9 ms·

Absolutely. The Social Network made them out to be moneygrubbing fools, but everything else I've read shows them to be actually quite intelligent and prescient.

perseusprime11 9y ago
I still can’t get my head around the fact that Mark stole their idea and ran with it, and it was the twins who were made to look evil. What if this happens to any of us?
- jhall1468 9y ago
  Ideas are worthless. Undoubtedly he took their concept, but I sincerely doubt he developed a complete copy of their idea. Whether or not their idea would have worked is up for debate. But it's a pointless debate, because ideas are worthless... Unless of course, they are patented.
  - perseusprime11 9y ago
    So tomorrow if you hire couple of engineers to build a gaming app, are you saying you will fine if those engineers launch the app by themselves?
    - chrisco255 9y ago
      That's the risk you take in software in general. What stopped Instagram from copying Snapchat? Nothing. Micrsoft used to snuff out competitors in the office suite space all the time. MSN copied AIM. IE copied Netscape. It happens. You either work with founders you can trust or you don't.
      - ameister14 9y ago
        Sure, but that doesn't mean that if you hire engineers who then screw you over you're a bad person and they're heroes.
        kamaal 9y ago
        For better or worse that is how it works. And its not just with start ups. People who are more closer to work, generally tend to maximize returns for themselves above those are who are away from it. This is true even in Big companies. Most product managers I know barely contribute anything to the product, most of the times its the engineers doing all the work and the product manager is just there to provide the validation 'This looks fine to me'. There is a good reason why carpenters, plumbers, drivers, <skilled_worker> generally do better on the longer run than the supervisor ever does.
    - jhall1468 9y ago
      No I'd take the the court, because I wouldn't do that without a contract.
    - majormajor 9y ago
      What if your game idea is half-baked, incomplete, and generally kinda crappy, the engineers realize you don't have a complete idea, but then go on and develop a fully-baked similar idea on their own later, and it becomes a hit? Let's add some ambiguity to our "poor genius"/"brilliant thief" scenario :)
  - millermp12 9y ago
    If wikelvosses were from an intersectional/protected group you could bet your life the narrative would be a photonegative of the prevailing one.
  - inciampati 9y ago
    Knowing them, knowing him, having been there at the time, I can only confirm that they designed the entire rise of Facebook using the principle of exclusivity to build interest in users 1) outside Harvard, 2) outside the ivies, 3) outside colleges, etc. Zuckerberg was right (edit: correctly saw he was able, not morally right)toun with their ideas, and deserves credit for executing them to perfection. At the time I thought they were foolish for not having a contract and for not having built up enough technical skill to understand that Zuckerberg was taking them for a ride. This is definitely true, but they corrected the problem and have recovered brilliantly.
lerie82 9y ago
I don't think it made them seem unintelligent at all, I love that freaking movie, inspires me to write software every time. However, I do think it did make them look bad, even if they aren't but then again it was made from the POV of Facebook and not Winklevoss
chrisbennet 9y ago
They competed in the 2008 Olympics. In my book, that is, without a doubt, “proof of work”. You don’t get to the Olympics without a fantastic amount of work.
- Fnoord 9y ago
  If I, or virtually the vast majority of people who aren't among the ~0,01% richest in the world, didn't have to work one day in my life in order to sustain myself I could also focus on the Olympics. Ergo; in the context we discuss, that's less of an achievement for rich American kids than for poor people. Therefore not a good delimiter. And certainly not inspiring. The circumstances for the vast majority of people on earth are different. To start with, their financial circumstances.
  - edanm 9y ago
    Are you seriously saying that competing in the Olympics is not impressive? Less impressive because they're rich, sure, I'm with you. It makes it easier. But dismissing it as not a good delimiter and not inspiring is pretty ridiculous.
    - Fnoord 9y ago
      Whether you or I find it impressive or not is a personal value you or I have. For me, it depends on the sport. Some sports are simply elitist. Cricket is an example, tennis is another, hockey yet another. There's many more. You could even see the very notion of sport is elitist. Poor people need to focus on the bacon alone. Furthermore, when I learn about the circumstances of certain sports(wo)men I get touched. Lance Armstrong was an example of that because of his illness. Unfortunately he was a fraud, and I watched him win the Tour de France 7 times. We had Sochi as well, where so many Russians suddenly were winning while normally that isn't the case, now is it? Then there's the stories of poor people winning in sports. Those move me as well, but they seem to be rather rare. These 3 realizations destroyed a lot of the respect I had for Olympics or sports in general. Even though I am a hobbyist sporter myself (jogging), and have been a competing gamer in the past (the same is true there: if you got rich parents you're one step ahead). Its a personal value, YMMV.

perseusprime11 9y ago

I still can’t get my head around the fact that Mark stole their idea and ran with it, and it was the twins who were made to look evil. What if this happens to any of us?

jhall1468 9y ago
Ideas are worthless. Undoubtedly he took their concept, but I sincerely doubt he developed a complete copy of their idea. Whether or not their idea would have worked is up for debate. But it's a pointless debate, because ideas are worthless... Unless of course, they are patented.
- perseusprime11 9y ago
  So tomorrow if you hire couple of engineers to build a gaming app, are you saying you will fine if those engineers launch the app by themselves?
  - chrisco255 9y ago
    That's the risk you take in software in general. What stopped Instagram from copying Snapchat? Nothing. Micrsoft used to snuff out competitors in the office suite space all the time. MSN copied AIM. IE copied Netscape. It happens. You either work with founders you can trust or you don't.
    - ameister14 9y ago
      Sure, but that doesn't mean that if you hire engineers who then screw you over you're a bad person and they're heroes.
      - kamaal 9y ago
        For better or worse that is how it works. And its not just with start ups. People who are more closer to work, generally tend to maximize returns for themselves above those are who are away from it. This is true even in Big companies. Most product managers I know barely contribute anything to the product, most of the times its the engineers doing all the work and the product manager is just there to provide the validation 'This looks fine to me'. There is a good reason why carpenters, plumbers, drivers, <skilled_worker> generally do better on the longer run than the supervisor ever does.
  - jhall1468 9y ago
    No I'd take the the court, because I wouldn't do that without a contract.
  - majormajor 9y ago
    What if your game idea is half-baked, incomplete, and generally kinda crappy, the engineers realize you don't have a complete idea, but then go on and develop a fully-baked similar idea on their own later, and it becomes a hit? Let's add some ambiguity to our "poor genius"/"brilliant thief" scenario :)
- millermp12 9y ago
  If wikelvosses were from an intersectional/protected group you could bet your life the narrative would be a photonegative of the prevailing one.
- inciampati 9y ago
  Knowing them, knowing him, having been there at the time, I can only confirm that they designed the entire rise of Facebook using the principle of exclusivity to build interest in users 1) outside Harvard, 2) outside the ivies, 3) outside colleges, etc. Zuckerberg was right (edit: correctly saw he was able, not morally right)toun with their ideas, and deserves credit for executing them to perfection. At the time I thought they were foolish for not having a contract and for not having built up enough technical skill to understand that Zuckerberg was taking them for a ride. This is definitely true, but they corrected the problem and have recovered brilliantly.

lerie82 9y ago

I don't think it made them seem unintelligent at all, I love that freaking movie, inspires me to write software every time. However, I do think it did make them look bad, even if they aren't but then again it was made from the POV of Facebook and not Winklevoss

chrisbennet 9y ago

They competed in the 2008 Olympics. In my book, that is, without a doubt, “proof of work”. You don’t get to the Olympics without a fantastic amount of work.

Fnoord 9y ago
If I, or virtually the vast majority of people who aren't among the ~0,01% richest in the world, didn't have to work one day in my life in order to sustain myself I could also focus on the Olympics. Ergo; in the context we discuss, that's less of an achievement for rich American kids than for poor people. Therefore not a good delimiter. And certainly not inspiring. The circumstances for the vast majority of people on earth are different. To start with, their financial circumstances.
- edanm 9y ago
  Are you seriously saying that competing in the Olympics is not impressive? Less impressive because they're rich, sure, I'm with you. It makes it easier. But dismissing it as not a good delimiter and not inspiring is pretty ridiculous.
  - Fnoord 9y ago
    Whether you or I find it impressive or not is a personal value you or I have. For me, it depends on the sport. Some sports are simply elitist. Cricket is an example, tennis is another, hockey yet another. There's many more. You could even see the very notion of sport is elitist. Poor people need to focus on the bacon alone. Furthermore, when I learn about the circumstances of certain sports(wo)men I get touched. Lance Armstrong was an example of that because of his illness. Unfortunately he was a fraud, and I watched him win the Tour de France 7 times. We had Sochi as well, where so many Russians suddenly were winning while normally that isn't the case, now is it? Then there's the stories of poor people winning in sports. Those move me as well, but they seem to be rather rare. These 3 realizations destroyed a lot of the respect I had for Olympics or sports in general. Even though I am a hobbyist sporter myself (jogging), and have been a competing gamer in the past (the same is true there: if you got rich parents you're one step ahead). Its a personal value, YMMV.