“The Social Network” Writer on Mark Zuckerberg: “I’ve Been That Guy”

The Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin voiced “empathy” for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s position as an accused idea thief — an accusation that plays a central role in the film about the young executive.

The film is based on a book called Accidental Billionaires, which among other things accounts a dispute between Zuckerberg and individuals who accused him of stealing their ideas when creating the social network.

Sorkin said in an interview with Time, “I’ve been that guy. I’ve been the Mark Zuckerberg in that situation, and I have absolute empathy for him.”

He referenced occasions when would-be screenwriters tried to claim that they’d come up with the idea for The West Wing, the TV series he ran for seven years, as the reasons for his empathy.

At one point in the film the Zuckerberg character says, “If you guys were the inventors of Facebook (Facebook), you would have invented Facebook.” Sorkin used that line as a sort of personal catharsis; “It’s what I always want to say to these people,” he said.

The Social Network: Fact or Fiction?

Facebook’s founders are reportedly not very thrilled with the angle of either Accidental Billionares or The Social Network, and have challenged some of the facts in the story they tell, so it’s interesting that Sorkin claims to empathize with Zuckeberg.

As is the case with most film versions of true stories, the facts aren’t all straight. Since the film is a work of art and not a documentary, that old Pablo Picasso quote might apply: “Art is the lie that tells the truth.” And Sorkin’s first objective is obviously to entertain. Sorkin explained his approach thusly:

“There were a number of different versions of the truth coming from three or four or five people. And rather than pick one and dramatize that, I wanted to dramatize the fact that there are three or four or five different versions of the truth. Everybody has their own version, and everybody is right, and everybody is wrong.”

Even if you can’t catch the pre-release screenings in New York or San Francisco, you’ll be able to make your own judgments about Sorkin’s screenplay when the movie hits theaters around the U.S. on October 1.

http://mashable.com/2010/09/25/aaron-sorkin-mark-zuckerberg/

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Mark Zuckerberg Founder Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg is the founder and CEO of Facebook, which he started in his college dorm room in 2004 with roomates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.

Zuckerberg is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for Facebook. He leads the design of Facebook’s service and development of its core technology and infrastructure.

Earlier in life, Zuckerberg developed a music recommendation system called Synapse and a peer-to-peer client called Wirehog. However, he abandoned both to pursue new projects.

Zuckerberg attended Harvard University and studied computer science before founding Facebook.

While at Harvard, Zuckerberg created Facemash, a website that compared students’ dorm photos side-by-side in a fashion similar to HOT or NOT. Harvard administration was not amused, and Zuckerberg faced subsequent disciplinary action. Less than three months later, he launched Facebook.

Zuckerberg won the 2007 Crunchie Award for ‘Best Startup CEO.’

http://www.crunchbase.com/person/mark-zuckerberg

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Mark Zuckerberg on Wikipedia

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded the social networking site Facebook. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook with fellow classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes while attending Harvard. He is a billionaire due to his 24% share of Facebook.

Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, New York and raised in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Zuckerberg's parents are Jewish, but he considers himself an atheist. He started programming when he was in middle school. Early on, Zuckerberg enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games. Before attending Phillips Exeter Academy beginning in his junior year of high school, he went to school at Ardsley High School.

He transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy where he immersed himself in Latin. He also built a program to help the workers in his father's office communicate; he built a version of the game Risk, and under the company name Intelligent Media Group, he built a music player named the Synapse Media Player that used artificial intelligence to learn the user's listening habits, which was posted to Slashdot and received a rating of 3 out of 5 from PC Magazine. Microsoft and AOL tried to purchase Synapse and recruit Zuckerberg, but he decided to attend Harvard College instead, which he attended in September 2002, and where he joined Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity. In college, he was known for reciting lines from epic poems such as The Iliad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg

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