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When Facebook splurged this week to buy part of India’s biggest mobile phone company, it set off guessing about the company’s big vision for the country.

But I’ve got a secret for you. Ready? Facebook doesn’t operate with a genius master plan.

Over and over, Facebook sees hints of what people do online, and then takes those cues to transform its apps and strategy. It adapted to what we did with online videos. It bent to people improvising ways to sell stuff to Facebook friends, and to Indian merchants (including moms at home) using WhatsApp in ways Facebook hadn’t imagined.

Apple under Steve Jobs prided itself on telling people what they should want. Facebook is the opposite. It runs on our ingenuity.

This is heartening. It’s also terrifying that Facebook can analyze what we do and use its muscle to make our behaviors the world’s standard.