I mean stuff like Meta, crypto and all that obvious scam shit that rich people seem to be diving dick first into lately.
Zuck supposedly spent BILLIONS on Meta, and when you look at the result, yeah, it's clear that the money wasn't being spent on the actual product. So where did that money really go?
Or are billionaires just really that bad with money and ideas?
Something is sus about just how stupid with their money they've become. I mean, they were always stupid, but when you have that much money and power you have to be a special kind of inept to do what Zuck and Musk have been doing to their companies.
I think it's chasing the dragon.
Financial miracles happened in the late 90s and early 2000s and the people that peaked then are still chasing that dragon, expecting to do it again and again.
Yep, I think this is the right answer. They're all just elaborate gambling schemes. These companies lucked into billions of dollars by just happening to be among the first movers in a few things that looked weird and niche, but ultimately took off. They're obsessed with chasing that experience again, and are willing to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at the dumbest fucking shit you've ever heard of, just on the off chance that it's the next social media. Their business strategy is to use their incredible capital power to try to be the first mover in every single space in the hope that one of them is the thing that will make them all trillionaires. In addition, they've all convinced themselves that it wasn't luck but rather their Very Special Market Genius that put them on top, so they think anything that seems like a good idea to them is just bound to be a hit with the masses.
literally just wizard of oz shit. trying to keep the carnival going while they empty the lockbox. this is what an economy looks like when no one thinks it's going to exist in 20 years.
There was a promise, a dream inherent to the early internet. "The Information Super-Highway" was supposed to be full of all this liberatory potential. Easy access to art, ideas, and computer code was supposed to radically alter the fabric of society -- to usher in the new millennium. This all seems quaint now, 'cus we're living with the actual results. Instead of rejuvenating social relations, the internet took the decay brought on by market forces and accelerated it. You don't see people talk about the internet as liberatory anymore because it's obvious to all of us that it isn't. Except...
...except for the people it did liberate. Or, more accurately, except for the lucky winners. The people who built their success off of it. They still see
The Netas something capable of altering human relations. They still think they're the founders of a new world, not just the newest batch of petty tyrants of the same old one. Why should they think differently? For them, there has been no reason to reevaluate the myth. Because, so far, all their personal experiences, all their material interests, are still in accord with it.So, I don't think the money went anywhere sneaky. It simply got spent on dumb projects. I think they're just suffering from their own success. Coddled by it. Insulated in it.
Personally I think it's a symptom of a waning American capitalist system. There's just not a lot of things to invest in where you'd get returns on your money. If you had a million dollars to invest in something where would you put it? Manufacturing lol?
I think it's the same reason that real estate has been a more and more common investment in recent decades.
Zuckerberg went all in on VR because it's the natural platform upgrade to the manipulative echo chamber that Facebook currently is. The amount of data and manipulation that a proper social VR platform could enable is like evil supervillain type shit. And frankly, Meta pulling it off is not out of the question yet, but there's a number of hurdles in their way; The primary one being just how uncharismatic Zuckerberg is and his inability to make anything Meta release seem cool. But, VR is far from being at the peak of its adoption cycle and I wouldn't count Meta out just yet. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they buy VRChat or something.
But, VR is far from being at the peak of its adoption cycle
I don't think there is a VR "adoption peak" to be honest (well not one worth mentioning)
VR is shit. It's fun for like 15 minutes in games (and only then for people used to video games) but that's about it. I doubt much people want to have meetings "in VR", or go to concerts "in VR". The only use case for VR right now given the state of the technology is probably linked to industrial visualization and the like
It's also something that seems to come back every twenty years or so; every time the people dreaming it up seem to think this time the tech has caught up to the dream; it still hasn't IMO
I disagree. I think VR is pretty rad, but because of the fucked up housing market, it's increasingly difficult to live in a space with enough room to accommodate a good VR setup.
Monitors and phones don't give people tummy aches. Yes, it's cool for giving you a real sense of space, but that starts to drop off once you hit the point where your first instinct is to see how the devs handle your head clipping through a wall.
I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they buy VRChat or something.
This is what they should have done. That and put out a minimum spec occulus that's dirt cheap. The data harvesting and monetization can come later, if you don't have an installed user base nothing will happen.
they'd either have to nix user-uploaded avatars or face the legal battles it would bring -- either way, it undermines the point of buying it in the first place
Nah, allow users to freely upload their own avatars, just open a marketplace and let user's sell their custom avatars and/or custom assets for avatars, for a cut.
Fair, just that my larger point was to grab an installed user base and then e-shittyfy it, rather than build something shitty first. You can work out rights issues with Disney once you have the Kermit avatar user's, rather than having no user's at all
Yeah, and I think not having that is due to covid and the subsequent supply chain issues really throwing a wrench into their plans. Honestly, a lot of the issues I've been seeing I think can also be chalked up to neoliberal capitalism just shooting itself in the foot. Who knows what's happening behind the scenes with the US being so aggressive towards China. The Intelligence community is so deeply entrenched in social media orgs that I can only imagine the frustration of being a global corporation leashed by the world's rabid dog. Small favors that the US is kneecapping its allies, I guess.
Right, but also building an app with the plan to attract advertisers first before attracting users to advertise to was just a recipe for disaster from the get go. It's like the financialization of software programming- to the point where meta seems to have forgotten it's own history.
to the point where meta seems to have forgotten it's own history.
Oh, I think they have. I'd guess that most of the devs that turned facebook into the platform powerhouse of the 2010s are long gone. Replaced by kids with boot camp cert programs created to flood the IT labor market. 🦶🔫
They are really that dumb. Yes, there are subsidiary grifts. but power lead to hubris, no matter how talented such a person might have been inside their specialised field.
There is nothing left to do with their money. They already own everything, they can't squeeze much more out of the poors, there are no unexplored frontiers to plunder.
This is actually part of Marxism. It's the part of production referred to as "Luxury Commodities" as opposed to "Staple Commodities". There are also two types of capitalists as well luxury commodity capitalists and staple commodity capitalists. The larger share of the overall value produced by society that goes towards luxury commodities the lower the standards of living for the people are. Simultaneously the more overall value produced by society that goes into staple goods increases the quality of life for the masses. This is why communists should fight for things like minimum wage increases because it will increase the demand / production of staple commodities and therefore increasing the quality of life for people who do not buy yachts. Paul cockshott has a pretty good lecture on this in his channel, probably titled something to do with inflation.
Paul cockshott is a moron terf island homophobe when it comes to anything beyond economics, but his economics lectures are solid
