Why The Social Network Is A Stupid Movie.

So I finally got around seeing The Social Network a couple of days ago and I have no idea why, but I feel compelled to say something about the movie so I am just going to blabber a bit about it. A couple of things that are upbeat about the movie:

For a change it is good to know that even people like Mark Zuckerberg who are capable of starting something as amazing as Facebook also have mere mortal problems like breakups in their lives. The way Mark is shown reacting to his breakup is inspirational (except of course, the bitching about his girl friend in public part). The idea of channeling your energy towards building something, specially when you are depressed is an idea that has always fascinated me.

The characterization of Mark was brilliant if you ask me. I am not sure if mark is just as obnoxious, loud and restless in the real world, but the depiction of his character was fascinating to say the least.

The downsides of Social Network are many though. To begin with I am sick and tired of overnight success stories when someone sits through an entire night, slams his fingers on the keyboard and produces something which earns millions of dollars and makes him rich. The idea works on fairy tales but in the real world I think the idea is sick because it just fools ordinary people into believing that is how life works. That some people are just geniuses who can produce products which produce millions of dollars by just slamming the keyboard throughout the night.

BULLSHIT!

The idea of facebook, as the movie depicts was clearly stolen. But then ideas are a dime a dozen and the very fact that Mark had the talent to shape the idea into reality makes it seem just that he should be the one making the big bucks with facebook. The point here however, is that was it really just one FaceSmash that got mark the negative popularity and made him capable of building something as fun filled as facebook? Bullshit! It probably took years for that level of competence to come about. The movie begins at the breakup and quietly ignores the period where the competence was getting formed.

The other thing that is really stupid about the movie is the amount of time given to the "Actual building of Facebook". Mark is shown working for a few minutes (which depict days) and then bham! Facebook comes into existence. STUPID! The dedication, the hard work and the effort that went into building facebook does not even show through in the movie.

The movie ends up depicting Mark as a weirdo, a jerk and an asshole. Someone who is just an amazing programmer and a passive observer to everything else. I don't know if that is truly the case. It is hard to believe though.

All in all, when you are building a movie on something like facebook and you are going to put in the research, you are better of telling the story of facebook rather than Mark Zuckerberg because human beings are basically capable of doing some fairly stupid things. Show us what Mark did right, focus on that and let us learn from those things rather than showing us stupid parties, lesbians kissing and how the CEO of napster liked having crack with a bunch of interns.

I am sure there were greater minds at work on Facebook that brought it where it is right now. Why not showcase those minds? Show us how they worked, their marketing strategy, the decisions that they took and how things worked out. Yes I know all of that is probably not as interesting as lesbians kissing in wild parties and the CFO of facebook humping an Asian girl in a toilet, but I would be much more interested in knowing how facebook evolved than seeing the shitty acts every mere mortal is capable of indulging in. Is that just me? Huh? Huh? Huh?

Yahoo Chat Rooms Or Online Brothels? May The Force Be With You!

Okay, I told myself that I was going to write something here frequently and now that the first blog post is over and I do not have something funny to say, I am just going to keep Pooping here and hope something funny comes out. Let's talk about... Yahoo Chat Rooms.  Yeah. That's something interesting to talk about right there.

You know there was a time when internet chat was a pretty cool thing. As students we used to login with our real names and make real friends in chat rooms. Then something strange happened and chat rooms phased out of our lives. We grew up. In the mean time we (the we that encompasses the entire human race, or at least the subset of the human race who call themselves programmers) were busy building more and more websites like Twitter, Facebook and Orkut (and minting a shitload of money building these websites) while the rest of us were busy yelling "Hey this is FUCKING COOL! That's SOCIAL MEDIA!".

While ALL this was happening the chat rooms were turning into shit holes for bots and people looking for Sex Chat. Now I have nothing against bots per say (except the fact that they are hugely irritating and I do not understand why anyone in their right mind would waste time building them). As far as sex chat is concerned methinks there are some stats out there which say that Cyber Sex is actually brining crime levels down in some countries. Besides it is safer than the real thing and utterly amusing if you have ever stumbled into a Yahoo Chat Room and have seen messages of a 29/m/LA look for a Lonely Wild Girl, so I am not complaining. Every man (and woman) has a right to pick the kind of conversations they want to have with perfect strangers and if they want a little bit of textual entertainment, I am perfectly fine with that.

But then, these two breeds of chatters, the bots and horny young (and old) guys wanting cyber sex, slowly turned Yahoo Chat Rooms into a place where you weren't comfortable giving out your real name or for that matter strike even a perfectly sane, normal conversations with perfectly sane and interesting human beings.

The rooms do not seem to have a lot of discussions or conversations going on these days. Every conversation that happens usually happens between a "M" and a "F" in private messages, even if it's a perfectly sane, funny, witty, normal conversation. I've started looking at Yahoo Chat Rooms as a means to get to know a hundred random strangers and I can tell  you it seems FUCKING DIFFICULT.

It's tragic and funny, because while we were busy yelling "SOCIAL MEDIA! TWITTER! FACEBOOK!" we took a perfectly working form of direct one on one conversations (chat rooms) and turned it into an online brothel for cybersex.

Anyhow,  I have been frequently visiting these online brothels for the last couple of days and there is some hope left. In the last couple of weeks I have been able to bump into at least two really interesting people who I am having meaningful conversations with. It is a sign that perfectly intelligent, smart and even witty individuals still care to have direct text based meaningful and completely meaningless conversations with each other.  So, The Jedi Race isn't wiped out yet. Now all we need is a Luke Skywalker to find Yoda and learn the ways of the force and Chat Rooms can be fun again. May The Force Be With You.

A Hundred Random Strangers

There is a me in me that loves the idea of walking up to perfect strangers, saying "Hi" and having a normal intellectual, stupid, funny, loud, hilarious conversation with them. That me has been dormant for so long that I do not even know if that me exists anymore. This blog is my attempt to find if that me ever existed in the first place. This ID, this blog, the twitter account is my attempt at trying to meet a hundred perfect strangers online and trying to have perfectly sane, meaningful conversations with them.

So here is the deal. By the end of next year, I am going to use this blog to get to know 100 complete strangers that I did not know before. And by know I do not mean, you follow me on twitter, I follow you back, kind of knowing. By knowing I mean connecting. Listening. Helping. Understanding. Exchanging Ideas. You know the stuff that you do in "Real Life" and not the Web 2.0 Social Networks.

How I plan on stumbling upon this 100 people to have online conversations with is a completely different challenge. I realize that I am going to have to frequent twitter. I realize that I am going to have to stalk follow you on Twitter.  I am going to have to be friends with you on Facebook. So the next time you are in a Yahoo Chat Rooms having a discussion on something and a random stranger chimes in, says Hi and starts expressing his opinions, you know its me, and you are one of those hundred interesting people I planned on meeting in this journey.

The Journey has begun. The first mile stone, a hundred really interesting people.

Are you one of them?

Hi! Make yourself comfortable. More content will show up here soon and then you can decide if our interests coincide enough for us to have a meaningful conversation.