The Accidental Billionaires
Sex, Money, Betrayal and the Founding of Facebook
Ben Mezrich
“The high-energy tale of how two socially awkward Ivy Leaguers, trying to increase their chances with the opposite sex, ended up creating Facebook. Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were Harvard undergraduates and best friends–outsiders at a school filled with polished prep-school grads and long-time legacies. They shared both academic brilliance in math and a geeky awkwardness with women. Eduardo figured their ticket to social acceptance–and sexual success–was getting invited to join one of the university’s Final Clubs, a constellation of elite societies that had groomed generations of the most powerful men in the world and ranked on top of the inflexible hierarchy at Harvard. Mark, with less of an interest in what the campus alpha males thought of him, happened to be a computer genius of the first order.”
I listened to this one as an audiobook, and honestly, it was fairly average. The author goes into an unnecessary amount of depth, describing and setting the scene for things that really don’t need it. It’s not a high energy book, and I found myself not caring about many of the little side groups of people we kept hearing from, especially at the start. A lot of that could have easily been edited out.
It’s also tricky because the story isn’t told from the perspective of the founder. The author interviewed people connected to the events, but not Mark Zuckerberg himself, which makes me question how accurate the details really are.
For the first few chapters, I was really thrown off by the author’s writing style. It feels like he’s trying too hard to sound like a writer instead of just telling the story. The result is a book that feels half told and a bit rushed. The story barely scratches the surface of Facebook as a company, it’s more about the early college drama and less about the actual creation of a tech empire.
In the end, it’s a story that should be fascinating, but it’s bogged down by overly descriptive writing and awkward pacing. What could have been sharp and insightful ends up feeling childish and, at times, painful to get through. Read the Netflix: That Will Never Work book instead. 2 stars.
