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Comment by ryanbrunner | Hacker News Reader

Ironically I think Facebook is one example that (at least in the early days) had values that actually had teeth.

"Move fast and break things" isn't just a feel-good truism like most values that companies come up with are. It's something that at least some people are going to disagree with, and it's something that can actually be instructive when making a decision at that company.

I don't personally agree with it, but I respect that at least in the past Facebook was willing to take a stance on how they developed products that wasn't some saccharine feel-good BS that values usually are.

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"Break things" like democracy, I guess.

Move fast and say oops, we'll try to do better.

It might actually be that things like election interference came up so quickly that their problem was not moving fast enough to stop it before it was a problem. If their motto was "observe the problem for a year and have at least thirty-three planning meetings before making a decision", would they have addressed the problem better? Probably not. The problem was that they didn't move fast enough and break enough things.

Move fast and hurt people

That was their motto, but didn't they also have a mission statement that was about connecting people?

That was just TED talk style marketing fluff.

So every company mission statement ever?

"Move fast and break things" sounds more like humanity's approach to global warming than a wise and sustainable business approach.

That's the point of the parent : at least the motto has a point and mean something that you can debate, a nice change from marketing meaningless bullshit like "Imagination at work" (GE) or "Energy lives here" (Exxon)

That's more of an operating mode than a purpose.

It unofficially changed a couple years ago to: "Move fast and break things. And fix your shit."

(source: my brother, who worked there for a few years following acquisition)

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