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Inside Facebook: Life, Work and Visions of Greatness
(This is the PDF edition. The Paperback edition is also available, as a different listing. Search for "facebook" and it is one of the first results.)
As an early engineer, I was on the inside during Facebooks explosive growth. In Inside Facebook, Ill give you the scoop on the company as it became the premiere online environment for U.S. college students, including how and by whom the products were made, how you can use them best, views on what makes social networks so valuable, and where the industry is headed. You, too, can achieve startup success and attain your greatest dream; I hope to inspire you toward fulfilling your potential.
As an early engineer, I was on the inside during Facebooks explosive growth. In Inside Facebook, Ill give you the scoop on the company as it became the premiere online environment for U.S. college students, including how and by whom the products were made, how you can use them best, views on what makes social networks so valuable, and where the industry is headed. You, too, can achieve startup success and attain your greatest dream; I hope to inspire you toward fulfilling your potential.
126 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
30 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 10, 2021
This book is so weird, honestly. Written by one of the first 10 employees at Facebook I was expecting a lot. The period that he worked there was such a pivotal time, he was the oldest employee by a decade (despite only being 33) which is a sign that they were trying to pivot from college project to serious company. But at the same time, the office was above a Chinese restaurant still. There was graffiti all over the walls and they would do meetings on the roof.
If he had written a traditional memoir of that period in his life, it would have been a 4/5 star book. I wasn't expecting the writing to be great, after all this guy's trade is writing code not books. And besides, it is only 130 pages, what could possibly go wrong?
Well... a lot. The writing was actually pretty good but it completely lost direction. The first half of the book was part memoir, part inspiration "you can do it maaan" self help book & part amateur-philosophy. It was a mess but if one read between the lines there was a lot of takeaways, my favourite quote was:
It also put that time into context quite well and explained all of the other social networks that were springing up then and expanded on some of the situations disgust in The Social Network film. He also named all of the early employees. I was kind of interested in where they all ended up and what they are doing now. But this book makes that difficult. because he names them by their first name only then puts a link to their Facebook page in the footnotes (difficult because I can't be bothered typing in long URLs).
This brings me onto this book's most eccentric feature. It has more footnotes than it does pages! And most of them are links to Wikipedia articles, people's Facebook pages & affiliate links to products on Amazon. He also makes in jokes that nobody outside of Facebook's initial team would understand. And does everyone who writes a book about Facebook have to be creepy about women?
He has this complex that he is just SOOOO old. But that doesn't stop him talking about young co-worker's girlfriend's "bod"'s.
The second half of this book descends into complete madness. I don't know if he was having a midlife crisis or what but he spends about 50 pages ranting about global warming, Facebook having great privacy but in the next paragraph he is talking about giving users information to the govt. under the patriot act, all of his failed attempts at making money, how he could have been bigger than eBay if only...
Well I bought this book from eBay, I don't know how he would feel about that. I feel great because it was only £2.69 second hand. And that is about all it is worth. At 130 pages, it is a quick read and gives some context to the early days of Facebook but is deeply flawed.
If he had written a traditional memoir of that period in his life, it would have been a 4/5 star book. I wasn't expecting the writing to be great, after all this guy's trade is writing code not books. And besides, it is only 130 pages, what could possibly go wrong?
Well... a lot. The writing was actually pretty good but it completely lost direction. The first half of the book was part memoir, part inspiration "you can do it maaan" self help book & part amateur-philosophy. It was a mess but if one read between the lines there was a lot of takeaways, my favourite quote was:
Sean [Parker] is like that, extremely valuable as a visionary, idea drier & cheerleader - he gave Facebook much credibility when the company might not have been able to continue - but he's even more scattered on practical matters than I am. And that is saying something.
It also put that time into context quite well and explained all of the other social networks that were springing up then and expanded on some of the situations disgust in The Social Network film. He also named all of the early employees. I was kind of interested in where they all ended up and what they are doing now. But this book makes that difficult. because he names them by their first name only then puts a link to their Facebook page in the footnotes (difficult because I can't be bothered typing in long URLs).
This brings me onto this book's most eccentric feature. It has more footnotes than it does pages! And most of them are links to Wikipedia articles, people's Facebook pages & affiliate links to products on Amazon. He also makes in jokes that nobody outside of Facebook's initial team would understand. And does everyone who writes a book about Facebook have to be creepy about women?
He has this complex that he is just SOOOO old. But that doesn't stop him talking about young co-worker's girlfriend's "bod"'s.
The second half of this book descends into complete madness. I don't know if he was having a midlife crisis or what but he spends about 50 pages ranting about global warming, Facebook having great privacy but in the next paragraph he is talking about giving users information to the govt. under the patriot act, all of his failed attempts at making money, how he could have been bigger than eBay if only...
Well I bought this book from eBay, I don't know how he would feel about that. I feel great because it was only £2.69 second hand. And that is about all it is worth. At 130 pages, it is a quick read and gives some context to the early days of Facebook but is deeply flawed.
January 23, 2013
Written by Facebook's early 9th engineer Karel Baloun. At that time, no rigorous product development process, no bootcamp... They communicated by shouting, 1 engineer + 1 designer developed the Facebook Photos...
March 30, 2013
An optional-read company profile for knowledge workers, managers, directors, C-levels, and entrepreneurs.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews