Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 322 posts

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#121

Post by colechristensen »

aidanlister wrote: post #111
jhanschoo wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you say that going to parties outweigh directly networking? Networking might be a benefit, but I'm sure that people go to parties with a different goal in mind, and that the time cost of partying can be better utilized in other ways.

In the undergrad university scene that is being discussed I'm having a hard time visualising what "direct networking" would look like. However, I can confidently say there's a big difference in the bond formed between two people chugging beer bongs together vs asking someone in a lecture if they'd like to have lunch. I also think the party scene would be difficult to replicate in terms of the sheer size of your poten…

I can confirm, I'd place much more value (including monitary- and career- value) on the connections made with people sharing the experience of being an irresponsible young person than I would the connections made during study/projects/"networking" etc. This isn't to say that A) these groups didn't overlap significantly or B) I wish I'd gotten blackout drunk more often; but the social aspect of being forced into close quarters living your life for a few years with peers in your age group is as least of equal value to the "education" part.

I've tried to say it in many different ways, but I'll try again: being "graded" constantly and basing huge path-driving decisions on those grades are a huge detriment to people and to society. I and many others would have had a much better, more rewarding, and more valuable experience if the point of Univerity wasn't gathering a dozen metrics a week for several years in a row in order to get a piece of paper.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#122

Post by clock_tower »

indubitablytrue wrote: post #107
ginsurge wrote: post #103

This really resonates with me, I was the first person in my family to go to university, and my grandparents had to work multiple jobs when they migrated from Europe in order to survive. My dad did slightly better, but both my parents only had high school education and worked blue collar jobs. It does make it really hard to change your mindset when you come from this sort of background, when you've achieved more than…

You are very hardworking, talented, and special. You have risen above your station. God only knows what a person of your caliber would have achieved if you had had a more fortunate background. I hope that this message massaged your ego to a satisfactory degree.

Why in the world are you _hostile_ to the kind of accomplishments he's describing? Are you from pre-colonization India? 13th-century Europe? Christopher Columbus called, we don't despise upward social mobility anymore!

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#123

Post by rpgmaker »

luckydata wrote: post #69
namenotrequired wrote: post #63

Finally someone who talks about the consequences of economic inequality. PG seemed to think all that mattered is the causes.

I don't think PG had to face any of this, is aware or even cares about it. That article he wrote was pretty indicative of his mentality.

Exactly. What people need to understand here is that pg isn't an actual prophet. He is insightful in many ways sure, particularly about entrepreneurship and SV culture but that's about it.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#124

Post by LinkPlug »

jtolmar wrote: post #48
ryanwitt112 wrote: post #2

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.…

Great insights

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#125

Post by haberman »

pavornyoh wrote: post #120
haberman wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by "PG made his point poorly" you mean "PG didn't communicate in a way that was misunderstanding-proof", I can agree with you. Inequality is an emotionally-charged subject that is prone to misunderstanding. I think PG underestimated how thoroughly the intellectual basis of his argument would be missed once he uttered the words "I've been helping to increase economic inequality." Most of the critiques of PG accuse…

I think PG underestimated how thoroughly the intellectual basis of his argument would be missed once he uttered the words "I've been helping to increase economic inequality." Most of the critiques of PG accuse him of not caring about poor people. And yet his essay specifically attacks poverty and lack of social mobility: I have to agree with you. I am actually surprised PG tried to even write a second essay to explai…

Agreed. People are downvoting my other comments in this thread too -- on a visceral level, people seem to really want to believe that PG doesn't care about poor people.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#126

Post by Frondo »

Domenic_S wrote: post #96
AlexWest wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's really the whole point of privilege - belonging to the group is enough to grant you the advantages of it. Period. It doesn't mean your life is great, it doesn't mean you don't have problems, but the members of a privileged class absolutely possess those privileges - that's how it works.

I get it, but I don't buy it. Rather, I don't buy that it's so cut and dried as to be accepted with "period". When you're part of the largest demographic, you're basically invisible: Generic 30s Middle Class White Guy #87473674282. The term just isn't nuanced enough.

Well, that's part of the point, the invisibility.

Like, for example, there are those studies that show how people with names that sound traditionally black don't get called for job interviews nearly as often. Take the name off the resume and they get called with parity to traditionally white-sounding names.

Or, for another example, it used to be that orchestral auditions were conducted where you could see the player as they played. Orchestras of the period were heavily male-dominated. After they switched to blind auditions--that is, the player plays behind a partition, so you can't see whether they're male or female--suddenly a lot more women started getting hired for orchestral musician positions. The gender balance has begun approaching parity, when the listeners can't see who's playing.

You're right that generic white guy is "invisible," but another way to look at it is, we're the standard. We fit the type everyone wants already. We don't stand out, because we're basically the accepted definition of an acceptable person. We are who you hire, put in your tv shows, give housing loans to, etc.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#127

Post by ginsurge »

clock_tower wrote: post #122
indubitablytrue wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are very hardworking, talented, and special. You have risen above your station. God only knows what a person of your caliber would have achieved if you had had a more fortunate background. I hope that this message massaged your ego to a satisfactory degree.

Why in the world are you _hostile_ to the kind of accomplishments he's describing? Are you from pre-colonization India? 13th-century Europe? Christopher Columbus called, we don't despise upward social mobility anymore!

I'm a she, btw.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#128

Post by WalterBright »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #80
WalterBright wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad returned from combat in WW2 where 80% of his group were casualties and he expected to die in combat. He said he was amused at the triviality of everyday concerns. "What's your problem, you're not going to die tomorrow!" And really, if you're able-bodied and able-minded and nobody is trying to kill/maim/imprison you, then life is good. I went to retrieve the mail this morning, and was greeted with a bright blue…

There are a lot of us out there with similar backgrounds, yet when you tell people that any day that you aren't being shot at, or blown up or starving is a good day, they look at you like you are crazy.

I try (not always successfully) the philosophy that any day you can wake up, put yo feets on the ground and get up, is a good day.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#129

Post by gozur88 »

nickbauman wrote: post #71

There's a strong thread of meritocracy in the tech community, but there is no such thing. When you choose the clearly better developer over the other, you're often choosing the one who had better resources growing up, not just natural ability. The poorer developer may have had a natural advantage over the other one, but didn't have the money to develop it as much. So you're really just selecting for wealth all over a…

>There's a strong thread of meritocracy in the tech community, but there is no such thing. When you choose the clearly better developer over the other, you're often choosing the one who had better resources growing up, not just natural ability.

You're using an overly restrictive definition of "merit". When you hire the best person for the job you're hiring based on merit. How they got there isn't really that important from your perspective as an employer. That's a meritocracy.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#130

Post by pdkl95 »

Domenic_S wrote: post #96
AlexWest wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's really the whole point of privilege - belonging to the group is enough to grant you the advantages of it. Period. It doesn't mean your life is great, it doesn't mean you don't have problems, but the members of a privileged class absolutely possess those privileges - that's how it works.

I get it, but I don't buy it. Rather, I don't buy that it's so cut and dried as to be accepted with "period". When you're part of the largest demographic, you're basically invisible: Generic 30s Middle Class White Guy #87473674282. The term just isn't nuanced enough.

> you're basically invisible.

That's the point - being invisible is a privileged state. Black people are not invisible the US, where some people (not all) will inevitably treat them with suspicion (or worse).

Post reply on HN