Last night I got a chance to see The Social Network. An interesting movie that really does demonstrate how greed can turn reasonable human beings into slimy souls. This is the story of how Mark Zuckerberg created www.Facebook.com. In the course of the movie we see that while Mark Zuckerberg is a genius at the keyboard, his social skills and ability to read people are suspect. I would not be surprised if later on we find that Zuckerburg has Aspergers syndrome.
Everyone refers to Zucherberg as an 'asshole' in the movie but I do not really think that is the case - the character is much deeper than that. He is misguided at times, socially inept at others but he is not the greedy S.O.B. that people seem to want to think he is (at least not in this portrayal). He cares little for money but rather wants acumen instead. He is an artist wanting to create the ultimate masterpiece and the facebook is that work in progress.
Wayne.
Post Script - The one thing about this movie that really got my hackles up was that idea of intellectual property. If I come up with an idea but I have no clue how to execute that idea is it really my intellectual property? I would argue no. If you do not have a clue of how to execute an idea, it is obviously not a fully formed concept. I agreed with Zuckerburg's stance in the movie. None of the people suing him wrote a single line of code. None of them had any clue as to how to execute their concepts (which I thought were quite different than Zuckerburg's). He had to write them a check because he doesn't come across as likable rather than it really being an issue of 'steal' intellectual property. Sad.
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