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He was not bullshitting. It's scary how much power Facebook is starting to have in recruiting and acquisitions because of their large and highly engaged user base. Hackers want an audience.

They have a very concentrated form of koolaid over there. I've been surprised by the effect it's had on some of the most skeptical people I know.

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It's not in the same order of magnitude (and maybe off-topic), but from the leaked documents of Twitter, Google was directing much of the Twitter APIs implementation, from their tone. And twitter was in the boom stage (2009, sorry can't find a source, techcrunch iirc).

I don't have any experience in acquisitions by large companies, but from the twitter story (above) I made an idea of the tension going on. It's like you're a soldier and their the commandant during a war, most of the time you just can't say no.

edit: I meant, if you say no, you have to be prepared for the consequences.

I wouldn't call someone who is working on the "poke a friend" or "throw a sheep" features a "hacker". While the audience is large, facebook isn't changing their lives for the better. The user base may think so, though, just like with the TV.

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