Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley • Hacker News Board

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#131

Post by nugget » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 2:36 AM UTC

__jal wrote: post #87

I found myself nodding along the whole article. First, let me say that I am happy where I ended up. I'm successful, enjoy my work, and when I compare my personal income with our family income when I was growing up, it is an absurd multiple. We were a very poor family in a poor part of the South. I went to a top-10 small private university on a full ride, felt completely alienated and never quite figured out how to fu…

I've known deca-millionaire trust fund kids who ended up broke (or dead).

I've known immigrants who started with nothing and ended up fantastically independently wealthy.

And the vast, vast majority of people who settle somewhere near the middle.

What nobody teaches you is: it's all about luck.

Below that, the fine print: the harder you work and the more you sacrifice, the luckier you will get.

''If only'' works both ways. If only - then I would have been successful in some way. If only - then I wouldn't have met the partner who I fell in love with. It works both ways but people tend to overweight the negative (regret) and underweight the positive (gratitude). All you can do (young, old, or in between) is get up every day, be realistic about where you are and where you want to be, and keep moving forward.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#132

Post by tbrownaw » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 2:40 AM UTC

CamatHN wrote: post #98

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called the Internet. The problem is that people generally don't know what to search for, if they even know they should be learning more about some facet of modern life.

This is a ridiculous comment. Certain ways of behaviour, certain nuances, cannot accurately or reliably be picked up through reading online, only through interactions.

Eh... you do need practice, but if you're willing to sort thru all the crap then reading about things online can be a massive help.

Having things explicitly called out is way more efficient than trying to derive everything yourself (see also, effectiveness of supervised vs unsupervised learning).

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#133

Post by kelukelugames » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 2:43 AM UTC

refurb wrote: post #116

neilk wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? What caste did your family belong to? I'm allowed to ask these questions; the Indian side of my family are Brahmins, and boy does it show! Most of us walked straight from the lawyer/doctor/accountant/businessperson class in India into the lawyer/doctor/accountant/businessperson class in the USA and Canada. Sure things were difficult, but most of us had huge advantages.

I'm curious, why would your caste matter in the US?

Because classism is a thing. So is legacy of privilege. Literally all of my Indian co workers have been Brahmin.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#134

Post by Outdoorsman » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 2:49 AM UTC

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…

Bases on years of experience I would estimate that the "good" jobs, often regardless of the field, are landed as follows:

Networking (60% of my "gigs":) Nepotism (10%, maybe more, much less in my case) Proven Ability to Deliver (20%) Good Luck (10%)

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#135

Post by 67726e » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 2:50 AM UTC

mfringel wrote: post #89

BurningFrog wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the formal definition, used when being scrutinized. The angrier one is far more common in real life debate. http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/07/social-justice-and-word...

Does it being said in anger make it any less applicable?

The definition used in someone's essay means ass all to me. It's he definiton uaee by the common man, if you'll excuse my microaggression.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#136

Post by cocoggu » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 3:03 AM UTC

nugget wrote: post #131

__jal wrote: post #87

I found myself nodding along the whole article. First, let me say that I am happy where I ended up. I'm successful, enjoy my work, and when I compare my personal income with our family income when I was growing up, it is an absurd multiple. We were a very poor family in a poor part of the South. I went to a top-10 small private university on a full ride, felt completely alienated and never quite figured out how to fu…

I've known deca-millionaire trust fund kids who ended up broke (or dead). I've known immigrants who started with nothing and ended up fantastically independently wealthy. And the vast, vast majority of people who settle somewhere near the middle. What nobody teaches you is: it's all about luck. Below that, the fine print: the harder you work and the more you sacrifice, the luckier you will get. ''If only'' works both…

I agree it's a lot about luck and work, but I think you are missing an essential key to success: relationships.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#137

Post by cloverich » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 3:07 AM UTC

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…

> with highly educated parents I could have amazing conversations with, who would encourage me to achieve and grow even more.... I find I constantly have a mindset of "I'm not good enough" and it's paralysing.

I went to Medical school and for a period of time was surrounded by people who, for the most part, came from affluent or otherwise successful families. My experience was the opposite of what you might have expected: I met many people who felt like they weren't good enough, whose parents weren't encouraging to them, and in several cases had no relationship with them whatsoever. Which I guess is only to say, if you want to be "Good enough" you just have to accept yourself for who you are and continuously try to be better. If you want to apply for the top tech jobs, you should. And if you fail, you should ask how you can improve, do so, and try again. Ultimately, you can only ever be good enough if you try. Failure isn't a disastrous outcome; its absolutely a part of the process of getting better.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#138

Post by miiiiiike » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 3:11 AM UTC

An old friend and I were talking a few weeks ago and I smiled when he said "We were so poor growing up we didn't even realize we were poor." And we didn't, we were so poor we couldn't even pay attention. It's was good tho. It's still easy for me to live in a tiny apartment and exist on a steady diet of eggs'n'oatmeal, apples, and frozen chicken bought in bulk.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#139

Post by MonadQueen » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 3:14 AM UTC

I grew up without privilege. While I wasn't "dirt poor" my parents and grandparents were. Two of my grandparents lost everything when they were kicked out of their homes in Gaza City in 1929, and the other two were kicked out of their homes in Belarus in 1915.

Because I am Jewish and an Israeli citizen, I am hated by most of the Liberals in Silicon Valley.

Yet, I managed to succeed.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#140

Post by mikeyouse » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 3:23 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #104

"I'm a self made millionaire [0]" [0] - Apart from the safe suburban upper class childhood, the prep school and Harvard education my parents paid for, the job at Goldman Sachs my uncle got me straight out of school, and the finance network from that experience that eventually helped me with my first funding rounds, but yea, besides all that I'm TOTALLY SELF MADE!

Very succinctly put by Barry Switzer, a football coach in the US, "Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple."