Alex Muir

I’ve recently deleted all the content from my Facebook account, but kept the account open. This rambling post is something of an answer to the people who ask me why.

Our history

I first saw mention of TheFacebook on a photocopied piece of A4 paper stuck to a lamp post in St Andrews. This was back in 2005. St Andrews was one of the first universities outside the US that Facebook arrived at - I’ve no idea who put the poster up, or what else it said.

A user only had one photo back then. People mostly posted nonsense on each others’ walls. Facebook was primarily a tool for messing around, and finding people’s phone numbers when one lost one’s phone. Posting ASCII art of snowballs or ugly trucks was as much gaming as got done. [I tried to find images of any of this early stuff and couldn’t. ]

I was never very active on the site, but I did see its potential and showed it to quite a few people well before they could join. I remember people pitching me ideas for clones - one for high schools, another for Bangladesh. (At this time Facebook required a university email address, and you could only view people within your university.)

As an aside - Linkedin has barely added a single meaningful feature between 2005 and today. Facebook has Evolved.

Why it worked

There are a few key reasons why Facebook worked.

1. Real names. Facebook was a closed network within universities. People used their own real names from the outset. There was no need to invent a username, or to know someone else’s username to find them. Sites like Myspace, Bebo and Faceparty all used alex_0161 and the like. Real names made it easy to find people and form meaningful networks. Think about how common it is to log in using an email address nowadays. Facebook is the first site that I remember doing this! - All users could find some friends.

2. Students. By 2005 all students had computers and were online and savvy. Virtually 100% of your student friends would be on Facebook. In the general population though, you’d only find a handful of friends on other networks. Time is another factor. In its early days, Facebook was pure and pointless procrastination. - Large (and therefore valuable) networks formed.

Me and Facebook

###The Vacuum effect I’ve never been a particularly active user - I’m not sure why. For a long time I didn’t have a Facebook account at all. I created one because I felt I was missing out on social events, and the only other people who didn’t have accounts were tinfoil hat wearing oddballs. I didn’t want to be in that bracket. For the past year or so I have posted quite often but I found it quite demoralising to post something that I’ve made or built, only to receive no comment or feedback. I don’t know if that’s a criticism of what I do, my social group, my expectations, or all three. I think the honest truth is that every unliked post might as well have had 150 comments that said “Don’t care.” And one from my mum, obviously.

Conversation killing

This is a big reason why I’m largely off Facebook. I’d see someone that I hadn’t seen for a while:

“I got married.” “Yeah, I saw on Facebook.” Next topic.

I want to describe the deserted beach I was on last week. If you’re interested I might show you a photo on my phone. And I’d love to hear about your trip to Las Vegas, who you went with, and that funny incident in the elevator. But it’s ok… I can wait a few months for it - we don’t need to both immediately pause our lives while you type it and I read it. Then never mention it again.

The good

Facebook at its best is a beautiful photo shared, a problem solved, a party filled, or a personal and heartbreaking message shared and deluged in good wishes and sympathy. For me the signal to noise ratio is too high.

Monetization

I remember a friend telling me early on that Facebook should start charging £5 a year for user accounts to make money. But from the outset Facebook did have a means by which users could pay some money to put a text advert across their university. It wasn’t clear if this was making any money, but Facebook has stuck to this targeted display advertising model ever since. I believe that Facebook advertising is effective, profitable and that this is a sustainable model in the same manner as TV networks. I think Facebook has a much easier task than Twitter or Snapchat.

Facebook’s future

For a time there were no alternatives to Facebook. It was a product of the desktop, which has managed very well to survive the rise of mobile.

But there is a risk that there are now lots of viable alternatives to Facebook. Snapchat, naysayers be damned, thrives precisely because people want to share trifling, fleeting nonsense. I actually think it’ll do Facebook some good for people to share that elsewhere.

Twitter is somewhat faddish at the moment, but it is evolving into the Public Facebook. And I’m not sure, but I think another Private Facebook will launch at some point. Medium is there for long form content.

I don’t think Facebook is going anywhere. I don’t think they are an evil company. I don’t overly worry about their disregard for privacy. Mark Zuckerberg has done an outstanding job, and I don’t see him going anywhere.

Knobs and dials have been in decline for years now. And that’s a pity because for me they are an almost perfect UI tool.

1. Knobs allow the rate of change to be chosen. You ram the volume up by quickly twisting a knob, or you can turn it slowly. Digital alternatives don’t even come close to this.

2. A knob shows its value, permanently. A knob with an indicator shows at a glance what its current position is. We don’t need on-screen indicators. Many digital up/down buttons must be pressed for us to see what they are set to.

3. Hands free. Once you know where a knob is, you can use it without even looking. Some buttons are like this but knobs are easier to work, and there’s only one of them to find, while buttons that replace knobs have to come in pairs.

4. There’s just something cool about a whole range of knobs to be twisted and fiddled.

Knobs do not work digitally. Sliders are the way to go on touch screen devices. And the iPhone combines a slider with up/down buttons brilliantly. Though I wish a double-tap on the volume buttons would skip tracks like my Blackberry used to do - I guess this is a patent situation.

This is just a list of the things that I’ve bought which have value far in excess of their cost. It’s in no order.

Leatherman Wave

I bought a Leatherman at the last minute before I went travelling in Egypt in 2005. I felt extravagant buying it for £85 (if I remember rightly).

It was mildly useful there, but in the eight years I’ve now owned it, I have used it thousands of times. I use the knife all the time to slice through packing tape, packaging, banding and anything else. I cut through a floorboard yesterday with the saw. I usually cut my fingernails with the scissors. It’s as good as the day I bought it.

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500

This scanner is a beast. I load it up with 20 A4 pages at a time, it scans both sides, OCRs the text and gives me a PDF. I am virtually entirely paperless now, and I can access anything from anywhere. I have a single box with important papers in, everything else has gone. This scanner also did the scanning for my side project, How A Car Works.

ExpenseMagic on iPhone I’m hesitant to include this because it’s only been a part of my life for three months or so. That said, it’s financially paid for itself 10x already. I photograph all my receipts, they are then processed offshore by ExpenseMagic and imported into my accounts package. Total cost: £50 per year. Total time saved - easily 40 minutes a week and a couple of lost receipts that get written off.

Macbook Air

My mum bought the family an Atari ST in about 1990. In 1995 I got my first PC at a cost of £500. In 2011 I bought my first Apple computer for £1,100. Since then I have massively improved my productivity and become a better programmer. This is the most expensive item on this list, but also the best tool I own.

Festool TS55 Track Saw

One for the builders here. We aren’t really into tracksaws in the UK, and I’d never even heard of Festool until I watched The Wood Whisperer. This thing makes cutting sheet material an accurate joy. Festool is the Apple of the tools market. Expensive fantastically designed and engineered equipment which has a resale value of approximately 100% of its new cost.

Sometimes I toss a coin. Should I get KFC or McDonalds? Should I quit my job?

If I can’t make a decision then I’ll just toss a coin. Why? Three reasons:

1. If I’m prepared to go for a coin toss then the decision is a pretty close-run thing. Even I make a conscious choice, the result is as much chance as the flip of a coin.

2. As I throw that coin into the air, I often find myself hoping it comes down on one side. That moment reveals what I actually want to do. I ignore the coin result and do what I wanted anyway. The one-second window often reveals what a few hours or days of mulling has failed to uncover.

3. Action is better than inaction.

I’ve been living on my wits since 2008, the last time I had an employer. I was on a graduate scheme at a large accountancy firm in London - working a 9-5 in an office, commuting an hour each way from Slough. I’ve just rediscovered a self-appraisal from early that year, a time before I decided to leave. I still thought I’d qualify as an accountant, make partner and live happily ever after.

Sometimes I feel that I haven’t achieved anything much so far in terms of a career. But re-reading this appraisal has reminded me that I now work on my own terms. I can have as many post-it notes as I like. And I can leave out the trademark when I write post-it and not worry. I can have one, two or, fuck it, even three pot plants on my desk. In short, I fixed it all - and my employer wasn’t part of the solution.

Here are some of my responses on the appraisal:

Career Progression

I look around the department and feel depressed. There is no colour, no personality and no feeling. The walls are white and bare, tall white dividers cut across every row of desks. Post-its are banned, desks are to be clear and the sun is banished by blinds the moment it breaks through. The only colour comes from four pot plants, the odd rebel post-it note and some profitability pie charts. Functional is the most apt word to describe the environment. Spending on social events is virtually non-existent.

Day-to-day work is largely administrative - my job title is administrator and this accurately reflects the work that I carry out. It is a mixture of data entry, purchase ledger, secretary, and to an extent, data analyst. There is no problem solving and very little communication; I would estimate I spend over 90% of the day in silence. The various parts of the role, when looked at broadly, are of interest and could be challenging, but the actual work involved is not. As an example I would point to the realisation of assets: One role on a job is to realise the assets in the most beneficial way possible, which should require some thinking and could be thought of as a distinct project. The tasks involved, however, are roughly as follows: instruct an agent (manager has telephone conversation, I draft a letter), receive a valuation, decide on offers (manager has telephone conversation/emails), receive cheque (fill in form), receive agent’s invoice (fill in cheque req, draft covering letter). Though there may be variation, as with most areas, my activity is made up of writing letters and filling in forms.

Motivation

I feel that my motivation is bipolar. I am extremely motivated by work that interests or challenges me, by the industry and by thinking creatively to solve problems. I am not motivated by much of my day-to-day work. I am an innovator by nature and I find it difficult to work in an environment where innovation and efficient practices are not really used. Our fees largely depend on time spent, so there is little incentive to streamline our processes, move towards efficiency or develop new methods of working. I am motivated to solve problems and make improvements, neither of which is an area of this role.

Drive

I am driven to be the best at what I do and to show my capability. I know I am able and that I can achieve positive results. I find this drive to be a hindrance as I want to learn quickly and progress to a role which is more suited to my ability. I do not feel pushed to succeed, in fact I feel that I am held back. I fully appreciate that there are good reasons for this and that there is a well-ordered hierarchy which is largely based on a steady progression rather than a pure meritocracy.

Resilience

I do not feel that I have a problem with resilience in this role, though I often leave work demoralised. My time keeping has suffered as a result.

I was unhappy.

One day I flipped a coin. Heads - I hand in my notice. Tails - I stay. It was heads. I was gone two weeks later.

Does this sound like your day? Are you are skilled and without huge commitments? Flip a coin tomorrow morning. You’ll know the answer before it even lands.