Facebook launched as one undergraduate’s race against the university bureaucracy.

Evidence

So it took some nerve when Zuckerberg, now calling himself the “Founder, Master and Commander, Enemy of the State,” gathered his code posse to throw together a site named “Thefacebook.” He announced the undertaking with his usual confidence or presumption, depending on your view. “Everyone’s been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard,” Zuckerberg said. “I think it’s kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 980

Categorization

• CANDY: A fun origin detail — the world’s dominant social platform began as a college kid racing the administration to publish an online yearbook, in a week, after being put on probation.
• XREF: connects to: Facebook originated as physical student directories at American universities. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 976