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Uncanny Valley

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Re: Uncanny Valley

#61

Post by bpchaps »

moron4hire wrote: post #53
bpchaps wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a different personality with different sets of motivations, compounded with mental health differences that make it near impossible to fit in with the SV crowd. It's one of the few crowds like this, despite their swaths of feel-good attitudes and intentions. It's incredibly exclusionary and dismissive. Funny enough, your comment is a great example of what I mean. I'm assuming you didn't read the article, or els…

I was agreeing with you. I'm sorry, that was my fault. I misused the general "you".

Gotcha. No worries, sorry for blowing up like that.. :(

Re: Uncanny Valley

#62

Post by uberi »

dcposch wrote: post #24

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…

I personally saw it as the author sharing experiences they found humourous/absurd rather making value judgements. At least, that's the impression I got from the writing style.

Re: Uncanny Valley

#63

Post by jtfairbank »

rrdharan wrote: post #59
jtfairbank wrote: post #38

“Oakland,” one of them says. “That’s where we want to invest.” “Too dangerous,” says another. “My wife would never go for it.” “Of course not,” says the first, “but you don’t buy to live there.” I live in Oakland. So glad these people aren't coming here.

Even if they're not gonna be your neighbors, from the last quote it sounds like they'll be your landlords. Not sure if that's much better?

They already are my landlords... :(

Actually my landlords are pretty dope. They're techies (me too) but they live upstairs so they're ok by me. But yeah, the absentee landlord for profit thing kinda sucks. I get a bit of schadenfreude when chinese investors buy their appartment complex in the city and raise their rents.

Re: Uncanny Valley

#64

Post by scelerat »

> “Of course not,” says the first, “but you don’t buy to live there.”

This quip about investing in property in Oakland hits home. I had some reservations about crossing the Bay a few years ago to buy a home, but one I did not have was about moving to a place where people who had attitudes like this were uncommon.

Several months ago I ran into an ex-coworker who triumphantly told me how he had cashed out some of his options to buy some units in Oakland, evicted the existing tenants under some owner/family move-in loophole, vacated, remodeled, and was now raking in the rent. All the while explaining that he would never actually live there. I wanted to vomit.

I'm a lucky dummy romantic, I moved to SF because I like trains, and LA didn't have any. I have some skills which have helped me land excellent jobs. I don't hide my disgust for baloney very well and this has enabled me to walk away from some jobs. My brushes with the proto-corporate startup world have been fleeting, but proportionally every bit as soul-sucking as the author makes it out to be.

Excellent piece.

Re: Uncanny Valley

#65

Post by scelerat »

jtfairbank wrote: post #38

“Oakland,” one of them says. “That’s where we want to invest.” “Too dangerous,” says another. “My wife would never go for it.” “Of course not,” says the first, “but you don’t buy to live there.” I live in Oakland. So glad these people aren't coming here.

Those people are the next generation of property flippers.

Re: Uncanny Valley

#66

Post by alanh »

machrider wrote: post #6

Google cache: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4ToCZE...

Does anyone know why this article was unreachable yesterday? Was it "just" an outage of the entire n+1 magazine?

Re: Uncanny Valley

#67

Post by alanh »

enahs-sf wrote: post #15
hendzen wrote: post #4

Great writing. Reads like a memoir, but with the depth of an ethnography. I believe the company described here is Mixpanel FWIW.

Rip sticks and dftc. Dead giveaway.

I had to look DFTC up. From their job descriptions:

> • We are down for the cause (“DFTC”). We’re all here to make Mixpanel a success. There is no job too big or too small for us. “That’s not my job” is not in our vocabulary.

Re: Uncanny Valley

#68

Post by alanh »

danbmil99 wrote: post #2

That really hits home. It is difficult to explain to the uninitiated the degree to which one's identity becomes wrapped up in the startup. It sometimes feels like it has its own mind and soul.

It's also difficult to explain the corollary: When work is life, your boss telling you that maybe it wasn’t a good “culture fit” anymore / after all is a little like dying. That’s melodramatic, but losing such a big part of your identity is disorienting and depressing.

Re: Uncanny Valley

#70

Post by alanh »

jtfairbank wrote: post #63
rrdharan wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if they're not gonna be your neighbors, from the last quote it sounds like they'll be your landlords. Not sure if that's much better?

They already are my landlords... :( Actually my landlords are pretty dope. They're techies (me too) but they live upstairs so they're ok by me. But yeah, the absentee landlord for profit thing kinda sucks. I get a bit of schadenfreude when chinese investors buy their appartment complex in the city and raise their rents.

Are you saying you saw absentee landlords themselves experience a rent hike at the hands of foreign investors? That would indeed be a nice bit of schadenfreude…
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