[wch]

> A good reminder to not get stuck in local fad maximums.

That's a good goal - but how do you know in advance whether it's a fad (like Zynga) or the real deal (like Facebook)?

[sbierwagen]

Using facebook as an example of the "real deal" may be a mistake. A better example might be Intel.

[dakrisht]

Right on. Facebook is the opposite of a correct example here.

[MartinCron]

You can just ask me. I've been telling people that Zynga was a dangerous fad that's not worth chasing for years.

[gfodor]

I think it's less about it being a fad and more about it passing the ethical sniff test. If you end up working for an unethical company, a small error can blow up into a crisis because you were already dancing the line.

When I look at my Facebook news feed, my relatives who don't have a lot of money to throw around use Facebook to post baby photos and talk to their friends. They use Zynga to spend their (little) money on virtual cows/rows in a relational database. Both of these are mindless ways to pass the time, but only one of these should obviously raise red flags as something you should not want to be associated with.