Chris Bond's Book Review: "The Facebook Effect"
Posted by John Gledhill on Wed, Jun 01, 2011 @ 12:22 PM
Recently released in paperback is "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick. I realize you may be thinking, "I know this story... I saw the movie!" but bear in mind Kirkpatrick's is "The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World." And while "The Social Network" was a highly entertaining piece of cinema, its creators are none-too-ashamed to admit they took quite a bit of creative license to produce it. In Kirkpatrick's work, truly an inside story, the author gained direct access to nearly all of the players crucial in the launch and meteoric rise of Facebook. (Noticeably absent in interviews is co-founder Eduardo Saverin, portrayed so sympathetically in the movie yet is shown here as not having had much impact outside of his contribution of initial funding.) If you are curious about the back story of Facebook, from a Harvard dorm room to Palo Alto, and want to learn more about its global impact on daily communication, this book should be on your reading list.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway for the reader is how Kirkpatrick paints the picture of the evolution of CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It turns out there's a bit more to the company's founder than the image of a kid programming in jeans and a t-shirt. There are brilliant stories of high-stakes negotiations held with venture capitalists, Viacom, Yahoo, Microsoft, The Washington Post and others. Zuckerberg's steely nerve, bolstered with the help of the villainous Sean Parker (of Napster fame), is on display countless times here. And while the reader may be understandably turned off by the locker room nature of some of these tales - and they are typically male-dominated - plenty of positive light is shone on Sheryl Sandberg, whom Zuckerberg plucked from Google to be his #2. No "yes woman," Sandberg is clearly the one who's most willing to tell the boss when he's out of line, even advising Zuckerberg to take CEO lessons (which he does).
Another important character in these proceedings is co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, a Harvard roommate of Zuckerberg's who was willing to do anything to help with the launch of Facebook. And while the reader might be distracted by Kirkpatrick's obvious man-crush on Moskovitz, the stories of the co-founder's boundless commitment are inspirational to say the least. (The story of him, in an effort to impress Zuckerberg, giving up a Harvard weekend to learn the programming language PERL, only to have his mentor say, "Dude, the site's not written in PERL," is a classic!) And regardless what formula one uses in the valuation of Facebook, Moskovitz (who's no longer with the company but still an ally) may a billionaire in his own right; his dedication in the early days is something the reader can certainly appreciate. Could you use a little inspiration from fearless twenty-somethings? If the answer is yes, "The Facebook Effect" will set you back a mere $16 (and that's the airport bookstore price!).
Good reading!
Chris
Chris Bond
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