|
879b526
|
Everyone had a story he believed was worthy of a best-seller; for me, reality was rarely interesting enough to take the place of fiction.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
7d46d31
|
in other words, his story was part boast, part confession.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
89d24c8
|
To guys like Mark, time was another weapon of the establishment, like alphabetical order. The great engineers, hackers - they didn't function under the same time constraints as everyone else.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
7425581
|
Below, he could see down the entire Strip, from the radioactive green lion at the base of the MGM Grand to the glowing spire of the Stratosphere. The logjam street traffic just added to the visual effect: a thousand headlights blinking like neurons in the glowing spine that snaked down the center of the city.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
7eb2448
|
I once knew a beautiful young woman that didn't believe in forever. She became my forever.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
0ac2012
|
occurred. But there was no denying it now, the evidence was all over him. The pleasantly warm flush to his normally sallow cheeks; the relaxed, almost rubbery way he leaned against the window--a stark contrast to his usual calcified, if slightly hunched posture; and most important
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
ede71f7
|
someone exceedingly loyal, a true yes-man, a cog who knew when to turn, when to stay still.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
77935aa
|
Tyler was to his left, and to his right were the three other witnesses who had joined them for the headlining session of the first day of testimony. Directly next to Cameron sat Fred Wilson, a seasoned venture capitalist veteran who had moved into the cyber currency space in a big way, with the countenance of someone who had seen a number of technology waves, including the first dot-com boom and bust. Next to Wilson, the up-and-comer ventur..
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
bfd1bd0
|
As an entrepreneur, you had one, maybe two, but usually not more than three chances to catch lightning in a bottle; as a venture capitalist, however, you could chase lightning as long as you had cash to invest.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
b6428c1
|
You still had to use the Balkanized, legacy banking system, which was built before the internet even existed, littered with middlemen and rent-seekers all along the way. And only if the central authorities of this network allowed it to happen, would your money move at a snail's pace from point A to point B.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
39dcea9
|
You didn't go on MySpace to communicate, you went there to show yourself off. It was like one big narcissistic playground.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
21cf532
|
Zuckerberg had gotten lucky--in another world, the twins never would have had to approach him for coding help. In any event, Tyler and Cameron didn't believe they were on the earth to exist; they were here to create, to build.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
054b6de
|
Silicon Valley was a town made up of engineers who thought in frameworks, decision trees, and game theory.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |
|
d4860f8
|
One of the many pieces of advice his father had given him--besides the importance of antivenom and the need for a good, sturdy blade--was that field anthropology was ninety percent preparation, and ten percent trying desperately to recover when you didn't prepare properly.
|
|
|
Ben Mezrich |