Live data from Hacker News

Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

medium.com

41–50 of 322 posts

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#41

Great read. I've become allergic to words like "privilege" as they usually are seen in the company of ill-thought-out and grandiose/insulting/wrong proclamations about How Things Should Be Done, ..but this is none of that - it's an honest look and deep analysis of someone's experience. And knowing how important upbringing is, and the sheer (almost superhuman) tenacity the author had to go through to even partially ov…

mentoring. poor students.

Couldn't hurt, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't really solve the problem.

The author was poor, but appeared to have a positive, if difficult home life. Mentoring would have helped the knowledge problem, but his problem was lack of resource above everything else.

Lack of resource leads to instability, and it taints literally everything you do, even mentally.

I know, I know, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It's not me you have to convince.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like that survey. The lower class is completely unrepresented in tech. It's been one of the weirdest and hardest things for me to handle personally.

I think low-income people who go into tech do not go into start ups. It's a risk. If you fail (very likely), you are back to being poor. I'm a student and notice that a lot of the other low income students and underrepresented groups (of which I am a part of) in my CS program go straight to "safe" jobs, usually enterprise stuff. Actually now that I think about it: I work in my university's IT department, helping out…

I think there is a flipside to this too though. If you're not wealthy, you're less worried about living on start-up income. I think you particularly see this among immigrants who realize how incredibly wealthy even the poor in America are by internatiomal standards. People with this perspective are much more willing to drive an old beat up car and share a room relative to someone who feels pressure to keep up with their wealthy friends and family in the suburbs.

Edit: few people work in start-ups as well, so it is probably easy to run into confirmation bias looking at the people you know in your life

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#43
"but building and sustaining a company that is “designed to grow fast” is especially hard if you grew up desperately poor"

Most people don't have the money or resources to build a company like this, which is why we have VC. They know you are in a desperate situation and exchange the money that you need for a % of the company.

The better thing to do is choose a solid business idea that can be built slowly and at a certain point, put money you make from this venture into an idea that needs more capital to succeed.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#44

This is a really poorly written post. Where exactly is the inequality in Silicon Valley? The OP got into Stanford, and then got an entire free ride something most people can't get. How exactly does this prove inequality? And then he got into YC. If anything this proves how equal things are in the Valley, if you're hardworking enough, there isn't anything you can't do, regardless of your social status. Sure, you have…

You obviously have no idea what it's like to grow up poor. The fear, the guilt, the frustration, and the exhaustion that you learn almost as if through sheer osmosis from your parents. The author is not arguing that you literally cannot compete if you're poor. But it's the very mindset from growing up in poverty that, through almost every interaction you have in childhood, leads you to _believe_ that you cannot compe…

Growing up without self-confidence isn't something that is only for poor people. It's a personality trait that people across all classes share.

What about growing up ugly? Ugly people also suffer from lack of self-confidence, that the "good looking popular kids" are better than them.

Everyone has their crosses to bear, whether it's race, wealth, weight, beauty, etc. It's not all poor people have no self-confidence, plenty of people from poor backgrounds with plenty of self confidence.

And yes, you really have no idea what I've been through in my life or what my background is.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an n of 1 experiential depiction of what the person went through, combined with the attempt at extracting the points in which that n of 1 had to overcome certain challenges. It also hypothesizes that there are similar challenges that immigrants and lower income folks go through. Commenters on the post resonate with it, so I think it definitely exists despite another segment of the same economic population also e…

Yes, exactly, I agree with you that it's anecdotal, but the article make broad claims as to what poor people are like.

That's fair. My suspicion is that portion of the blog post is a claim/hypothesis on the average persons within that economic segment ('poor people') who start a startup. Certainly that hypothesis could be wrong, and the post is meant to spark a conversation and describe the experiences of the author.

On another note, I suspect a portion of the motivation for the post was also in part sparked by the "Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley" in which does exist (see other folks comments); however, the post is more about the n of 1 experience, the challenges faced within building a startup, and the hypothesis that it may resonate with others facing that startup experience. I think what you're seeing in the comments is the resonating of the title in addition to the content of the piece. I personally believe these are two distinct issues: 1- building a successful startup coming from that background, 2- working in the SV/tech companies with ivy leaguers who tend to grow up in higher economic households / have experienced different lives therein making it harder to relate/fit in for those with diff backgrounds. It's certainly a deeper discussion. Wealthy people can have tremendous insecurities around sharing their wealthy therein can feel isolated. (ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o46HH-TfNY )

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You obviously have no idea what it's like to grow up poor. The fear, the guilt, the frustration, and the exhaustion that you learn almost as if through sheer osmosis from your parents. The author is not arguing that you literally cannot compete if you're poor. But it's the very mindset from growing up in poverty that, through almost every interaction you have in childhood, leads you to _believe_ that you cannot compe…

Growing up without self-confidence isn't something that is only for poor people. It's a personality trait that people across all classes share. What about growing up ugly? Ugly people also suffer from lack of self-confidence, that the "good looking popular kids" are better than them. Everyone has their crosses to bear, whether it's race, wealth, weight, beauty, etc. It's not all poor people have no self-confidence, p…

[deleted]

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#47
As an Indian immigrant when I see people complaining about Privilege and Inequality in SV (and in America) I feel like laughing.

I lived in a society where everyone was almost the same, similar economic status, similar privilege etc. etc. Life sucked. I decided to move out to be among the top 10% instead of one of the 100%. I eventually ended up in SV.

This place is awesome and the very reason I am here is because I can be in the top 10%. I dont want to be equal but I seek privileged, extra-ordinary wealth and stuff that most others can not afford. I think it is an amazing thing that places like SV exist. If you somehow take out that incentive I think I will move somewhere else. Of course I would be moving out of California sooner or later given the taxes.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#48

interesting take. I'd like to hear what PG and others think. Coming from a middle class background, I can relate a bit and see-observationally-the other components to what Ricky's calling "mindset inequality". It's almost like "new money" vs folks that have bigger dollars to spend growing up. I know a lot of friends that have deeply entrenched psychological elements they need to overcome before reaching that "next le…

My parents started out very poor and climbed into the middle class by the time I got to high school. The extended family is still poor, so I'm still exposed to how they think about money. I think the mindsets can break down into three levels, but not cleanly.

Poor: You may have to make decisions about which bills to pay or which needs to meet, and being able to pay all your bills and eat is considered a moral virtue. Money is naturally transient, because your obligations have similar weight to your income, and having excess money in your bank account is weird, unnatural to the point that your instinct is to spend it before it goes away. If you use a budget, line-items are on the size of a grocery trip. You're more likely to budget small purchases than large purchases. If you are trying to build savings, putting money into a savings account is another bill.

Middle class: Your bank account is the intermediary between your bills and income, with a mean and a natural trajectory. If your account's trajectory is positive, your natural instinct is to spend it, either on better lifestyle or a large purchase, very occasionally savings. If you have a budget, components are like "monthly food" and you deal with going over-budget by cutting a few more corners next month. Savings are still another bill. Putting the right amount into your savings account to retire in 40 years is a moral obligation.

Capital class: Interest on your earnings is your primary source of income. Your rate of spending must be lower than the rate you earn interest; to do otherwise is dipping into capital, which is morally wrong. Any interest you don't plan to spend is folded back into your capital, giving you a small, permanent raise. I don't understand this class too well because I'm still working on entering it.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#49
post #7
post #3

Has anyone done a survey of the family socio-economic status of startup founders and early employees? I'd be curious to see how many founders/early employees are from low-income families, whether their parents graduated college, etc. If not, I'd love to create one.

There is this: http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anat...

This is unfortunately very outdated. (07/08/09)

I would wager that a lot has changed in the last 7 years.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#50

This is a really poorly written post. Where exactly is the inequality in Silicon Valley? The OP got into Stanford, and then got an entire free ride something most people can't get. How exactly does this prove inequality? And then he got into YC. If anything this proves how equal things are in the Valley, if you're hardworking enough, there isn't anything you can't do, regardless of your social status. Sure, you have…

You obviously have no idea what it's like to grow up poor. The fear, the guilt, the frustration, and the exhaustion that you learn almost as if through sheer osmosis from your parents. The author is not arguing that you literally cannot compete if you're poor. But it's the very mindset from growing up in poverty that, through almost every interaction you have in childhood, leads you to _believe_ that you cannot compe…

I get the author's point, but the style of writing came across as a bit too "poor me" at times.

Supporting family is not something that just happens for those that worked their way up from poor households, the last recession also has created situations where people now who came from middle class backgrounds may be the provider for their family based on poor decisions by their parents.

Post reply on HN