Zuckerberg is obsessed with cornering the market for the Next Big Thing. First it was radio, then TV, computers, cellphones, what could the next big thing be? It's got to be VR... because Mark can't think of anything else it could be.
So even though people aren't willing to strap bricks to their faces now, once they understand there's no other Next Big Thing coming, they'll shrug and pick up a VR headset.
Then after a month of ChatGPT hype he wakes up and fires everybody. What a clown.
> Then after a month of ChatGPT hype he wakes up and fires everybody. What a clown.
Changing course when you realize you were wrong has nothing to do with being a clown. Not defending Zuckerberg or the lay off, but for large companies it's always been one of the hardest tasks to predict trends. And many that go under do so because they hold on to old technologies and refuse to admit the world has changed.
If Zuckerberg really changed the whole strategy because he saw VR won't go anywhere and ChatGPT has such potential, changing course drastically would be much better than holding on to old projects due to sunk costs.
“Do you care to know why I sit in this chair? Why I earn the big bucks?
I’m here for one reason and one reason alone. I’m here to guess what the music is going to do a week, a month, a year from now. Nothing more. That’s it.”
I don’t think he’s brilliant or anything (getting into social media at that time was pretty lucky), but if I had a billion dollars and a successful company, I’d be looking for the next big thing too. Keep the good times rolling, and also, exploring is fun.
I don't think Zuck particularly cares about the next big thing. As the debacle with Apple shows, there are existential risks here and now, not in some sort of FOMO
Despite appearances, if the metaverse gambit in the current episode made any sense it was mostly as a defensive move: To obtain control over a device so that you can datamine at will and perpetuate your business model irrespective of what other major actors might come up with.
Think about it. If stars (you have little control over) align, device owners can flip a privacy switch here, introduce a policy there and annihilate your business.
I mean even I disagree with a lot of what Meta is doing, but you have to admit that there is viability there especially if the tech in those "bricks" can be shrunk to the size of regular glass
So even though people aren't willing to strap bricks to their faces now, once they understand there's no other Next Big Thing coming, they'll shrug and pick up a VR headset.
Then after a month of ChatGPT hype he wakes up and fires everybody. What a clown.