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Comment by unalone | Hacker News Reader

I've always been curious to know how much of Facebook was Zuckerberg and how much was other people. A lot of people are quick to slap him down, but quite a few accounts say that he's as brilliant as he's credited for.

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He was offered a near $1-million offer from Microsoft, just for a job there, so his ability's not in dispute (unless $1-million is peanuts nowadays).

wasn't that to acquire the app he built which suggests new music to listen to on your computer? and he rejected that and decided instead to go to harvard?

i bet he was just trying to buy more time to build something bigger. from what i've heard, he was very much on a rapid fire mode with his projects. if one failed or didn't grow very quickly, he wouldn't wait long before moving on to another one.

That music player is impressive. I didn't know he'd made anything before Facebook.

Does it matter if he came up with it? I think brilliance isn't always in coming up with the idea. Often it is the ability to see one idea of many, the one that appears ordinary to everyone else, and zero in on it.

It does to me.

I'm guessing that the people downvoting you aren't aware of the part you played regarding Facebook's being made.

I'm going to agree with kolya3 in part, however. Ideas are good, but execution matters a lot more. Part of that's because execution means deciding exactly how to implement things, and that's where Facebook really signs. Everything works beautifully on a level I don't think any other site has reached. It's perfectly compact.

That's why I have the interest in Zuckerberg that I do. I'd like to know how much of Facebook's design philosophy is his, and how much is somebody else's. If it's his, then to be honest I'd forgive him for a lot of other shortcomings.

I down voted it because ideas are a dime a dozen, and social networks had already come to be prior to Fb.

I google ThinkComputer and very little substance comes up. I google the book, and very little substance comes up. I honestly don't think you had much beef on the bones to execute or market, and that's why I believe Mark passed on working with you and others. After all, how many founders of Facebook were there? I don't think his intentions were to short you if he thought you brought significant value to the equation.

Certainly I wasn't there so maybe I'm making an ass out of myself with said comment, but it's how I see it from a 3rd party persecutive. And with that said, I think it's time for you to move on with your life and show the world that you're not a prototypical wantraprenuer.

i don't think he's good at coming up with ideas, but he has shown repeatedly that he will execute the hell out of a project.

i don't think he's good at coming up with ideas

How would you know?

i'm just observing. he didn't come up with the idea for facemash (his friend recommended that to him), and the winklevoss brothers asked him to help build the harvard connection (which is as the rumor goes, where zuck started building facebook).

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