I would suggest taking a date to the movies at the earliest opportunity - not so much to help facilitate their wooing or any such bullshit, but rather to check your ideological and aesthetic compatibility. Think of it as social litmus test.
As John Cusack's character in High Fidelity remarks:
I, for one, found Zuckerberg rather easy to relate to[1] – though I kept this to myself when it turned out my friend found him deeply, and morally, repugnant. From my perspective, the people he supposedly ripped off were undeniably small thinkers: the twins were aiming for a ‘Facebook’ for Harvard students, while his best friend, the chief financial officer, wanted to turn it quickly into a moneymaking venture. Had Facebook gone the way they wanted, it would have been less profitable for them then if Zuckerberg had stolen their idea, been ruthless in his execution, and then thrown to them what for him was essentially chump change. In other words, I believe that he did them a favour.
I just won’t be telling my friend that.
Endnote
[1] In my first year of my undergrad, I lived at one of Monash University’s Clayton campus’ Richardson Hall. There, I tried for something similar to Zuckerberg’s project (this was in 1998, mind you.) I was able to collate - through a very long-winded, manual process that did not involve actually going to the students themselves - all of the names, possible email addresses, and dorm number of the people living at Richardson Hall. I published these to the web on an electronic ‘zine that I was building in the WYSIWYG web-editor, AOLpress. This list of email addresses severed as a mailing list as well for my promotion of the ezine. (The first release was a very successful launch that involved Passion Pop and cheddar cheese - the second rather fizzled.) Looking back at such endeavours, though, I think of how I had all of the characteristics of Mark Zuckerberg: slight outsider status, high geek ratings, highly motivated, with big picture ambition. (To make up for lack of coding ability, I resorted to brute force – though I have found that can only get you so far.) When it comes to the ‘evil genius’ part, however, I can only half relate.
“What really matters is what you like, not what you are like … Books, records, films - these things matter. Call me shallow but it’s the fuckin’ truth.”
I, for one, found Zuckerberg rather easy to relate to[1] – though I kept this to myself when it turned out my friend found him deeply, and morally, repugnant. From my perspective, the people he supposedly ripped off were undeniably small thinkers: the twins were aiming for a ‘Facebook’ for Harvard students, while his best friend, the chief financial officer, wanted to turn it quickly into a moneymaking venture. Had Facebook gone the way they wanted, it would have been less profitable for them then if Zuckerberg had stolen their idea, been ruthless in his execution, and then thrown to them what for him was essentially chump change. In other words, I believe that he did them a favour.
I just won’t be telling my friend that.
Endnote
[1] In my first year of my undergrad, I lived at one of Monash University’s Clayton campus’ Richardson Hall. There, I tried for something similar to Zuckerberg’s project (this was in 1998, mind you.) I was able to collate - through a very long-winded, manual process that did not involve actually going to the students themselves - all of the names, possible email addresses, and dorm number of the people living at Richardson Hall. I published these to the web on an electronic ‘zine that I was building in the WYSIWYG web-editor, AOLpress. This list of email addresses severed as a mailing list as well for my promotion of the ezine. (The first release was a very successful launch that involved Passion Pop and cheddar cheese - the second rather fizzled.) Looking back at such endeavours, though, I think of how I had all of the characteristics of Mark Zuckerberg: slight outsider status, high geek ratings, highly motivated, with big picture ambition. (To make up for lack of coding ability, I resorted to brute force – though I have found that can only get you so far.) When it comes to the ‘evil genius’ part, however, I can only half relate.
Image by Laughing Squid
1 comments:
Because it's not like that friend would ever read your blog.
So essentially, you're an assburger.
Post a Comment