June 16th, 2023 Facebook's Folly By Jeffrey M. Barber

Facebook was an interesting place to work. Granted, my perspective may be corrupted, but I do believe it was a good and moral place to work. However, the goodness was rooted in naïve faith in technology. That changed in 2016. The noble mission of “connecting the world” had a blind-spot.

Connecting everyone means connecting the good, the clueless, and the evil all together in one big town center. It’s a recipe for disaster, but it is the manifestation of the ultimate internet. The internet connects devices, and social media connects people. Instead of IP addresses and TCP connections, photos and names are used as the basis of connection; it’s obvious in hindsight.

Even ads can be beneficial as you can connect people to businesses where the relationship is mutually rewarding. As an example, I helped a local organic food place connect to locals that eat organic food. Is that wrong? Is it wrong to connect the local store with local people? No, it’s beautiful!

However, it’s easy to see the abuse by our vices run amok. The problem was never Facebook, but the brutal nature of the human condition. The criticism of Facebook is a well deserved reflection of the trauma of being human, and the reason I’m thinking about Facebook even though I left 1.5 years ago is because I think about the law of unintended consequences.

Specifically, as I look towards pivoting into an actual business model. I have to contend with the consequences of what I have invented, and I have to contend with the realities of the battlefield of business. This is why, for the most part, all my marketing has been to just post this blog to hacker news (this is not an effective strategy).

As I’m going to branch out, I’m going to have be OK with how my technology enables bad faith actors. I’m going to have to draw the line between right and wrong. It’s going to be expensive to draw such a line, and I have to be willing to pay for it as a cost of doing business.

The only other option is to give up on technology and return to the farm. But, is that an option? Not really.

Instead, I have to get used to the idea that the thing I invented will cause harm. I must have the faith that the good will vastly outstrip the harm.