Feedback on the book "Durov Code" N. Kononov

Disclaimer: there may be some spoilers, I will try to do it at a minimum.

I'm amazed. The author managed to achieve what these books are written for - to show the elitism of the new generation of entrepreneurs. Definitely for sure: schoolchildren and students who suddenly break away from Vkontakte and read a book will want to become like Durov.
I liked the syllable, very similar to Pelevin's style. I will try to write this short review in the same ornate style).

I am sure that Durov read Castaneda (experience: I myself read the first 5 books): in the book, the unusual nature of his character, purposefulness, desire to be perfect, not to care about the opinions of others and act as you see fit, run through the red line. A kind of "man of knowledge", "warrior" with the unbending intent to develop the network and not to compromise its principles. However, this approach also has a downside: I was very surprised at his act towards his friends, numbers 3 and 4 of VKontakte S. Mirilashvili and L. Leviev with whom he created the project from the very beginning. Pavel simply deleted them from Vkontakte, why read. And here you can make sure that they really are not.

For example, I am embarrassed by such an attitude towards friends, because you can be left without them at all.
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The author constantly emphasizes the unusual principles of Durov:

“You are a typical libertarian waiting for the collapse of states,” I said, looking at the punks at the Eternal Flame.

Durov, as if he had not heard, continued the thought: “People hold on to the state as a life jacket and for the often ephemeral, poor-quality protection of interest they are ready to lose independence. Take the channels of information - how power communicates with the population.
The state is now learning the Internet, producing viral videos, but it does not have a monopoly.

This is a very controversial moment - the world is structurally arranged, and the book itself states that Vkontakte is to some extent a mini-state, and Durov is its president. Let then he himself abandons centralized control.

Durov curses bureaucrats, but how they, the nerds, themselves make decisions in the company? “Sam” and several programmers discuss innovations, and then Durov often pushes his, the only true opinion. And it used to be wrong.

Sorry, but the introduction of the wall or the shrinking of the user's personal data for a place under the pictures in the profile are not innovations that you think about during long nights. Just as it is not an innovation patent for the "rounded corners" of a single device.

I think Durov is a hidden socialist, perhaps even a communist. This is indicated by his desire not to litter Vkontakte with ads, banners, etc., to leave the service free for people. The only problem is that in the capitalist world he has to cave in under the oligarchs who demand profits and IPOs. And it is here that it turns out that Vkontakte is lagging behind Facebook. Because so unloved by Paul monetization on Facebook is put on a big foot.

What the book has changed in me is the opinion of Durov — it has improved. Now many people still think that he just copied Facebook, but this is far from the case, he never copied without using a head. Was he lucky? Yes, he is supported by oligarch friends and V. Surkov. And yet he would never have been able to create such a successful company without natural assertiveness and diligence. In spite of the criticism above, he did many things very correctly, far-sightedly.

Why this review? I am a patriot, I would not want that Facebook captured Russia, but the dynamics of growth shows that it is quite possible. That would be bad in terms of the country's information security. But Vkontakte really needs to apply innovation in order to go its own way. It could be Google points with the integration of the social functions of Vkontakte in the real world. Or, for example, a virtual universe with 3D avatars for interactive negotiations. But something needs to be done.