Ben Mezrich's novel, The Accidental Billionaires, starts off with a young man called Eduardo who appears to be heavily drunk (he had three drinks). The room which he is in presently is intimidating to it because it has a crystal chandelier handing from the ceiling, a very red carpet, nice staircases throughout the many floors, and lovely windowpanes. It is intimidating to him because although he is not a poor kid, he has never been exposed to this type of wealth in his life. Most of his life, he grew up in a standard middle-class structure both in Brazil and Miami before relocating to Boston - to attend Harvard University. At this point, Eduardo is reminiscing the first time he came to Harvard University wondering what he was doing here and if he will fit in with everyone. Now, he is also questioning what he is doing in this room and how he could possibly belong here. He is looking around the room where there are about two hundred males dressed similarly. They are all dressed in dark blazers and slacks.They are all sophomores but there was something similar about them all. They all had a smile full of confidence and they weren't used to proving themselves, unlike Eduardo. He realizes that he's at a party. There, he meets four young men. He takes interest in one of them because of his tie. Based on one's tie, one can find out everything he or she may need to know. The guy he meets is called Darron. Darron is part of Phoenix-S K which is a club that is hosting the event. Eduardo then tells Darron that his last name is "Saverin". Based on his last name, Darron asks if he's the one with a hedge fund. He then says yes, although it isn't true, he had previously made money investing with his brother during the summer.
However, he continues on with the story in order to impress this Phoenix-S K member before his eyes.
Eduardo then gives a description about what it means to be a Phoenix member - instant connections, access to parties, reputation, etc. Soon after he goes on describing about the hedge fund, he realizes that he only reason why he is at the party and Darron is talking to him is because he has a reputation of being a businessman. Eduardo goes into detail about the process of becoming a Phoenix member. They give two hundred young men of Harvard University an invitation to be a member of their club. There, they send out another invitation to a little less people and so forth. To him, being granted the opportunity to be a member would be life changing and as thrilling as getting into Harvard.
At the party, Eduardo recognizes a kid with very curly hair in the corner of the room, isolated. When he first saw the kid, he feels bad for him because he seems awkward and is very sure that the kid won't get into Phoenix. Now, Eduardo is spending time thinking about ways to chase his dreams rather than thinking about the kid with the curly hair in the corner. At this period, he has no idea that the kid with the curly hair would one day design one of the biggest social networks ever or change his life forever.
Eduardo then attends another event. There are less people at this event with about three girls. He then breaks into a smaller group and begins talking to four different guys in the group. Although they are all different builds and height, they are all geeks and lanky in the group. One of the guys he meets in the group is Mark Zuckerbeg who had grown up as a upper-middle class child. He had attended Phillips Exeter school where he was seen as a master genius because he very much knew how to hack. At Harvard, he also had a good reputation as a guy studying computer science living in the Eliot House and who designed a software program. There was a rumour in school that Microsoft offered Mark two million to work for them which he turned down. Eduardo states that he knows very little about computers but someone turning down over a million dollars is extremely fascinating to him. Eduardo then observes Mark's personality. He realizes that something was very different about him. He was very smart, didn't fit in among his own kind - geeks who had the same interests as him and who would make algorithms on Friday nights. The two get to know each other more and even leave the event to go to a different party. They have small talk there then Eduardo talks about the after-party for Phoenix. He will have to bring a date to it (the invitation said so). He had heard from an outside source that the prettier the girl he brings, the likelihood of him getting into the club increases because they will judge the females. He asks the most attractive female he knows, a female named Marsha and she, to his surprise, accepts.
The next chapter talks about a rowing meet in Charles River featuring the six foot five identical twins, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. The two are very talented rowers, rowing for Harvard, maintaining good grades and aspiring to make it unto the Olympics team. Currently, they are inventing something secret from the rest of Harvard. They have been inventing this for the past two years. They created the idea with their friend, Divya but before the plan can be well executed, they need a programmer. They plan on creating a website called the Harvard Connection which would change everyone'e life on campus. First, they would need someone to write the computer code. They plan on having two sections on the website: dating and connecting. Since the two twins are always so busy, they thought of the website to enable them to keep up with the females on campus during their spare time. They saw the website as progressing further into other Ivy Leagues.
The following days in class, Eduardo attends a class where he spots Mark there. However, when he sees Mark, Mark is sleeping. He grins from ear to ear since Mark and he have gotten close in the recent weeks. Soon, Mark wakes up and sees the chicken Eduardo has been carrying. Eduardo is required to carry the chicken with him everywhere as part of the club's initiations. His task is to keep the chicken alive. Eduardo feeds the chicken some chicken, assuming that the chicken would be hungry. Later on he sees Harvard Crimson, the newspaper, stating that Eduardo had fed the chicken chicken.
One day, Mark goes back to his dorm angry and drunk because a girl had rejected him. He goes on a blog where he starts swearing and becoming made because of the girl. He then decides to create a website called FaceMash. He would get girls from all over the campus, put their faces next to each other and guys would vote to see which one was prettier. Although he is drunk, he manages to design the website, knowing that it would end up being a huge success.
Quote
"Sophomores, mostly; a mix of races, but there was something very similar about all the faces-the smiles that seems so much easier than Eduardo's, the confidence in those two hundred pairs of eyes-these kids weren't used to having to prove themselves. They belonged. For most of them, this party-this place-was just a formality." (Mezrich 6)
Reaction
When I was reading this quote, I found it a bit amusing. I thought that Harvard would be a school where it would be packed with nerds who all get very good grades and who really do nothing else each Friday night than reading/studying. However, this quote proved me wrong. I realized that Harvard is also similar to high school where there are all sorts of people and cliques, in a way. Some people are nerds and receive exceptional grades in school. Others, however, flunk and don't do so well...(how did they get in anyways if that is the case?) At Harvard, there are also jocks who excel in sports, similar to high school. The only difference is that the jocks are Harvard usually are intelligent and get good grades. At Harvard, where stereotypically, everyone is assumed to be smart, there are cliques. There are outcasts, for one, like Eduardo. At the party, Eduardo looked around everywhere and saw everyone. It all seemed like they belonged and he was the newbie so he was sort-of the odd one out. All the kids had confidence, had money, and it was all like a regular thing to them. He, however, has to go out of his way to prove himself to the members of Phoenix and to everyone else who aspires to be a member of the club. Similarly, in high school, new kids usually try to fit in and aspire to fit in. At the moment, they are the outcasts, however, eventually they will turn to assimilate to be like everyone else. Then, there will be another new kid and so forth.
So far, I am enjoying reading this book. I had previously assumed that since it is a history book, I will fall asleep from reading it because it isn't fiction which is a type of book that I usually enjoy reading. However, quotes like this draw me in to having further interest in what Eduardo is going through. The fact is that everyone at the party is just like high school for me in the sense that everyone is similar and share a lot of commonalities. I am also like Eduardo in the sense that I haven't been at this high school for too long and I'm not necessarily a part of everyone because I haven't yet conformed to a lot of the trends of people at school. I also like the fact that the quote reminded me of what my mother tells me frequently. She tells me that I am in America for education and opportunities, not necessarily to become an American. She tells me that I don't need to conform to the ideas of everyone else and I don't need to be accepted. Yes, I may frequently want to go out of my way to fit in but the reality is it's not going to work out well. For everyone at school, for example, wearing sneakers and such is a trend and it is what everyone pretty much does. Myself, on the other hand, is not used to that trend and has not assimilated to it yet. Perhaps I may eventually and perhaps Eduardo will fit in and become acquainted with attending parties with everyone else and becoming one of them. In addition, this quote also reminds me of something my father told me. He told me that in life, the outcasts or people who don't particularly belong to whatever society in question are usually the people who stand out and who go on to doing greater things in life. The quote also reminds be of reading Night by Eliezer Wiesel because I remember the class discussion of talking about Us versus Them. In this case, it is just Eduardo solitary against everyone at the party because he is so different.
Questions
*Eduardo wants to fit in with everyone else. Is he going to be himself in the process or actually go out of his way to become like them?
*Was he ever ashamed to be around Mark? Whether it was when they first started talking (everyone thinks of Mark as the nerd) to the period where Mark is accused of stealing an idea?
*What is the benefit of Mezrich writing in third person rather than first? Wouldn't it be more powerful to write in the first tense? It might engage the readers more about certain events that take place.
Or....if the book had been written in first person, wouldn't that mean that Eduardo or Mark would need to write it themselves/the book will become fiction because the "I" that would be representing Mark/Eduardo can't be told through the writing of Mezrich?
When I was reading this quote, I found it a bit amusing. I thought that Harvard would be a school where it would be packed with nerds who all get very good grades and who really do nothing else each Friday night than reading/studying. However, this quote proved me wrong. I realized that Harvard is also similar to high school where there are all sorts of people and cliques, in a way. Some people are nerds and receive exceptional grades in school. Others, however, flunk and don't do so well...(how did they get in anyways if that is the case?) At Harvard, there are also jocks who excel in sports, similar to high school. The only difference is that the jocks are Harvard usually are intelligent and get good grades. At Harvard, where stereotypically, everyone is assumed to be smart, there are cliques. There are outcasts, for one, like Eduardo. At the party, Eduardo looked around everywhere and saw everyone. It all seemed like they belonged and he was the newbie so he was sort-of the odd one out. All the kids had confidence, had money, and it was all like a regular thing to them. He, however, has to go out of his way to prove himself to the members of Phoenix and to everyone else who aspires to be a member of the club. Similarly, in high school, new kids usually try to fit in and aspire to fit in. At the moment, they are the outcasts, however, eventually they will turn to assimilate to be like everyone else. Then, there will be another new kid and so forth.
So far, I am enjoying reading this book. I had previously assumed that since it is a history book, I will fall asleep from reading it because it isn't fiction which is a type of book that I usually enjoy reading. However, quotes like this draw me in to having further interest in what Eduardo is going through. The fact is that everyone at the party is just like high school for me in the sense that everyone is similar and share a lot of commonalities. I am also like Eduardo in the sense that I haven't been at this high school for too long and I'm not necessarily a part of everyone because I haven't yet conformed to a lot of the trends of people at school. I also like the fact that the quote reminded me of what my mother tells me frequently. She tells me that I am in America for education and opportunities, not necessarily to become an American. She tells me that I don't need to conform to the ideas of everyone else and I don't need to be accepted. Yes, I may frequently want to go out of my way to fit in but the reality is it's not going to work out well. For everyone at school, for example, wearing sneakers and such is a trend and it is what everyone pretty much does. Myself, on the other hand, is not used to that trend and has not assimilated to it yet. Perhaps I may eventually and perhaps Eduardo will fit in and become acquainted with attending parties with everyone else and becoming one of them. In addition, this quote also reminds me of something my father told me. He told me that in life, the outcasts or people who don't particularly belong to whatever society in question are usually the people who stand out and who go on to doing greater things in life. The quote also reminds be of reading Night by Eliezer Wiesel because I remember the class discussion of talking about Us versus Them. In this case, it is just Eduardo solitary against everyone at the party because he is so different.
Questions
*Eduardo wants to fit in with everyone else. Is he going to be himself in the process or actually go out of his way to become like them?
*Was he ever ashamed to be around Mark? Whether it was when they first started talking (everyone thinks of Mark as the nerd) to the period where Mark is accused of stealing an idea?
*What is the benefit of Mezrich writing in third person rather than first? Wouldn't it be more powerful to write in the first tense? It might engage the readers more about certain events that take place.
Or....if the book had been written in first person, wouldn't that mean that Eduardo or Mark would need to write it themselves/the book will become fiction because the "I" that would be representing Mark/Eduardo can't be told through the writing of Mezrich?
this is beyond assimilation, but speaks much more to class and privilege. All very interesting background for how Facebook is created and how it is used
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