[fraction]

Great article, but I got a really good laugh out of this.

"But very often, the hard technical problems are important to the world (e.g. Google, Palantir, Facebook)."

Let me know when Facebook starts doing something important to the world.

[sokoloff]

Helping people stay in touch socially is important to humans. The engagement figures alone tell me that it's important (to them).

My parents and grandparents see more pics of my kids and feel more connected to their grandkids' random life experiences. That's important (to me and to them).

Jzw's point on narrowing your focus is worth mentioning here: http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html Facebook isn't helping me there, but it's helping others, and that's important to them.

[aet]

I guess people don't see Facebook as a "hard technical problem"