Today I really started thinking about Facebook and its significance in society. I was down at University of Illinois with my dad and I listened to him lecture about enterprise 2.0, which, in a nutshell, is what the internet has come to be: interactive and communicative. My dad was using Facebook as a reference to how the web has morphed into a place where people can interact and meet based on common interest, and information can be relayed between individuals and groups of people. This got me thinking about the creator of Facebook; who was he? How did he think of this seemingly innovative and creative idea? Just as I had assumed from the 10,000 hour rule chapter, Mark Zuckerberg had been programming since middle school. He attended private school and the went on to Harvard, where he created Facebook. He had programmed non-stop from age 13 on. Facebook was started by him and his roommates at Harvard for fun, and from there it skyrocketed into a worldwide phenomenon. The idea of having the right balance of opportunity, ability and luck really comes into play in this scenario. Luck was definitely a big factor in Zuckerbergs story, and it appeared as if the whole thing was completely by accident. He "struck it big" right from the beginning. His background revealed that he had numerous resources and a great education and family to enforce the opportunity and ability components in this case. Luck came in with how quickly the program caught fire. So is Mark Zuckerberg considered an "expert" programmer? He definitely has ability, opportunity and luck on his side, which certainly helps.
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