21–30 of 77 posts
I think most of all, I just appreciate knowing that there is someone else kicking around in this city that feels the same way I do.
It's interesting to me that my friends and I who grew up in SV and lived through the .com boom as adolescents and had parents who worked during the .com and PC/networking/semiconductor booms are largely skeptical and at times even dismissive of the latest incarnation of SV culture. Perhaps it's hubris ("the old version --my version-- was better"), perhaps it's cynicism (seeing family/friends be burned in the last boo…
I graduated from high school in 1996 and was way into web development from the very first days. I didn't end up coming out for the dotcom days, but I definitely have fond memories of those times. There was a sense of camaraderie of early PC and internet users where the motivations seemed to me to be slightly more noble. Not that the VCs or tech giants of the time weren't greedy—of course they were—but there wasn't th…
If we discarded every item you mentioned for being juvenile or immature the office of your dreams would look like this: http://www.nimlok-chicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/cub... But that's not the office of your dreams right? To know the office of your dreams you would have to tell me _what you want_, not what you-do-not-want, which is missing in every paragraph of this piece.
Overall, though, I think this is unnecessarily negative.
I think you've got to keep some perspective. There are about eight billion people in the world. 7.9 billion of them would probably give almost anything to enjoy the lifestyle she so eloquently disparages.
> I lean in and go to a panel on big data. There are two venture capitalists onstage, dressed identically. They are exceptionally sweaty. [...] It’s like watching two ATMs in conversation.
> The food is served in sturdy tinfoil troughs, and people race to be first in line for self-serve. [It's] well worth someone else’s money, and every afternoon I shovel it into my body
So you viscerally dislike VCs, but you're cool with VC-funded startup perks.
> My roommate works down on the Peninsula, for a website that everyone loathes but no one can stop using.
So you also dislike Facebook, and you assume the other billion people using Facebook dislike it as well. You disapprove of your roommate's choice of job, you think they're wasting their time working on "a website that everyone loathes". Everything is terrible.
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Her writing reminds me of Glenn Greenwald and Noam Chomsky -- two other writers that I respect, but who share a bad habit of hating on anything connected to money, ambition, or technologically driven human progress.
Is that why we now feel this incessant need to fabricate startups/tech as being "cool"? Is that why we write grandiose tales of how "difficult" life is, moving from CRUD app to CRUD app?
Sorry, author. I feel your pain, believe me I do. To me, this article honestly came across as someone who had read too much Bret Easton Ellis recently...
It's interesting to me that my friends and I who grew up in SV and lived through the .com boom as adolescents and had parents who worked during the .com and PC/networking/semiconductor booms are largely skeptical and at times even dismissive of the latest incarnation of SV culture. Perhaps it's hubris ("the old version --my version-- was better"), perhaps it's cynicism (seeing family/friends be burned in the last boo…
I graduated from high school in 1996 and was way into web development from the very first days. I didn't end up coming out for the dotcom days, but I definitely have fond memories of those times. There was a sense of camaraderie of early PC and internet users where the motivations seemed to me to be slightly more noble. Not that the VCs or tech giants of the time weren't greedy—of course they were—but there wasn't th…
Very true. At even the most elite of schools, CS degree -> engineering career has joined Econ degree -> banking and High GPA -> Consulting as a top choice high flying career choice for bright students who aren't sure of what they want to do for their careers.
I started college in 2003, when as college applicants we were going through the deepest troughs of the dotcom crash. The number of entering CS students was about 20. The dean called them "the true believers" (I was studying EE). I believe that this number is now well north of 100.
>Every generation thinks the old days were better as they age.
I am constantly questioning my own opinion of this latest trend, as I'm keenly aware of my own such biases.
Great writing. It definitely hits on some truth and calls out hypocrisies and absurdities that deserve to be called out. Overall, though, I think this is unnecessarily negative. I think you've got to keep some perspective. There are about eight billion people in the world. 7.9 billion of them would probably give almost anything to enjoy the lifestyle she so eloquently disparages. > I lean in and go to a panel on big…
If you drink the koolaid AND you get really lucky, you get to have a profitable business that changes the world for the better. For most, it's actually a job like anything else, just with the added expectation of utter devotion and unwavering belief.
I think her point is that despite the perks, she's just "shoveling it into her body", all of it, and can't quite get over the uncanniness of it all.
Also, I thought Facebook at first too, and thought it was a bit strong, then realized she was talking about LinkedIn.
Fantastic writing. Reminds me a bit of "Microserfs", but somewhat more focused.
No references to flat food though!
