Adam D'Angelo Quotes

Powerful Adam D'Angelo for Daily Growth

About Adam D'Angelo

Adam D'Angelo, an influential figure in the tech industry, was born on January 31, 1980, in New York City, USA. Raised by mathematicians, he developed a strong affinity for computer programming at a young age. His parents, both teachers at the City College of New York, nurtured his curiosity and intellectual growth. At the age of 14, D'Angelo co-authored a paper on machine learning with Yann LeCun, a pioneer in the field. This early accomplishment showcased his exceptional talent and potential. He continued his education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he co-founded the social networking site, Node.com, in 2004 - one of the precursors to Facebook. In 2005, D'Angelo left MIT to join Facebook full-time as its Chief Technology Officer. He played a crucial role in the company's early growth and development, contributing significantly to its infrastructure, security, and privacy systems. In 2008, he became the CEO of Node.com, which was later acquired by Facebook in 2012. D'Angelo is also known for his work on Bayesian methods for collaborative filtering, a key technology used in recommendation systems like those employed by Netflix and Amazon. His work has been instrumental in shaping the way these platforms suggest content to their users. Today, D'Angelo continues to be involved in the tech industry, focusing on developing technologies that can improve people's lives. His journey serves as an inspiring testament to the power of curiosity, intellectual pursuits, and innovation.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The important thing is not being first, but being better."

This quote emphasizes the idea that striving for excellence and improvement is more significant than being the first to achieve something. Being 'better' implies a continuous pursuit of quality and refinement, as opposed to being merely 'first,' which may be contingent on timing or chance. It suggests that we should focus on making our work, ourselves, and the world around us better, rather than solely competing in a race for priority or precedence.


"The best code I ever wrote was the code I didn't have to write."

This quote by Adam D'Angelo emphasizes the importance of design, planning, and abstraction in software development. It suggests that efficient coding involves minimizing the amount of code written by ensuring that well-thought-out architecture, reusable components, and robust APIs are in place, thereby reducing the need for extensive custom coding. This not only saves time but also enhances maintainability, scalability, and readability of the codebase. In essence, this quote advocates for a philosophy where we strive to leverage existing tools and best practices to maximize our productivity as developers.


"Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard."

This quote emphasizes that generating ideas or concepts is relatively straightforward, but turning those ideas into tangible, functional realities is challenging and requires significant effort. It underscores the importance of not only brainstorming innovative thoughts but also diligently executing them to bring about meaningful change or progress in a project or field.


"The best way to predict your future is to create it."

The quote emphasizes the power of personal agency and self-determination in shaping one's own destiny. It suggests that instead of passively waiting for events to unfold, we should actively engage with our environment, make informed decisions, and work towards creating the future we desire. Essentially, it underscores the idea that our actions today can significantly influence the path our lives take tomorrow.


"Doing something new and difficult is easier than maintaining something old and familiar."

This quote suggests that venturing into unfamiliar, challenging territories may require less effort compared to preserving and maintaining established routines or systems. The reasoning behind this could be that novelty stimulates growth, encourages innovation, and often requires us to adapt and learn new skills, which can lead to personal development. On the other hand, maintaining familiar ground, while seemingly easier due to comfort and habit, might stifle growth and restrict our ability to evolve or progress. In essence, Adam D'Angelo implies that stepping out of one's comfort zone can foster growth and development more effectively than sticking with what is already known.


When we get people to log in, they end up using Quora a lot more, and we can provide a lot better experience for them. We can show them a personalized news feed; we can send them digest emails and do all this ranking to find some stuff they want to read.

- Adam D'Angelo

Some, Show, Log, Personalized

We're more interested in someone writing a really great answer that's going to be read by thousands or tens of thousands of people over the next few years as it stays on Quora and as it gets distributed on the Internet.

- Adam D'Angelo

Next, Years, Tens, Distributed

I think as more people use the phones to access the Internet, they have a lot less patience for trying to find things on the search engines. That is because you need to figure a lot of things out for search to work.

- Adam D'Angelo

Access, I Think, Use, Engines

Most of the stuff that people look at on Quora today was not written in the last month. You write something really good, and maybe it's the definitive answer on the Internet for the next 10 years. Maybe it's only a year, but not like a tweet, where it's only relevant for a day or a week.

- Adam D'Angelo

Week, Next, Maybe, Definitive

In the past, there hasn't been much reliable information about startups and small businesses available online. It's information that's really valuable, and it's information that people want to share.

- Adam D'Angelo

Small, In The Past, Been, Startups

We need to build systems that can automatically figure out what's high quality and what's not, and encourage users to contribute high-quality content. There's a lot of technical challenges in that.

- Adam D'Angelo

Need, Figure, High-Quality, High Quality

Questions and answers is a big space, and there are lots of possible systems that you can create for different goals.

- Adam D'Angelo

Big, Lots, Systems, Goals

On Quora, you're not answering questions because you want to get points or because you have nothing else to do.

- Adam D'Angelo

Want, Get, Else, Answering

Our goal is to build this up as a knowledge base that anyone can look at. We're not just interested in people answering their friends' one-off questions.

- Adam D'Angelo

Goal, Questions, Our, Answering

When you look at Yahoo Answers, there can be a lot of garbage. But if you're careful about the rules and supporting good contributions, over time you can get better and better, like Wikipedia.

- Adam D'Angelo

Answers, Over, Like, Supporting

I think a lot of what the iPad app is going to be used for is just reading the best content on Quora. It really helps the whole system run because people who are writing answers can get this very wide distribution to a large audience of readers.

- Adam D'Angelo

Answers, I Think, Very, iPad

I've really enjoyed starting Quora from the beginning. It's really nice to have a new start to things.

- Adam D'Angelo

Beginning, Start, New, Starting

You can go to Pinterest, and they'll get to know who your friends are, but they don't get to know very much about what you've done in the past. They're starting with little information about you, and they have to do this personalization.

- Adam D'Angelo

Past, In The Past, Very, Starting

Focus on the long term, and always do what's right to grow the company and not make short-term decisions. And outlast everyone one.

- Adam D'Angelo

Grow, Always, Everyone, Long Term

More than a billion people use the Internet, yet only a tiny fraction contribute their knowledge to it.

- Adam D'Angelo

More, Use, Contribute, Fraction

When you look at Google, its job is to find you the perfect web page. There are a lot of cases when you want to know something and a list of websites isn't ideal.

- Adam D'Angelo

Perfect, Ideal, Cases, Websites

The area we define as what Quora's good at is long-form text that's useful over time, and where you care about who wrote the text. Not that you need to be friends with them, just that they're someone trustworthy.

- Adam D'Angelo

Need, Over, Area, Useful

The more questions and answers we get, the more useful Quora is.

- Adam D'Angelo

Questions, More, Get, Useful

Anything you want to know, you go to Quora and get it. And at the same time, give people a platform that is easy to use for sharing the knowledge.

- Adam D'Angelo

Want, Give, Use, Sharing

A lot of people really like to answer questions, and they really enjoy sharing their knowledge. Especially people who have valuable knowledge.

- Adam D'Angelo

Enjoy, Questions, Like, Sharing

Wikipedia is kind of extreme, where a very, very small group of people contribute pretty much everything.

- Adam D'Angelo

Small, Pretty, Very, Extreme

We want Quora to last forever, and in order to last forever, it's going to need to have revenue. One of the best things about ads is that you don't need to exclude anyone.

- Adam D'Angelo

Need, Going, Last, Ads

There's a lot of information that has been in peoples' heads and hasn't gotten onto the Internet. Even as the Web has gotten really big, there's just been this gap. So we made Quora as a general place for people to share knowledge of all kinds.

- Adam D'Angelo

Big, Been, Gotten, Heads

If you imagine your friend is recommending you content on a topic they're an expert on, they can do a really good job of that. They know what you're interested in, they know your personality, they know if you have a scientific type of mind-set or not.

- Adam D'Angelo

Expert, Scientific, Imagine, Topic

We started off by inviting our friends to use Quora, and then they invited their friends, and it just grew from there.

- Adam D'Angelo

Invited, Started, Use, Inviting

Blogs are easy to start, but unless the author is famous, it takes years to build a following.

- Adam D'Angelo

Famous, Build, Unless, Following

In 2007 I was at Facebook, and we looked at some of the social networks in Asia, and they were full of games.

- Adam D'Angelo

Some, Social Networks, Asia

I really like knowledge and reading books and just generally immersing myself in information.

- Adam D'Angelo

Like, Reading Books, Books, Generally

When companies get big, they slow down. They're not as exciting. If you want to get something done, it takes a lot of time and a lot of meetings.

- Adam D'Angelo

Down, Want, Big, Meetings

The Internet was supposed to allow anyone to set up a web page and share their knowledge with the world. But in practice, it's too difficult and takes too long, and almost no one does it.

- Adam D'Angelo

Practice, Allow, Set, Web

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