Hollywood's Greed Shows In "Social Network" - Charlie Warner - MediaBizBloggers

Silicon Alley Insider wrote on October 18 quotSpeaking at Ycombinator event over the weekend the real Mark Zuckerberg said that the biggest difference between the movie and real life stems from the fact that moviemakers 39can39t wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like building things39quotZuckerberg39s comment reflects a few of the points made by Daniel Pink in his brilliant book Drive The Surprising Truth About Motivates Us that most normal people are not motivated primarily by money except when they do repetitious routine tasks but they are motivated by autonomy selfdirection mastery getting really good at something and purpose doing something worthwhileFor those who can39t take the time to read Drive check out this excellent summary of the main points in the book on YouTube by RSAnimateOf course Hollywood and Wall Street types aren39t normal people In these arenas of twisted values fueled by the most addictive drugs of all amp8211 power and money amp8211 winning isn39t everything greedy lust for the twoheaded devil of power and money is everythingIn quotSocial Networkquot Mark Zuckerberg is depicted as a computer programming nerd who is vindictive and greedy amp8211 he wants Facebook all for himself and tries to cut out his friend Eduardo Saverin of the vast majority of rightful ownership of Facebook Zuckerberg is portrayed as duplicitous and greedy by the Hollywood producers director and writer of the movieThis story line is certainly to be expected from Hollywood In psychology it isn39t called a story line it39s called projection the tendency of people to project their own negative characteristics on everyone else The thief thinks everyone is trying to steal from him because that39s what he does Politicians accuse other politicians of lying all the time UmmmSo Hollywood can39t understand a story of a young software genius the movie does depict Zuckerberg as a genius who builds Facebook because he wants to do something cool that will help young people connect and enhance society Like Vizzini Wallace Shawn in quotThe Princess Bridequot I can hear the Hollywood types screaming quotinconceivablequot or repeating yet again Jack Warner39s line quotif you want to give a message send a telegramquotThese greedy selfabsorbed types think the purpose of a making a movie is to make them rich just like most Wall Street types and media moguls think the purpose of a business is to make a profit They never read quotthe father of modern managementquot Peter Drucker39s piece of wisdom quotThere is only one valid definition of a business purpose to create a customerquotquotSocial Networkquot is based mostly on a sensationalist book The Accidental Billionaires The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex Money Genius and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich in which the author takes the side of Eduardo Saverin and makes up a good storyRespected journalist and FORTUNE magazine senior editor David Kirkpatrick39s wellresearched book The Facebook Effect portrays Zuckerberg as an idealistic software genius and Saverin as a pampered son of a Brazilian businessman bully of a father Kirkpatrick39s Saverin is not a sympathetic character because he is more interested in making money on Facebook than creating a cool product that has an easytonavigate user experience like Zuckerberg wantsKirkpatrick39s Zuckerberg seems to take a concept from the movies the iconic quotbuild it and they will comequot from Field of Dreams appropriately while Saverin seem to take the opposite concept from the movies that quotgreed is goodquot from Wall Street appropriatelyThose like Joe Nocera of the New York Times in his quotTalking Businessquot column who think that Ben Mezrich39s view of human nature is more accurate than David Kirkpatrick39s and that Zuckerberg and most human beings can39t be motivated by a meaningful purpose and are greedy should probably look very carefully in the mirror amp8211 or perhaps in the eye of a projectorUntil he retired in 2002 Charlie Warner was Vice President of AOL39s Interactive Marketing division Before joining AOL he was the Goldenson Endowed Professor at the Missouri Journalism School where he taught media management and sales and he created and ran the annual Management Seminar for News Executives Charlie can be contacted at charleshwarnergmailcomRead all Charlieamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Charlie Warner MediaBizBloggersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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Hollywood's Greed Shows In "Social Network" - Charlie Warner - MediaBizBloggers

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