Bill: January 2008 Archives

I had an interesting conversation about the uses of Facebook with a professor here at the Haas School of Business of UC Berkeley today.  The conversation began by my asking him if he had ever seen or used Facebook.  To my surprise he did.  In fact, he was using Facebook to go paperless and provide him with a better way to connect with his current students.

Ordinarily this professor asks his students to create a "face card" (a 3"x5" card with your name, picture, etc) so that he can better learn the names and traits of his students.  But Facebook created an opportunity for him to digitize all of this.

After he created his account and invited all of his students to be his friends a group discussion broke out in a class group.  A few things were said that some students and the professor thought were funny, but others did not.  This led to a student reporting the incident to the administration.  The professor immediately took down his account and went back to "face cards".

So what is the point of all of this? Is Facebook intended for business or pleasure?  Or perhaps a better question would be: do Facebook users feel comfortable using their Facebook accounts for business, pleasure, or both?

In my opinion, the majority of people would feel uncomfortable using it for both; its either one or the other.  For people in my demographic, Facebook is about expressing yourself to your friends and cohort in a fun and cheery way.  Most don't want to share themselves this way to their boss, colleagues, or professors. 

Here's the reason: people have multiple personalities.  A quick test: When your best friend calls, what is the conversation like?  When a grandparent calls, what is the conversation like?  Odds are, they are different.  This is normal.

One fix to this is to manage multiple Facebook identities or accounts.  I doubt many will actually adopt this practice.

Another example when Facebook mixes business with pleasure is with recruiters browsing your Facebook profile and seeing you passed out in a pool of your own vomit (oops!) or standing next to a rather impressive "beeryamid".  You can say goodbye to that internship with Goldman Sachs.

And for my final point: will Facebook applications developed for business or professional use catch on? Or even serious things like taking your social network with you across the web and onto other pages (SeenThis?).  My belief: nay.

Facebook is for fun and pleasure.  This is where you go to relax, socialize, connect, and have a few laughs.

(Bill) I've been dying to write this post for a few days but kept telling myself that I shouldn't include my young philosophical rants in this blog.  Needless to say, I redefined the rules of what I will include.

Would you like it? or, do you want it?  These are very important questions and they are far from similar, at least in my mind.

Let me give you an example of the uses of these questions and then I will be more direct with my definition of each.

If I ask you: Would you like to be a millionaire? You would probably say yes.  Heck, most people would.

Now let me ask you this: Do you want to be a millionaire? [Yes, no, maybe]

What's the difference between these questions?  Most people might say: "nothing!".  To me, these two questions are like night and day.  Most everyone would like to be wealthier, better looking, more satisfied in a relationship, whatever.  But this is little more than a hope or an empty dream.  There is no intention or action to pursue these things, which distinguishes it from a burning desire, or want.

Do you want to be wealthier? Yes? Then do it.  Be wealthier.  Whether this is in terms of money or love or affection, you have the ability to change and pursue it.  You are the master of your own reality.  If you want to be President one day, then take action and start preparing your life to fulfill this want and accomplish this goal.

If you tell me you would like to be driving a nicer car that means little to nothing to me.  I don't care what you would like to have or do.  It's almost meaningless to say it.  But if you tell me that you want to be driving a nicer car, then you'd better figure out a way to do it.  Go into debt, steal the car, get another job, play the lotto, anything!  Just do something if you really want it.  Of course some paths are smarter than others.  If you don't put in any effort to fulfilling this want, these desires, then you do not truly want it.  Change your mind and say to yourself, "Silly me, I would only like to..."

To be clear: to want something means that you are truly committing yourself to fulfilling your desire.  If you would like to have or do something, means that you are expressing something that would be nice to have but it's not great enough to motivate you into action.

So the next time you say to yourself: "I would like to have/do..." or, "I want...".  Ask, "Do I really want this, or would I like it?".  Then make up your mind.

Disclaimer: Neither decision is necessarily good or bad.  I won't criticize you if you do not want to be a millionaire, that's completely fine.  If you want it, pursue it.  Make a serious commitment to fulfill your want, otherwise stop wasting time and energy thinking about it because it will never come true unless you commit yourself to it.

(Bill) We're actually not too sure about what RWshare means either...

Russ originally came up with it as a name for a project that we are currently working on, standing for "Read, write, share".  You can try and derive what it is we are working on from that, if you wish, but I will stay quiet about it for now.

But at the same time, Russ and I were trying to brainstorm names for this blog.  We didn't like RWshare for our project name but it 'kinda works for the blog, standing for Russ and William share.

So, the name is somewhat of a misbegotten child of our imaginations.