Book #9 - The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich

One of my coworkers read this book a few months ago, so I vowed to keep it on my radar. When I started this challenge, I knew that I needed to read it as one of my non-fiction selections. After finishing, I'm not sure if The Accidental Billionaires should even classify as non-fiction, since I was skeptical as to how much of the story was even true.

The story begins with Eduardo Saverin, who allegedly helped Mark Zuckerburg launch facebook while they were both students at Harvard. You're probably thinking that same thing I was: who in the world is Eduardo Saverin? I've never even heard of him. Then I read that Zuckerburg declined to participate in the writing and research of this book. Big. Red. Flag.

If that wasn't enough, my skepticism kicked into an even higher gear with the tale of the Winklevoss twins, also Harvard students, who claim to have had the idea of facebook before Zuckerburg. They say he stole their program, and The Accidental Billionaires continues to outline the ridiculous measures the Winklevosses take to try and stop Zuckerburg and facebook.

As someone who was in college when facebook was in its infancy, I remember the reasons that made it a success, which are discussed in the book. The privilege you felt by being able to have a facebook account; your university had to be selected by facebook in order to join. There were no high schoolers, no corporations and definitely no parents. I remember a time before the writing on walls and tagging photos. And although it was only a few years ago, to see what facebook has now become, it feels like it's been a lifetime.

If Mark Zuckerburg really did steal others' ideas, shame on him. But more importantly, shame on them for letting him get away with it for five years. I don't think having some third party author write about Zuckerburg's transgressions is the most effective way to tell your story. It didn't make me hate Zuckerburg; heck, it didn't even portray him as the villian in this saga. Instead, The Accidental Billionaires reminded me of a simpler time of social media, before that classification even existed. It made me long for the days in my Denison dorm room, when after the semester's first day of class, you could easily get 50 new facebook friends based on who was in your new set of classes and the voyeuristic feeling was thrilling and new.

Now, it's just part of my daily routine.

Kudos to Mark Zuckerburg, for giving the world the ability, and the social acceptability, to keep tabs on people we actually care about, but more importantly, those we're just nosy to know about.