Zuckerberg had a Nixon moment tonight.(mobile.twitter.com)
mobile.twitter.com
Zuckerberg had a Nixon moment tonight.
http://mobile.twitter.com/jason/status/15294829686
16 comments
>> The Zuckerberg hate is lame.
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks.
But we must be critical and it is important for journalists to put him on the spot right now because on a personal level, he does not seem concerned enough with his mostly naive user base. He is very powerful, he controls a lot of information. With Google and Tesla we see a rising mantra to do genuine good in the world. Zuckerberg's public appearance at the conference in light of his leadership abilities shows a man that is hiding things and it shows a man that in my uninformed opinion will not hesitate to push the limits to see how far he can grow Facebook.
Based on the statements he has made and based on the progression of Facebook's features, I fear where facebook is headed given the amount of private data it has access to and _more_ importantly the amount of behavioral data it has access to. Just my opinion.
yes and,
Facebook is proving itself to be respectful of users. They're responding to the media and fixing issues intelligently. Also, on the divisive "Draw Mo" day Facebook showed maturity (by blocking content from being viewed by people would would get offended).
I suspect that much of this hate is part ignorance (about the nature of software development) and part jealousy. From my perspective it looks like Zuck is a great CEO. I'd work with a guy with that much passion any day.
Facebook is proving itself to be respectful of users. They're responding to the media and fixing issues intelligently. Also, on the divisive "Draw Mo" day Facebook showed maturity (by blocking content from being viewed by people would would get offended).
I suspect that much of this hate is part ignorance (about the nature of software development) and part jealousy. From my perspective it looks like Zuck is a great CEO. I'd work with a guy with that much passion any day.
I think the problem is, when Google screws up, you don't have one person you can pin it to. Who are you going to blame? Larry, Sergey, Eric Schmidt or whoever was charge in that particular project? With Facebook, Zuckerberg is the face of the company (similar to Steve Jobs for Apple), so its easy to point at him and show your anger when Facebook screws up.
From Wiki: "In the cases in which they had entered failed logins, Mark tried to use them to access the Crimson members' Harvard email accounts. He successfully accessed two of them."
If this was buffer overflows, I might have looked the other way, but this is despicable! Perhaps if he hadn't avoided justice then, Facebook wouldn't be screwing with its users' privacy now.
If this was buffer overflows, I might have looked the other way, but this is despicable! Perhaps if he hadn't avoided justice then, Facebook wouldn't be screwing with its users' privacy now.
He was in college. What was the most despicable thing you did in college? I've learned all my lessons the hard way -- I believe many hackers do too.
I had root access to school IT network, thanks to default redhat username/password (that to from remote access). I was planning to do some real damage, poking around, too bad I forgot about it. Few months later when I tried to log in again but they closed down remote root access.
It wasn't that I was a really bad person (at least I hope I wasn't) who had an evil intention to burn everything in my path, if I get chance, its simply because I was young and naive and there wasn't anyone there telling me how foolish it was to do what I was doing. I also had "Cain & Abel" setup on my computer lab and access to pretty much every single student (and faculty members) who was checking their email, myspace (facebook wasn't famous) and even their proprietary class management system with access to attendance/grading/unique school ids of each students and personal comments by instructor on student or class and what not.
Thankfully I have short attention span, and soon I got bored of it and moved to something else. If I was caught doing what I was doing, I would almost surely be in jail or at least expelled from school.
Now, sometimes I think of those naive things that I did when I was young and I shake my head.
Case in point. When you are young you do a lot of stupid stuff, its not fair to judge people by what they did when they were young (even if it only 5-6 years ago). People can change drastically on their way to adulthood. I don't know Mark Zuckerberg in person to judge what kind of person he is, I don't think it is fair to judge him based on what he might have done when he was younger.
It wasn't that I was a really bad person (at least I hope I wasn't) who had an evil intention to burn everything in my path, if I get chance, its simply because I was young and naive and there wasn't anyone there telling me how foolish it was to do what I was doing. I also had "Cain & Abel" setup on my computer lab and access to pretty much every single student (and faculty members) who was checking their email, myspace (facebook wasn't famous) and even their proprietary class management system with access to attendance/grading/unique school ids of each students and personal comments by instructor on student or class and what not.
Thankfully I have short attention span, and soon I got bored of it and moved to something else. If I was caught doing what I was doing, I would almost surely be in jail or at least expelled from school.
Now, sometimes I think of those naive things that I did when I was young and I shake my head.
Case in point. When you are young you do a lot of stupid stuff, its not fair to judge people by what they did when they were young (even if it only 5-6 years ago). People can change drastically on their way to adulthood. I don't know Mark Zuckerberg in person to judge what kind of person he is, I don't think it is fair to judge him based on what he might have done when he was younger.
I find it rather sad too that people revel in taking shots at him at every possible opportunity. He started this company at what 20-21? I am by no means a Facebook or Zuckerberg fanboy, but just for a second, put yourself in the guy's shoes. I doubt most kids in their 20s would be able to fit in those shoes. They would either be replaced by the board or melt under the pressure and cash out.
He's trying. He's doing it with passion. It's not easy. Yes, he has made bad decisions, some unethical choices. But in all honesty, I'm not sure either one of us wouldn't have screwed up in a position like that. Google essentially had three guys making the big decisions with Eric Schmidt to look over Larry and Sergey's shoulders. Facebook has essentially been Zuckerberg throughout.
Criticizing, laughing at, mocking - that is easy, people. Let's not be those guys.
He's trying. He's doing it with passion. It's not easy. Yes, he has made bad decisions, some unethical choices. But in all honesty, I'm not sure either one of us wouldn't have screwed up in a position like that. Google essentially had three guys making the big decisions with Eric Schmidt to look over Larry and Sergey's shoulders. Facebook has essentially been Zuckerberg throughout.
Criticizing, laughing at, mocking - that is easy, people. Let's not be those guys.
It comes with the territory. A person in his position should face scrutiny. For many people, Facebook is now integral to their social relationships, and was built upon an understanding of privacy that is now being rewritten on the fly. When you change gears as Facebook is trying to do, you can't expect a free pass. The schadenfreude that you mention is all part of the debate of what ultimately will be accepted.
Facing scrutiny +1
Being made fun of because you got nervous/self conscious on a stage -1
Not that I worry about Zuckerberg. He'll be fine. He'll probably get better at public speaking in the future and keep running a successful company.
Not that I worry about Zuckerberg. He'll be fine. He'll probably get better at public speaking in the future and keep running a successful company.
I agree that the personal attacks are unfair. But when you look at his role of CEO of a company that wields as much power as Facebook it is unsurprising that a lot of people are going to be interested in his foibles. The more power they have they more the discussion becomes political in nature and an unconventional 26 year old guy like Zuck is always going to have image problems in this domain. To me it seems inevitable that some 'adult supervision' will be required, even if only for the sake of image and to relate to the older power structures. Something similar seems to be working for Google.
I personally have no problems with him, but I have serious problems with his opt-out policy.
As such, I relished the fact that he was sweating up there. This is good. Why? There's nothing like body language to get the truth out of someone. And because I hope this brings even more attention to the privacy issue.
As such, I relished the fact that he was sweating up there. This is good. Why? There's nothing like body language to get the truth out of someone. And because I hope this brings even more attention to the privacy issue.
Except he has no revenue model and is essentially just a big digital ponzi scheme. Who is going to foot the bill for Facebook? Advertising? Please...the click through rate is 1000x more effective for Google adwords than Facebook. It's passive vs. active advertising. Anyone involved in marketing or advertising knows this and will stay away. Only the naive would consider using Facebook to advertise. Zynga/Credits seem to be their newest revenue model...but seriously how long can that sustain itself? Persistent profitability..I don't see it.
Here an excerpt that gets pretty awkward (and sweaty):
http://video.allthingsd.com/video/d8-video-under-mark-zucker...
http://video.allthingsd.com/video/d8-video-under-mark-zucker...
Loved the inside of the hoodie moment. Very interesting, and a bit creepy.
I can relate to that. I sweat even in the most comfortable temperature and environment for no reason at all. I love to eat spicy food, but I can't eat spicy stuff as often as I want because it will look like I just took a shower.
Here's another video http://video.allthingsd.com/video/d8-video-facebook-ceo-mark...
Why is everyone being so charitable? He is the CEO of a billion-dollar company who controls the intimate personal data of over 400 million people. This "he's still young" argument is ridiculous and lets him and his company get away with anything without any accountability. If he really is as poor and helpless as these types of comments seem to imply, then he shouldn't be running the company.
I'd love a link to an actual article, not a tweet.
Those couple characters, while written by the venerable Mr. Calacanis, are less than interesting.
Those couple characters, while written by the venerable Mr. Calacanis, are less than interesting.
He was wearing a hoodie on a stage with dozens of extremely bright lights precises directed at him while being asked questions that he was very nervous about having to answer.
What is the scandal? I wish I could downvote this story. His answer was nonsensical because he was nervous and hot as hell, not because he didn't really have an answer.
What is the scandal? I wish I could downvote this story. His answer was nonsensical because he was nervous and hot as hell, not because he didn't really have an answer.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebooks-zuckerberg-has-ri... has the actual story.
Apparently fairly epic interview and hard questions from mossberg. First time in a while I remembered that Zuck is 26, to his credit.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/06/02/...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/06/02/...
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I wonder how many people tweeting about his "meltdown" use Facebook every day? Probably all of them, which is just bitterly ironic. ("Facebook sucks! Let me go check Facebook.")
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"... Zuckerberg had a Nixon moment tonight. People at conference are talking about the most insane meltdown ever. ..."
The moment being referred to here is the Presidential debate, "26 September 1960... at the CBS broadcast facility in downtown Chicago" between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
Nixon made a tactical error in appearing on TV that night, by not following the advice of make-up artists and following the lead of Kennedy who looked good on television. The result? Nixon had a 9 o'clock shadow and shifty.
So really the mistake made by Zuckerberg as a leader is one of perception, not necessarily a mistake of substance.
"... “I recognized the basic mistake I had made,” Nixon would write in 6 Crises. “I had concentrated too much on substance and not enough on appearance. I should have remembered that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ ” ..."
You can read more of the debate here, "Presidential Debates: Fifty Years of High-Risk TV, The First Presidential Debate" ~ http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14104-8/presidential-...
The moment being referred to here is the Presidential debate, "26 September 1960... at the CBS broadcast facility in downtown Chicago" between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
Nixon made a tactical error in appearing on TV that night, by not following the advice of make-up artists and following the lead of Kennedy who looked good on television. The result? Nixon had a 9 o'clock shadow and shifty.
So really the mistake made by Zuckerberg as a leader is one of perception, not necessarily a mistake of substance.
"... “I recognized the basic mistake I had made,” Nixon would write in 6 Crises. “I had concentrated too much on substance and not enough on appearance. I should have remembered that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ ” ..."
You can read more of the debate here, "Presidential Debates: Fifty Years of High-Risk TV, The First Presidential Debate" ~ http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14104-8/presidential-...
What's their problem with the hoodie?
They see him sweating and are trying to help him out. The odds are he was baking under those lights. Though he also looks quite nervous.
The most insane meltdown ever? Well, I wasn't there, and the video I saw was short. The guy was too warm and took a moment to reclip his mic. That's what I saw. He had good reason to be uncomfortable, and he was. Consider it penance.
A little bit of detail at the NYT blog:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/zuckerberg-on-the-h...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/zuckerberg-on-the-h...
Uhh... I don't see what the big deal is. The dude was a little sweaty while being grilled, but even managed to give a pretty solid answer. Jason is just jealous.
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Leave the guy alone already.
Bill G also had a meltdown. Tears and all. Anyone remember?
Bill G also had a meltdown. Tears and all. Anyone remember?
Here's my take: his plan was to take some mushrooms right before he went on stage, so he'd be ready to party as soon as the interview was over. But just as he was ready to go on they delayed the show for 15 minutes, and the shrooms kicked in right in the middle of the interview. He spent the rest of the interview sweating while trying unsuccessfully to catch some sort of train of thought.
The guy is 26, and has grown up while building what's almost certainly the most significant tech company to be started since Google. Despite the challenges inherent in building a company whose currency is personal information, almost all of the major decisions that we have enough data to judge have been proved smart and non-evil in hindsight. He has hired one of the best engineering teams in the Valley. Trite as the observation may be, Facebook has tangibly improved the lives of me, my family, and almost all of my friends.
By any fair metric, he has at least earned the benefit of the doubt. And while plenty of criticism of the company's actions is justified, the bitter schadenfreude that surrounds his mis-steps is unseemly and lazy.
To the extent that Facebook has made mistakes, the speed with which social norms are changing means that no matter how good a job they do, screw-ups are almost guaranteed. This applies to everyone: Google messed up privacy in Buzz, and, despite dealing with far less private information, Twitter, too, have had various issues (e.g., leaked private tweets).
I'm embarrassed to be a part of the Valley tech industry when I come across this kind of mean-spirited pot-shot.
[Disclosure: none. I don't know him, and don't work at Facebook.]