Comments on: Mastering A Genre – Book: The Accidental Billionaires

By: Best of 2010: The Social Network | caracinema

Best of 2010: The Social Network | caracinema — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 08:25:29 +0000

[...] many conversations between the major players (Zuckerberg, Saverin, etc) that never took place (admitted by the author himself in the book’s preface). And Sorkin didn’t originally adapt Mezrich’s novel…he was doing his own private [...]

By: replcia handbags

replcia handbags — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:02:52 +0000

A very good article, I will always come in.

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:48:06 +0000

The answer is going to vary dramatically based on the actual ability of the service to extract money out of its users long term. Your post is a good start on the analysis. The neat think in the world of software is that the capex and infrastructure investment is MUCH LOWER than many other businesses, so the lifetime value of a customer is often attractive at even relatively low dollar amounts.

By: Martin Thomas

Martin Thomas — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:12:40 +0000

Hi.. I recently read Accidental Billionaires and it got me thinking. What is more valuable for a software company (like facebook). 1,000 paying users or 100,000 non-paying users? What are your thoughts? View my blog post here: http://www.purlem.com/blog/?p=57

By: Book: Computing in the Middle Ages

Book: Computing in the Middle Ages — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:09:37 +0000

[...] Traditional Dutch French German Greek Italian Japenese Korean Portuguese Russian Spanish < Mastering A Genre – Book: The Accidental Billionaires | July 19, [...]

By: Merle Gornick

Merle Gornick — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:12:54 +0000

I LOVED Accidental Billionaires! Great review! (High Fives Brad Feld)

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:20:05 +0000

Given your perspective, you are right – you would hate the book! I’m glad I saved you a couple of hours of your life.

By: Brian Dear

Brian Dear — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:42:19 +0000

For a number of years I've been working on a book on the history of the PLATO system and the first online community that grew up around it. One thing I have always regretted is the lack of recordings — no footage, be it audiotape, videotape, film, whatever. So I have little original material to go by except the scant written record, and a huge oral history I've gathered by doing hundreds of interviews.

But in weaving the story together the last thing I would ever do is invent dialogue. I dunno, I find it a detestable crossing of a line I simply won't cross. Sure, there is a "genre" of invented "almost-non-fiction" with fake dialogue and imagined scenes. And sure, somebody's gotta be a "master" of such a genre. But thank god it it isn't me.

You either have the story or you don't, in my opinion. If you don't, you keep digging. But what you never, ever, ever do is make the story up. Ever!

Just a difference of styles, I suppose.

Thanks for the reminder not to go buy and read "Accidental Billionaires".