Overall great post there @Cervaise. Ref this snip:
We can understand (though still not approve of) Zuck’s vehemence when we recast the sentence slightly. Like this:
Zuck forbid any of them ever get traction on actually breaking up the company to separate the
advertising-and-behavioral-modelingmoney-making part of the business from thesocial-networkingmoney-losing side. Leaving Zuck with only the latter.
Well, of course. As the saying goes, if you’re using a service for free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product.
Why would he be left “with only the latter”? It seems to me that if Facebook is broken up, he owns majority control of two companies, sort of like what happened to Standard Oil or AT&T.
I think Facebook is an even better example. If you’re an employee, they indoctrinate you in the Way of the Zuck. True believers at the company are all-in on the mission of Collecting All the Data in order to model and predict people and society at both micro and macro scales. Zuckerberg is a godlike figure who has all the answers and must be followed in all things. Internal criticism is shouted down, and the critics are marginalized and pushed out. Facebook employees are notorious for preferentially dating other Facebook people. And the skeptics and regulatory types outside the company who want to crack open their databases and operational practices are The Enemy who are vilified and must be opposed at all times; Zuck forbid any of them ever get traction on actually breaking up the company to separate the advertising-and-behavioral-modeling part of the business from the social-networking side.
I’m curious if you ever worked at Facebook yourself. I have not. I don’t think I could drink that much Kool-Aid. See my next post on the Cult of Solar…
I thought of another cult-like corporate movement which is sometimes called the Church of Solar. I worked at a solar startup from 2012-2016, which was acquired by SolarCity in 2013. I was amazed at the positive esprit de corps at both my original company and at SC. It went across companies. Even people at rival companies kind of knew that they were all fighting the “good fight” (i.e., climate change) and this created a common bond that I haven’t seen in other industries.
At times, the level of cheerleading was so intense that it actually got in the way of my work. I don’t need weekly meetings where everyone shouts “GO TEAM!!”. I kinda put up with it cause, well, my teammates were so awesome. They really supported me for what I could do, and didn’t criticize me for things I couldn’t do.
SC did have a cult of its own, which I disliked. Their mission was to achieve grid parity, i.e. selling power at rates that were the same or lower than public utility companies. Very ambitious. I won’t say they needed a cult-like atmosphere to accomplish this but they certainly had one. Never seen so much Kool-Aid all in one place. I don’t need all that hype to like solar or to work hard. What I truly disliked was a mismatch between their stated values and their actual priorities. They talked about quality but what they really wanted was speed and scaling up before all their financing came due. I can understand why they had this operational focus, but the empty talk bugged me to no end.
One SC employee actually had the SC logo tattooed across the back and side of his neck around 4 inches big.
May not be true now with many changes but IBM was pretty cult like. A guy I know had a friend who worked at IBM visit him for a weekend. The guy spent the whole weekend complaining about his job. My friend said why not get another job? The guy said “Leave IBM?” I’ve heard similar stories about IBM from other people. When I was in junior/senior high we had quite a few kids leave town because IBM sent their father to another project. That was when IBM did not have layoffs. That no layoff idea is long gone now.
Do you know what the initials IBM stood for? “I’ve Been Moved”.
You have to remember that in those days, IBM was bigger than anyone else in the computer business and highly respected in American business in general. It wasn’t a matter of it being a cult, but rather than there was really no other company in its class.
When your company has a songbook, with the prime rally song praising the Dear Leader, and every one is expected to sing along in the mornings… you might be a little culty:
Back in the mid 1950s before I was born Mom worked for Bank of America. Which then was the largest bank in California, but had no presence in any other state, Glass-Steagall being what it was. Their name might give you a clue about their hubris.
Anyhow, she worked backstage in a branch, doing all that mumbo jumbo bookkeeping and check processing that was done locally before the Federal clearinghouse was invented.
In every branch, the customer lobby, the teller area, and the open plan back office had a large (3’x4’?) portrait of A.P. Giannini, the Grand PoohBah Himself. And every shift began with something approximating the Pledge of Allegiance or the Boy Scout Promise. Given to him and his exalted Company while facing the portrait. Participation was not optional.
That crap was real mainstream back then.
Insane Clown Posse and their Juggalos
ICP has made tons of money and created an incredibly loyal fan base despite being very non-mainstream, a lot like the Grateful Dead.