Dinosaur Disappointment

Yesterday I got to give a talk on meditation at Facebook HQ in Menlo Park, California, and it was kind of a big deal because we brought in a film crew to capture it and that will become my first real demo video for my corporate speaking, which should open doors for more opportunities like this.

But what I really want to talk about is dinosaur disappointment.

I posted this picture of myself at Facebook HQ showing the advertisement for my talk on the ‘Megatron’ screen in the Facebook courtyard. Which was nice, except that there is no dinosaur!

I’m serious! There is this big evil mechanical monster thing in the Transformer movies called Megatron, which is not exactly a dinosaur, but I think it fights dinosaurs, so that’s pretty close.

When the Facebook folks told me they have a Megatron in the courtyard, I thought, wow! I’ve can’t wait to see this! I mean what sensible adult wouldn’t want to see a real Megatron? And it made complete sense because Google have a life size T-Rex skeleton in their courtyard, and these tech companies are always trying to ‘out monster’ one another, so it would be simple common sense to erect a giant mechanical evil thing, that never existed except in a truly moronic movie, in the middle of the courtyard of your social media company.

How I was I to know that a Megatron is also the name for a big boring flatsceen TV? Big letdown.

I’m not saying Facebook doesn’t have cool stuff there. one of my favorites is the ‘gravity room’, with real gravity, which feels kind of weird…

But think about this. I already got lots of likes for the picture of me in front of the boring screen variety of Megatron. Imagine how many likes I would have gotten if, instead of that, I was in front of a huge mechanical dinosaur face-hitting type Megatron? And if there is anything Facebook should care about, it is LIKES, right? That’s why they have a big LIKE button at the front of their HQ Global Headquarters campus.

So I say, wake up Facebook, and get a proper Megatron for your courtyard. What were you thinking putting a blank screen there instead?

Now I’m not saying that my Megatron disappointment was on the level of the sea monkeys. It was just a familiar feeling.

Excuse me, I have to go. I have to measure our carpark to see if there might be room for a real Megatron there. When it is all set up and working, I’m going to invite my Facebook friends over so they can see how it’s done. I don’t know if they will have the courage to take my cue and get a genuine Megatron of their own, but one things for sure. No-one is going to out-monster me!