Meta is laying off 11,000 people

[the-pi-guy]

The Verge

Meta has announced it will lay off 11,000 employees or around 13 percent of the company's total staff. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the news in a blog post, saying he was at fault for being overoptimistic about the company's future growth based on a pandemic surge.
"At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth," said Zuckerberg. "Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected."

[nnodley]

That's pretty crazy. But not surprising based on everything they've been doing lately

[kitler53]

i already knew this but i haven't looks into any of the details.   is there an answer to the question "are layoffs affecting their VR teams?".   i'd be curious to know that,..  i know the "metaverse" is their strategic investments but also (i think) it's a foolish to think it will ever take off like social media did in the near term. 

[BananaKing]

i already knew this but i haven't looks into any of the details.   is there an answer to the question "are layoffs affecting their VR teams?".   i'd be curious to know that,..  i know the "metaverse" is their strategic investments but also (i think) it's a foolish to think it will ever take off like social media did in the near term.  

Vr will never be as big as social media (in terms of how many people use it). Its just too intrusive. You can't sit in the bus and use VR, or use VR will waiting on an appointment. Social media is a lot more accessibile, and thus will attract a lot more users.

[the-pi-guy]

Vr will never be as big as social media (in terms of how many people use it). Its just too intrusive. You can't sit in the bus and use VR, or use VR will waiting on an appointment. Social media is a lot more accessibile, and thus will attract a lot more users.

It's a lot bigger than "VR".
They're doing a lot of research into AR/Mixed Reality (there's kind of a scale between MR/VR/etc , some of the distinctions seem silly to me)

They're intending AR to be used for those situations. (Where you can still see real light, but then you can have overlays).

Meta is putting a lot of work into making AR/MR/VR to be as non-intrusive as possible. With things like color passthrough, virtual reconstruction, etc.

They likely hope that AR will be the new cell phone (except you're not limited to screen size or anything like that), and VR will be the new PC. (I actually made a guess, but this is actually something that they've talked about.) Meta's Top Researcher: AR Succeeds Phones While VR Replaces PCs

i already knew this but i haven't looks into any of the details.   is there an answer to the question "are layoffs affecting their VR teams?".   i'd be curious to know that,..  i know the "metaverse" is their strategic investments but also (i think) it's a foolish to think it will ever take off like social media did in the near term.  

Haven't seen any kind of breakdown.
Their "metaverse" spending generally covers VR/AR + Software, so I assume it's the same here.

[Legend]

I heard they doubled employee count since 2020. Big reduction but feels more like a correction than a shrink.

Vr will never be as big as social media (in terms of how many people use it). Its just too intrusive. You can't sit in the bus and use VR, or use VR will waiting on an appointment. Social media is a lot more accessibile, and thus will attract a lot more users.

Plus what makes vr better for social media? It makes more sense for work, games, and other complex or immersive things.

[kitler53]

Vr will never be as big as social media (in terms of how many people use it). Its just too intrusive. You can't sit in the bus and use VR, or use VR will waiting on an appointment. Social media is a lot more accessibile, and thus will attract a lot more users.

agreed.

It's a lot bigger than "VR".
They're doing a lot of research into AR/Mixed Reality (there's kind of a scale between MR/VR/etc , some of the distinctions seem silly to me)

They're intending AR to be used for those situations. (Where you can still see real light, but then you can have overlays).

Meta is putting a lot of work into making AR/MR/VR to be as non-intrusive as possible. With things like color passthrough, virtual reconstruction, etc.

They likely hope that AR will be the new cell phone (except you're not limited to screen size or anything like that), and VR will be the new PC. (I actually made a guess, but this is actually something that they've talked about.) Meta's Top Researcher: AR Succeeds Phones While VR Replaces PCs
Haven't seen any kind of breakdown.
Their "metaverse" spending generally covers VR/AR + Software, so I assume it's the same here.

AR has more promise then VR imo,.. if done right.   i remember a video for google glass where basically the google maps directions were overlay on top of your normal world view.  passthough won't be a thing though.   not as a replacement for phones i means.   one of the nice things about google glass was how unobtrustive it looked.   in the right hands it could maybe even look fashionable.



passthough or not,.. no one is walking around like this:


it's too "disconnecting" from the real world.  it causes eye strain way faster than phones/tvs.  it hurts the neck after a while.  just no.


VR is fun for games and such but it will never replace my computer for productivity tasks which is the majority of what computers are for.   books are 2D,.. i don't need a 3D world to edit a spreadsheet or write a word document.  for meetings i'd rather see 2D with web cams then 3D with avatars.  avatars are again,.. disconnecting.  disconnecting is fine for games but not work.  besides,.. like 90% of my meeting we don't even do video because the point is to all look at a document or bit of code.   

[the-pi-guy]

agreed.
 AR has more promise then VR imo,.. if done right.   i remember a video for google glass where basically the google maps directions were overlay on top of your normal world view.  passthough won't be a thing though.   not as a replacement for phones i means.   one of the nice things about google glass was how unobtrustive it looked.   in the right hands it could maybe even look fashionable.


passthough or not,.. no one is walking around like this:

Well yeah, that's because you would have AR glasses instead.
Their AR glasses would look much closer to the Google glass.

I was just giving passthrough as an examples of ways that they were working on making the various experiences less obtrusive.

it's too "disconnecting" from the real world.  it causes eye strain way faster than phones/tvs.  it hurts the neck after a while.  just no.

These two issues have more to do with current limitations of the tech, not inherent limitations with VR. 
Varifocal lenses is one thing that Meta has been researching for a while, and it is one reason why VR causes eye strain. There's a mismatch between what you're looking at, and what the headset is capable of.

But those problems seem to be fixable.

VR is fun for games and such but it will never replace my computer for productivity tasks which is the majority of what computers are for.   books are 2D,.. i don't need a 3D world to edit a spreadsheet or write a word document.  for meetings i'd rather see 2D with web cams then 3D with avatars.  avatars are again,.. disconnecting.  disconnecting is fine for games but not work.  besides,.. like 90% of my meeting we don't even do video because the point is to all look at a document or bit of code.   

I don't think the biggest usage would be a 3D world.

I think the bigger usage would be, instead of having two or three monitors, you get a pair of glasses. With the glasses, you get virtual screens that you can adjust on the fly. Make one of the screens bigger, adjust the dimensions of it so that you can see more lines of code. Add an extra screen for some reason.


Depends on what you mean by avatars.
I don't think photo-realistic avatars would be disconnecting, but the opposite:

[kitler53]

if meta has something more akin to google glass i guess i haven't seen it.  i've seen passthough on a standard VR headset.   yes the passthough is kind of neat from a technical perspective but not something i'd use regularly.  ...but even the google glass thing isn't something i would use to "replace" my phone.  maybe augment it like an apple watch does today.   i just need buttons i guess,.. voice control is just too shame to rely on as the main input to anything.

those avatars honestly creeped me out even more and the facial tracking stuff on the headset was like a worst case VR.   


...but maybe some of these are fixable.  technology improves.   what i've yet to see is anything particularly convincing me that i'd ever want this tech in my household even if the technology improved.  i don't need this to read the news.  i'm unconvinced that this tech would make "movies" better than the current 2D stuff i watch.  i'm told i will want this for buying stuff off of amazon but i'm not sold on that idea,.. most stuff i buy i don't really need the visual.  most items just dont' require visual inspection (books, dvds, food, household items) and the few that would benefit from it (clothes) isn't a good enough reason for me.  i'd still rather go to the store because things that looks good often don't feel good.


i have a VR headset for gaming,.. it's still a niche part of my gaming as is.  it's neat only for a small subset of gaming but most of the time i'd just rather play things in 2D.


i skipped around a bit in writing this,.. i'm re-reading it now thinking it's not totally coherent.   meh.  not going to fix it.