dept.

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."

17 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Summery of a summery? by houstonbofh · · Score: 5, Informative

    A slashdot summery of a Gizmodo summery of a Vanity Fair article? Is the source really that are to link to when it is the first line of the Gizmodo summery? http://www.vanityfair.com/news...

    1. Re:Summery of a summery? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's "summary".

      But you're right. I was kind of upset when I got halfway through the article and realized it's nothing about a cult-like environment at Facebook. It's about the showdown between Facebook and Google Plus. Anything cult-like about Facebook gets a little bit of mention in passing and it sticks out as kind of awkward.

      And then we find out it's just a selection from an upcoming book. It's not a stand-alone article, at all, and that probably explains its bewildering constant change of tone.

      The headline should have read something more along the lines of "Zuckerberg's weird behaviour gets strong mention in this promotional article trying hard to sell an upcoming book about Silicon Valley culture in general." Which would have instantly bored the piss out of anybody and nobody would have wanted to read it.

      Maybe whoever posted it works for Vanity Fair or the book's publisher, or something?

  2. Easy by no-body · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

     

  3. Pseudo-intellectuals. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Carthago delenda est."? Why even revert to Latin if you don't even know your quotes? Where is this from, Asterix? I mean, Cato the Elder's stock ending was famous enough that its start "Ceterum censeo" is almost better known than the rest: "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam." Without the "Ceterum censeo", a Classic Latin speaker would drop the redundant "est" anyway and just state "Delenda Carthago.". Actually, I think the latter is the Asterix version so Goscinny still beats Zuckerberg, Harvard be damned.

    1. Re:Pseudo-intellectuals. by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's good PR to say he studied Latin and the Classics. It's not such good PR to say he was too busy with FriendFace to actually learn anything from those classes.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:Pseudo-intellectuals. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    3. Re:Pseudo-intellectuals. by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.
    4. Re:Pseudo-intellectuals. by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Carthago delenda est."? Why even revert to Latin if you don't even know your quotes? Where is this from, Asterix? I mean, Cato the Elder's stock ending was famous enough that its start "Ceterum censeo" is almost better known than the rest: "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam."

      Before you go on a rant about how someone else misuses an ancient language, you might bother to make sure you know what you're talking about.

      As even the Wikipedia article explains, the phrase was actually never quoted in an ancient source directly in the TWO forms it is generally quoted in today. (If you want to see many of the various paraphrases of the form actually found in ancient sources, Wikipedia has some of them.) One form being your longer indirect speech version, and the other generally being "Carthago delenda est."

      This isn't an "Asterix" version -- it's a well-known version of the phrase that has been commonly cited by English-language scholars for the past couple centuries. Just to show you how long people have been quoting the phrase as "Carthago delenda est" -- The form was common enough to even be parodied in the well-known account of a Harvard professor opposed to academic music study in the 1870s who supposedly ended faculty meetings after the first appointment of a music professor with the phrase "musica delenda est" (i.e., music must be destroyed).

      It's true in other modern languages that the "ceterum censeo..." version is perhaps more common, but English-language scholars very frequently cite the phrase as "Carthago delenda est," which is as close to the actual ancient quotations as any.

      Without the "Ceterum censeo", a Classic Latin speaker would drop the redundant "est" anyway and just state "Delenda Carthago."

      Actually, wrong again. "Delenda" is a gerundive and by itself is only a passive participle. Saying "Delenda Carthago" could mean something more like "Carthage is to be destroyed." Adding a form of the Latin verb esse (i.e., to be) turns the construction from a naked gerundive into a passive periphrastic, which connotes an element of necessity. That is, it alters the meaning from "Carthage [is] to be destroyed" to "Carthage MUST be destroyed."

      The gerundive itself can carry that connotation a bit informally, but if Cato were speaking formally and wanted to emphasize his feeling that it MUST happen, he likely would have added a form of "esse" (as you can see is found in multiple actual quotations and references from Latin sources as seen in the Wikipedia article).

      Actually, I think the latter is the Asterix version so Goscinny still beats Zuckerberg, Harvard be damned.

      Yes, I believe Asterix actually uses the form you mention, which is abbreviated and less formal. And I really can't believe I'm actually defending Zuckerberg here... but his version was perfectly acceptable.

  4. Unemployment rate by Livius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unemployment is so high that workers feel powerless and afraid and employers can abuse their power.

    Duh....

  5. Re:Seems like... by ClickOnThis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  6. Re:Its simple, delete your account. by joerdie · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...and you have been telling everyone you meet about it ever since! Honestly, Facbook quiters are worse than vegans.

  7. My response? by NormalVisual · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:My response? by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Funny

      "911? I am being illegally detained at ADDRESS under threat of harm if I try to leave. Please help."

      Better yet -- "I'm being illegally detained under threat of harm if I try to leave. The person threatening me is babbling incoherently... though I am told by one of my colleagues that he may be speaking in an ancient tongue with almost religious fervor, quoting something about wanting to destroy his enemies and an entire city. I'm really scared. Please send help!"

  8. Do you actually have to JOIN the cult? by tlambert · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do you actually have to JOIN the cult?

    Or can you issue a SELECT COALESCE and use a subquery instead?

  9. Re:Its simple, delete your account. by epyT-R · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  10. Re:Read between the lines by Gussington · · Score: 5, Funny

    Facebook is safe because they are the 100lb gorilla

    A 100lb gorilla is a very small gorilla....

  11. Re:Read between the lines by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Funny

    We're living in the age of ever-shrinking computers. What required an S/360 system in the 1970s can often be done by a microcontroller these days. What if the metaphors are shrinking, too? I, for one, welcome our 1lb gorilla overlords of the 2050s. Look how cute they are!

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20