Which of these geeks is not like the other?
We awake to yet another foot in the Facebook mouth. There hasn't been time for the full throated denials from Facebook; only the pro forma ones. It will get better.
For those who have been spending time in another dimension, Mark Zuckerberg is Facebook's co-inventor and CEO, and Facebook is one of the galaxy's most successful social networking sites. Zuckerberg is 26, another of those brilliant college dropouts who are the despair of parents trying to get their children a college education. He knows everything--he'll tell you so himself--and especially he knows everything about what his customers want. If those customers suggest that they want something else, such as stronger privacy controls, then Zuckerberg will explain to them how wrong they are, with that air of barely-contained impatience characteristic of young geeks.
The trouble is that this hubristic mindset has more to do with geekdom and early success than it does with age. A. Neil Pappalardo is the founder and CEO of arguably one of the most successful medical software companies in the world, and was also co-developer of the MUMPS computer language. Pappalardo is about 68, one of those brilliant MIT graduates who sets a good example for anxious parents. So much for the differences. Like Zuckerberg, Pappalardo also knows everything. Having run his company for over 40 years, he no longer has to tell anyone that he knows everything: he has an army of employees ready to spread the word. However, like Zuckerberg, he has customers who occasionally say that they want something different from his company's products, and Pappalardo's legions have to tell them that they're wrong and Neil is right.
Those acquainted with both find it easy to think they're listening to the young Neil Pappalardo when they hear Mark Zuckerberg, and that they're seeing Zuckerberg in 40 years when they see Neil. The idea of an increasingly patriarchal Facebook, managed solely according to the whims of its CEO, is enough to freeze the blood.
When you're 26, your company is barely six years old, and most of your customers are individuals, you can get away with telling them what they want...for a while. Pappalardo's example suggests that in some cases you can get away with it for a long time. While the world inside IT changes very slowly, in terms of attitude and culture, the world of the users changes much more rapidly. I recently heard a persuasive presentation that the "next big thing" in IT is going to be products that are intelligible to users and that respond to customer needs.
Whether you're 26 or 68, that's an idea worth considering.
For those who have been spending time in another dimension, Mark Zuckerberg is Facebook's co-inventor and CEO, and Facebook is one of the galaxy's most successful social networking sites. Zuckerberg is 26, another of those brilliant college dropouts who are the despair of parents trying to get their children a college education. He knows everything--he'll tell you so himself--and especially he knows everything about what his customers want. If those customers suggest that they want something else, such as stronger privacy controls, then Zuckerberg will explain to them how wrong they are, with that air of barely-contained impatience characteristic of young geeks.
The trouble is that this hubristic mindset has more to do with geekdom and early success than it does with age. A. Neil Pappalardo is the founder and CEO of arguably one of the most successful medical software companies in the world, and was also co-developer of the MUMPS computer language. Pappalardo is about 68, one of those brilliant MIT graduates who sets a good example for anxious parents. So much for the differences. Like Zuckerberg, Pappalardo also knows everything. Having run his company for over 40 years, he no longer has to tell anyone that he knows everything: he has an army of employees ready to spread the word. However, like Zuckerberg, he has customers who occasionally say that they want something different from his company's products, and Pappalardo's legions have to tell them that they're wrong and Neil is right.
Those acquainted with both find it easy to think they're listening to the young Neil Pappalardo when they hear Mark Zuckerberg, and that they're seeing Zuckerberg in 40 years when they see Neil. The idea of an increasingly patriarchal Facebook, managed solely according to the whims of its CEO, is enough to freeze the blood.
When you're 26, your company is barely six years old, and most of your customers are individuals, you can get away with telling them what they want...for a while. Pappalardo's example suggests that in some cases you can get away with it for a long time. While the world inside IT changes very slowly, in terms of attitude and culture, the world of the users changes much more rapidly. I recently heard a persuasive presentation that the "next big thing" in IT is going to be products that are intelligible to users and that respond to customer needs.
Whether you're 26 or 68, that's an idea worth considering.
Labels: Facebook, IT culture
posted by Uncle | 21:07
1 Comments:
Apparently having to backtrack and reconfigure FB for privacy taught the lad little. I don't relish testing other social sites, but he's leaving FB open to smarter competitors.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home