I feel like this is taking Zuckerberg's quotes out of context. I watched that interview, and more got the impression that he was simply pointing out the reality of the situation. Of course Facebook wants to keep great employees, and of course they try their best to do so.
The problem is that they know that great employees in a startup are, by definition, the people who always want to be working on the next big thing, and nobody is ever the next big thing for long. Facebook knows they took a lot of talent from Google when the next big thing moniker shifted their way, and they know the next big thing after Facebook (maybe Twitter, maybe someone not yet in business) is going to do the same to them. There's simply no avoiding it. You can only IPO once.
I didn't take his quote at all to mean they don't want to retain good employees or that you shouldn't bother. He's just pointing out that to a certain extent that's impossible and it's best to just admit that and work around it.
Also if I'm not mistaken Zappos is based in Las Vegas, and keeping programmers around there is a lot easier than SV.
Zappos also has fewer engineers relative to total staff. Lots of call center people, warehouse, logistics, where the work performance, management, and career paths are more straightforward than for programmers.
I think the postulation that most programmers like to hop jobs is incorrect. It's always been quite a hassle for me. Programmers, like others, prefer steady income. They prefer steady insurance and easy taxes, and all of the other benefits of staying at a job.
Facebook, afaict, is losing talent because its management is out-of-touch, overbearing, and ineffective. Google is losing talent because it's well on its way to becoming just another corporate entity.
People want to work somewhere fun and small. This usually describes startups. Google is now huge and is suffering some symptoms of that hugeness, and it's driving developers who were attracted to Google's startup culture out.
I think that it has much more to do with an acceptable atmosphere than "the next big thing".
The problem is that they know that great employees in a startup are, by definition, the people who always want to be working on the next big thing, and nobody is ever the next big thing for long. Facebook knows they took a lot of talent from Google when the next big thing moniker shifted their way, and they know the next big thing after Facebook (maybe Twitter, maybe someone not yet in business) is going to do the same to them. There's simply no avoiding it. You can only IPO once.
I didn't take his quote at all to mean they don't want to retain good employees or that you shouldn't bother. He's just pointing out that to a certain extent that's impossible and it's best to just admit that and work around it.
Also if I'm not mistaken Zappos is based in Las Vegas, and keeping programmers around there is a lot easier than SV.