Where have all the hackers gone?

Re:Where have all the hackers gone? by safety1st on Thursday May 18, 2023 @01:36PM (#35991427)

If Mark was a hacker of some kind, he was a growth hacker. That's what Facebook was (in)famous for in its early days - implementing various little psychological tricks that drove adoption. A lot of that came from Mark (initially, pretty much all of it).

I'm not aware of any evidence that he was an exceptional engineer. So what? Why would he even care about being that? As long as you can hire engineers that are better than you, you don't need to be a great one to grow a social network. We're not talking about AI here.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Where have all the hackers gone? by june_twenty on Thursday May 18, 2023 @05:08PM (#35994083)

iirc, Zuckerberg did not think up the concept for the like button - which was one of the huge drivers for engagement on the site.

Having said that, I think Zuckerberg was a hacker. He made a few small web apps and one took off. His success shouldn't mean he is not a hacker.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Where have all the hackers gone? by coldtea on Friday May 19, 2023 @06:42AM (#35999999)

I don't think the definition of a hacker is "made a few small web apps" or "one of his apps took off".

That would make him an entrepreneur and a web programmer.

Not a hacker, which (in this context) is about a great relationship with programming than "making a few web apps".

[ Parent | on HN ]