Mark Zuckerberg messages Facebook engineer
33 comments
·February 8, 2025ohjeez
LeoPanthera
This should be the URL in the post, Twitter requires a login, Bluesky doesn't.
s1mplicissimus
I dislike twitter just as much as the next guy, but i was able to read the conversation without logging in. EU exit point here. Maybe that plays a role?
having to click through each single image is quiet the turn-off though. not missing the platform
ohjeez
I want to reward people for posting on Bluesky instead. If they get more engagement on Bluesky, it'll motivate them to move.
raviisoccupied
Thank you for linking this
buildbot
Seems like Zuckerberg had already made up his mind and needed an engineer to positively confirm his desired path through a very power imbalanced chat...
No shade towards the engineer at all, but besides the very first "My instinct is” comment the engineer literally could have just been ChatGPT and Zuck would have gotten a similar convo.
pinkmuffinere
I don't feel that the engineer answered poorly at all. They're answering a really broad strategic question, with no / very little hard data to go off of -- of course their answer is vague, there's very little certainty about anything in the question (not even price of acquisition!). I think they accurately call out the benefits and risks of the different paths. IMO this is as much as can be expected. Before "pulling trigger" on any of these decisions, there will have to be a lot more analysis, negotiation, etc, that they're just not going to get to in a dm. If the engineer was the kind of person to give a single definitive answer in this situation, I don't think they would be trusted with this kind of conversation.
buildbot
I completely agree, they answered as you or I would have, or even better; if we were in the same situation!
It’s more interesting that Zuckerberg would ask this, at least to me.
pinkmuffinere
Ah I see — ya I do see the strangeness of a CEO such a big question with so little context
NoboruWataya
In fairness if the founder and CEO pings me and asks me who the company should buy, you can bet I'm giving a similarly hand wavy bullshit answer.
ajkjk
that's so weird, I would be honest; it wouldn't even occur to me not to be. maybe that's why I never get involved in any internal politics.
buildbot
Oh yeah 100%, me too!
null
ysofunny
if this cartoon [1] is a reliable source, then maybe it's not (or possibly didn't used to be) such a strange thing at facebook
ce4
I dont think one could reason that. Maybe some insight: The author is an engineer and had worked at Google and published the Goomics strip internally. It is also available at https://goomics.net/62
PS: Later he worked at Twitter and commented that also: https://twittoons.com/
croisillon
i think it was more a reference to their (old) welcome page https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-facebook-social-network-in...
grugagag
Yeah, I've seen this one before but it never ceases to amuse me.
s1mplicissimus
I had the same thought, this sounds like ChatGPT! Then again, doesn't most corporate communication? Or maybe it's the other way round and ChatGPT sounds like corporate fluff because it was trained like that?
brookst
From the perspective of the “engineer”’s responses, I’m guessing by this is a VERY senior engineer, maybe a technical fellow or whatever Facebook calls them.
lumost
Also possible that he pinged a random junior engineer for a fresh perspective. Social media trends tend to start with a younger audience. However the engineers’s comment on team assets implies seniority.
buildbot
Yeah, like just below the CTO or whoever probably. Even then they just quickly switch to just kinda bouncing the whatever Zuck comes up with back at them.
oldgradstudent
From Zuckerberg's messages, it appears that an important motivation for buying Instagram was to limit the competition facing Facebook.
Thanks Obama for enforcing the Sherman Antitrust Act:
> SECTION 1. Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be illegal. Every person who shall make any contract or engage in any combination or conspiracy hereby declared to be illegal shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on con-viction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding $100,000,000 if a corporation, or, if any other person, $1,000,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.
ripped_britches
Title needs a date on it
sk11001
Pretty cool. Stuff like this doesn't happen enough at non-tech companies.
fujinghg
It does. They just usually don't have cash on hand to get out of the fuck ups from doing zero rational financial analysis and disappear in a puff of smoke 6 months down the line.
yapyap
nothing really happened here either tbf, mark was kinda talkin to himself // bouncing ideas off a wall
spydum
Yeah I would strongly disagree it does happen just sometimes those senior engineers are not as enlightened as the executives think.
Also posted at https://bsky.app/profile/techemails.bsky.social/post/3lhox2p...