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Ask HN: is "The Social Network" motivating entrepreneurs?

8 points by fgblanch ↗ HN
Do you think there would be an increase in number of startup's, people moving to the valley, college dropout's after watching "The Social Network"?

Beyond the fact that it is a movie and that part of it is fiction. I think it will inspire potential entrepreneurs to start coding their ideas and probably move to SFO. Don't you think so?

10 comments

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maigret
I really think it is. From watching the movie, I realized Zuckerberg has probably never had a better time in his life thans when he built Facebook from scratch. That made me also clear why many entrepreneurs cannot stay in one startup/project and need to recreate something new regularly. It's making me think also ;)
fgblanch
I bet it will probably rise the number of YCombinator applicants for Summer 2011! :
alexfisher
Totally. I went home and started hacking until the early morning hours like I hadn't done in years.
jpdbaugh
I think it will inspire a bunch of people to try who will never in a million years succeed. It will also make it crazy easy for coders to pick up girls at the bars.
maigret
LOL, I hope your second point is true! "I'm a programmer"
jpdbaugh
It really is. Social Network is going to do for our profession what Wall Street did in the 80s for Investment Banking.
djacobs
Geekery has been cool for a while, but I've always felt that programming has carried a specific social stigma. With a bestselling movie that includes the line "I need to break out Emacs for that Perl script", maybe things are about to change.
coryl
I think any real entrepreneurs familiar with web development already know what startups are like, and won't change much.

But those who don't know what startups are about may give it a try, which is great.

maxhenderson
I don't think it'll motivate people to start up a company any more than "the replacements" motivated people to be pro footballers. I think it might get people thinking about ideas, but in the end, it's the execution that counts.

Whilst it's always great for society in general to have as many innovators as possible, I think movies like this tout the "sexy" idea, instead of the grind-it-out reality. As soon as people who were inspired by a movie notice that fact, they jump ship as quickly as the hopped on.