Minus One The Origin Story of Facebook, Quora & OpenAI | Adam D’Angelo
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May 7, 2025 
In this engaging conversation, Adam D’Angelo, Co-founder and CEO of Quora and former CTO of Facebook, shares his journey from coding in middle school to shaping major tech platforms. He dives into the early strategies that fueled user growth at Facebook and Quora. Adam also discusses the evolution of AI, emphasizing the importance of a first-principles approach to understanding these powerful models. He reflects on leadership challenges in tech, the balance between hands-on involvement and management, and the significance of deep user empathy in product development.
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Early Personalized Music Player
- Adam D'Angelo and Mark created a music player with unique personalized recommendations in high school.
- Their system used play history to predict and play songs similarly to modern apps like Spotify.
Pierce Code Abstractions Barriers
- Don't treat code abstractions as barriers; dig deep to understand how things really work.
- Push through limits by exploring the underlying code to solve problems effectively.
Learn AI Through Playfulness
- Play with AI models extensively to learn their capabilities and limitations.
- Push boundaries through experimentation to improve prompt engineering skills and understanding.