After the last book I read, I knew I needed something which would restore my reading motivation. I needed something fast, but substantive. I needed something which would make my brain work, but not too much. I needed some Ben Mezrich.
Luckily, I had his examination of Facebook “The Accidental Billionaires” sitting on my stack. Since I enjoyed “Bringing Down the House” so much and knew some of the story behind this book (we haven’t seen “The Social Network” yet), I had full confidence I would find myself back on the reading train in a few days.
In reality, I needed just a little more than 36 hours. I breezed through the pages in almost record time, mesmerized by the hings I didn’t know and encouraged by the expansion on things I did know. Even if Mezrich does take liberties with the timeline and such, it’s hard not to admire his writing talent.
I do have to quibble with his title, however. As we learn what we can about Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin and the Winklebot Winklevoss twins, it’s pretty clear that making gobs of money is no accident for these guys. In fact, that’s all they want and all they expect. The actual path may have come by accident, but the end result is exactly what they think they deserve.
The one thing that shocked me as I finished the book was how sympathetic I found Zuckerberg. I am addicted to Facebook so maybe that’s part of the reason. Sure, he and his company take liberties with privacy, and that’s a real concern now, but I felt like he might get unfairly targeted as the bad guy in the early days of the company.
If the basic premise of Mezrich’s story is true, Zuckerberg merely did what everyone was trying to do better than the rest. Saverin should have not treated Facebook as a side project, and the Winklevoss’ should have not been so arrogant that they thought they could take advantage of Zuckerberg.
Besides the fact that they look like they belong hanging out with James Spader in a bad 1980s movie, the twins show a callousness which makes it impossible for me to take their claims seriously. If they are so hung up on honor and duty, why were they trying to take advantage of Zuckerberg for his skills when they first contacted him?
I’m not saying that stealing is a good thing, but I just think there wasn’t stealing so much as a community of people with a similar idea, and Mark Zuckerberg came out with the best one. His competitor got mad he beat them and his investor got mad that he didn’t get to fully run the show. Sorry, but sometimes business is ugly.
I’m sure there is way more to the story, but that’s where I fall after reading the book. And when they all walk away with piles of money, I kind of have a hard time feeling bad for the guys who want a fourth pile of money to show off to their friends and random chicks at clubs.
Now let me go post this on my Facebook wall … 😉
Thanks, Bill. I am thinking of getting the ESPN book for the beach. Should make for good reading with sand between my toes.
Brian, I read one of your earlier book reviews (Russell Wiley) and liked it so I will check this out after I’m done reading the 750 page ESPN book that just came out called These Guys Have All The Fun. I can’t put it down. Highly recommend.