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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

> Mr. Zuckerberg has made a big bet on the metaverse, an immersive online world.

This is one of those "Were there any adults in the room when the decision was discussed?" instances that I see all over the place, these days.

Like 3D televisions, immersive 3D avatar worlds have been tried -more than once.

They work great for games, but not for real-life stuff. There are a few "corner cases," where it's being supported (I think there.com is still a thing), but otherwise, it only exists in the minds of SF writers.

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Everyone was getting so rich on their stock grants. Once in a lifetime opportunity perhaps. Why risk that when the only bad outcome for you is to be cut off at that moment? Regardless of if the Metaverse destroys the company, you’ll have gotten rich in that time. The more enthusiastic you are the better.

Misaligned incentives.

Most tech people have a vision of what VR “should be”, but perhaps not as many fully appreciate that it’s a very, very difficult problem that people have been chipping away at for decades with relatively modest gains. Oculus is exponentially better than the Nintendo Virtual Boy, but like Virtual Boy the current capabilities fall very short of the vision and ultimately disappoint after one is confronted with the limitations, nearer at hand than the marketing hype would have one believe. Given this, the Meta pivot seemed like the move of someone caught up in their own marketing/bullshit but unable to get their own bearings on the matter (which would have checked the hype cycle). To some extent Zuck’s empire can shape the world at least temporarily, but nothing gets us past the fact that the tech just isn’t able to meet expectations yet. So there’s this vacuum or hole in Meta’s strat that leaves them rapidly needing to move the tech forward at a miraculous pace (which I wouldn’t bet on happening) or “re-pivoting” (de-pivoting?).

I think it would be great for pay-per-view events.

Imagine being on the 50 yard line of the superbowl for $10.

Imagine being in the stands of your kids volleyball game from your hotel room on a work trip.

Live events, large or small, are the killer app, I think.

It may also be useful for meetings, like in Kingsman.

This felt like the outcome of being surrounded by sycophants. What's funny is the reasoning about owning the platform and not being dependent on Apple and Google makes perfect sense. The outcome was just silly.

Where were the adults in the room when Zuckerberg was given supervoting stock? He has the majority of voting shares in the company and can basically do whatever he wants.

Were any adults in the room when most all of these FAANG+ companies were gluttonously over-hiring during the pandemic?

Why do you think Sheryl left?

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