Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg Reveals Crazy Paranoid Streak
On March 31st, Zuckerberg sent out an internal memo announcing that Facebook's CFO Gideon Yu would be leaving the company. In his paranoia, Zuckerberg sent out slightly different versions of the memo to different people. Why? If an employee leaked the memo to the press, the Zuck would be able to identify the snitching employee by analyzing the language of the leak.
AllThingsD blogger Kara Swisher has noted that she received forwards of several versions of the memo. From one version to another, sentiments were phrased differently ("will report" vs. "will be reporting."), punctuation was changed, and contractions were swapped out for full phrases. This isn't the first time we've seen the trick, either. Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, pulled the same move last month, as ValleyWag was quick to point out.
We'd say the famously anti-social Zuckerberg -- an obviously immature babe-in-the-corporate-woods at 24 -- may have finally lost it (unlike two famous also-young-tech-CEOs featured in the gallery below). Ultimately, however, here's all we care about: If Zuckerberg ends up leaving his company, will we get our old Facebook back? [From: ValleyWag and AllThingsD]
Jobs and Gates, When They Were Young
Can you recognize Bill Gates in this Microsoft company photo from 1978?
Gates and Wozniak show off the Apple I in 1976.
Bill Gates Strikes a Pose for 'Teen Beat' Photospread in 1983...Meow!
Steve Wozniak, left, and Steve Jobs hard at work at Apple in the early 1980s.
A dapper Steve Jobs with the groundbreaking Mac Classic computer in the 1980s.
This famous mugshot shows a young Bill Gates after getting caught for speeding outside Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1977.
_thumbnail.jpg "Vintage Keyboards")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Diseage said 8:47PM on 4-03-2009
silly? yes
means he should retire from the company he created? no
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CapeCodCrew said 2:18PM on 4-18-2009
He didn't create anything.
He was hired to code a project called ConnectU, stole it, changed the name and started facebook.
Zuckerberg is a crook, pure and simple.
mt said 10:06PM on 4-03-2009
I did this once.. NOT for the press... but to see how fast news travels about people getting fired, and who started what :) works quite well...
He's creative.. wonder if it was his idea.. or if he stole it from someone's "wall".. haha.. har har
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Rebecca said 8:40AM on 4-04-2009
I agree with Diseage. I totally don't think this makes him crazy. Who cares! His company. I would have done the same. No need for this kid to walk away from the very company HE FOUNDED AND CREATED....
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NorsKenR said 8:50PM on 4-04-2009
On the surface, I initially agreed that adjusting gerunds and verbs and contractions isn't paranoia. After further thought, if the inventor of a program for sharing everything personal on the Net isn't able to take it in stride when people do so, he DOES have some adjusting to do. He helped feed that mania, after all. But adjust himself into retirement? Nah!
CapeCodCrew said 2:34PM on 4-18-2009
But he didn't create anything. stole the whole idea, from two brothers, (both rowers at Harvard who hired him to code the project, then called ConnectU)
He then dissappeared, Facebook popped up shortly thereafter.
He settled out of court for, some have said, a cool billion, to keep the story quiet.
Although, a movie about the story is in the works. ;-)
Cheers, Todd Kennelly
ok said 8:09AM on 4-04-2009
I don't see anything wrong or "Paranoid" about it. I though the very defination of paranoid was worrying about something that was not valid, well if several of these letters were fowarded to Terrence O' Brien, then he was right. Most, if not all places have their employees sign a oath of confidentiality. Leaking news to the press should have reprehended action.
On another note..."an obviously immature babe-in-the-corporate-woods at 24 --" was out of context.
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Quixel said 8:34AM on 4-04-2009
This guy is a douchebag and you 3 idiots support him? Oh yeah probably you guys are addicted like many women are to facebook.Doesn't matter that the guy is a fascist and tried to "change" the rules of the game with peoples personal info.He wants to be a tyrant like his buddy Oboman. He is a quack and needs to be put down. End of rant hehe
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Mari said 3:24PM on 4-05-2009
Quixel - You say 'addicted like many women are to facebook' ??? It seems to me that you have had a woman run around on you via facebook - but I can assure you that there are just as many female users as male. Just a little insight for a sexist pig like yourself! As far as the CEO of facebook, I agree with ok, his paranoia obviuosly stemmed from acurate observations.
bigkell said 9:15AM on 4-04-2009
Might make sense in the early stages of the company, but the guy is rich. Why worry!
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COLLEEN said 9:16AM on 4-04-2009
BRILLIANT!
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Paranoid Control Freak said 9:42AM on 4-04-2009
This is paranoid behaviour. He's a control freak first class. The idea of bringing up confidentiality is asinine. The other man is leaving the company. That's hardly confidential information. I'm sure he already had resumes all over the place looking for another job which would be publishing the fact.
20 somethings with that kind of authority have no idea how to deal with people in the corporate world or the world in general. The power puffs up their big fat head.
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Wish Belkin said 10:09AM on 4-04-2009
Nothing made sense untill I became paranoid.
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Lostpinup said 6:32PM on 4-06-2009
HAhahaha YES WISH BELKIN SOoooo true..Lol
Cait6799 said 8:07AM on 4-06-2009
That's priceless!! :-D
jeff said 1:08PM on 4-04-2009
It was a joke people ... have you forgotten how to smile??? This is hilarious and NO ONE was hurt. It is so sad that you people can't laugh and ENJOY life ... good work Mark!
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Vickie said 11:36AM on 4-04-2009
Why is this paranoid? I think it's a good business strategy. It lets him know who is not being honest. Wouldn't it be better to weed out this employee on something minor like this, rather than to have them leak something more critical? Besides, unless you do PR work - most company policies discourage you from commenting to the media and tell you to refer inquiries to a specific department - obviously that didn't happen here.
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PLD said 11:25AM on 4-04-2009
I think you mean "kerfuffle."
Free Dictionary: Noun 1. kerfuffle - a disorderly outburst or tumult;
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kerfuffle
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Jim said 11:49AM on 4-04-2009
The reporter of this non-story, Terrence O'Brien, is a pathetic imbecile. He's never built anything or owned a business or been responsible for the success of a coproration or responsible for the people who depend on that entity for a living. This was a totally understandable and savvy action from a managment perspective, which was no doubt required -- as is evidenced by the fact that several of the memos WERE leaked. O'Brien's judgment of Zuckerberg's actions is meaningless, but it does show how weak the SWITCHED "news" outlet truly is. What morons.
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Derek said 12:15PM on 4-04-2009
I think it is conspicuous that the writer of this article dislikes the new facebook format, I concur. That being said I think this is a fairly creative way to find people leaking stories to the press from inside your company. I do not think this makes Zuckerberg look paranoid but intelligent.
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