Mark Zuckerberg on What ‘The Social Network’ Got Right

Zuckerberg admits “The Social Network” got a few things right.

Yes, Mark Zuckerberg always dressed terribly—even before he was a billionaire.

New York Mag today points out today that Mark Zuckerberg gave a lengthy talk over the weekend at a conference for startups, and admitted that “The Social Network” got a few things right.

After starting the interview admitting that he has no recollection of how he arrived at target numbers for acquiring Facebook members, simply saying, “I don’t remember. Everybody’s gotta have a dream,” the world’s youngest billionaire went on to dish about one detail the movie got right with startling recall: his clothes. “Every single shirt and fleece that I had in that movie is actually a shirt or fleece that I own.”

But what’s most interesting to me is that Zuckerberg talks about himself in the “The Social Network” in the first person, instead of referring to a third person character playing him:

The way that it starts is that I’m with this girl who doesn’t exist in real life who dumps me — which has happened in real life a lot — and basically, they frame it as if the whole reason for making Facebook and building something was because I wanted to get girls or I wanted to get into some sort of social institution. The reality for people who know me is I’ve actually been dating the same girl since before I started Facebook.

We know that Mark Zuckerberg liked Andy Samberg’s portrayal of himself on SNL a week ago, and we know from the New Yorker profile about Zuckerberg that Samberg has been one of his favorite comics for years. The reality-fiction friction has to create some kind of vertigo for Zuckerberg, especially when fiction is capturing your every T-shirt. Zuckerberg himself blurring lines between himself and the film’s portrayal is the latest in what’s sure to become a lifetime of turning himself into the most mythologized corporate titan in generations, if not ever. This is likely not an exaggeration, because unlike titans of say, banking or oil, Zuckerberg’s whole empire is based on how we perceive one another. Talk about a recipe for myth-making.

But Zuckerberg does seem to have a clear head. Despite all the hype, he’s still just a 26 year old kid who wants to build stuff. Of the Hollywood storytellers who are likely chomping at the bit for franchised sequels where ambition boils over in delectable drama, Zuckerberg says, “they just can’t wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like building things.”

Via [NY Mag]

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