Money, genius, asshole, attitude and betrayal

Rating: 10/10 (8 March 2011)

Money and wealth: No spiritual things are mentioned here. We only talk about the Material. What is "money" and what is "wealth"? You spend one hour, write a program and sell it to Microsoft. Then you get $1000 and buy your girlfriend a coat. That's wealth! Studentship or the money that our parents support is far from called wealth, until you know how to use it to make more. In the movie, Mark and Eduardo are rich. But for the twin Winklevoss, I have to say that they are not rich enough.
Talent excitation: Everybody has the potential to become a genius. However, a so-called genius must be stimulated, which makes the genius-population limited. Provocation from his girl is the original motivation to start the facebook. Challenging tasks in programming may help Mark forget the unhappiness at the same time. Actually, real excitation is very hard to get, because you have to obtain a woman you care and a project you like.
Asshole's logic: Mark is called "asshole", because he is incredibly meticulous and nerdy. Everything in his eyes has to be precise and correct, just like Binary. During the foundation of facebook, I think Mark understands very well how much stake each of them, Eduardo, Sean and himself should hold. In Mark's opinion, Eduardo has to pay for his mistake. If we say that the freezing of accounts is excusable due to Mark's behavior which made Eduardo has unfair treatment feeling, then the praise "I love talking to people who understand finance" went to his head, which makes it obvious that he was careless! Therefore, Eduardo should not get 30% stake in Mark's point of view. But will it be only 0.3%? We don't know.
Attitude and power: A very interesting phenomenon is that in China, when you drink with your friend, although both of you do not want to get drunk, you all do finally. Sometimes, people are living for a kind of feeling, for example, feeling balance and fair. Unless you are as nerdy as Mark is, you always have to show some attitude although it seems to be meaningless. That's why we saw "Harvard gentlemen" and "I just want to get my things back" in the movie.
Betrayal and Self-harm: Are Mark and Eduardo friends? This is just like asking whether Mark and Erica are lovers. Different people have different way to express their emotions. There was a very talented and pretty poetess "Lin Daiyu" in Chinese fiction who liked get-together, but she actually did not enjoy it because before get-together, she always worried her friends' leaving. She could not endure this feeling, as a result, she said she hated get-together and never wanted it! Maybe Mark values friendship very much, but simultaneously, he fears his friend one day will betray him! Mark would rather hurt his best friend, in case of one day's probable betrayal, which is kind of helpless protection. But who will be hurt more? He keeps doing this, and falls in love with this self-harm feeling gradually! Does he remember once he said to Eduardo "WE did it"?
"You're not an asshole, Mark. You are just trying so hard to be."
At the end of movie, Mark refreshes the web page over and over again. In fact, he is hurt seriously, more than Eduardo, and more than Erica. Although he has got to 500 million friends with only a few enemies, the biggest enemy is himself ironically. You can say he is poor, you can sigh he is tragic. But after all, he asked for it, he does not even dare to imagine his girl will come back! Instead, he is enjoying her rejection from time to time, like... drugs.