It reminded me of "Chaos Monkeys" that I read recently.
Would u recommend it?
This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley
81–90 of 182 posts
Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley
#82You guys take yourselves too seriously. I think this article is funny as hell. "You briefly use mobile Safari to browse for Vipassana retreats — you hear a 10 day retreat in Soquel may be the ticket to shake things up. You realize it’s not going to be possible. You download a meditation app. You turn it off. You don’t have time." TOO REAL
Would have been great if it ended with something like:
Your friend emails you a satire on Bay Area life. It isn't perfectly written, and it surely doesn't fit your life, but it fits so many of your friends' lives. You continue to read it anyway. Something about it bothers you, but you post it to Facebook, because you're sure that it will get many likes. Your friends love reading satires about their lives.
Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very surprised to not see any jabs at Burning Man, or waiting in line for brunch.
I don't really know about brunch, although I guess there's something about waiting the better part of an hour to eat that makes it attractive to hipsters because I sure have seen them do it a lot. But my guess is that Burning Man is rather passé, and has been roughly since people who hadn't been there started hearing about it in large numbers.
Waiting around to eat provides more time to see and be seen at trendy joints.
Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Half of the comments are along the lines of, "yeah those guys, but not me, I bought muesli instead o artisinal cheese".
I wanted to say something to that effect, but you nailed it! I hope stating that isn't against the etiquette here.
Being nudged, even momentarily, from our delusion that none of us are all that special, will always hit a nerve. I think these things are healthy to reflect upon occasionally. Delusions are fine, to a point.
I really enjoyed this piece.
Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley
#85Is it possible to diagnose an entire geographic region with narcissistic personality disorder?
Unfortunately, it's spreading. You see a lot of this in London as well. I think of it as a learned narcissism with clustering behavior. I would argue you can see it across many groups although they differ in how it manifests - we notice the "hot-startup" narcissist because he/she is in our industry.
Social media certainly hasn't helped. It appeals to the worst in human behavior. Communication devoid of truth or nuance in exchange for the shallow and sadly addictive approval of strangers. It teaches us to play games in which we are rewarded for what we portray outwardly rather than to be introspective. It is unfortunate that this mindset has been brought into the workplace, but perhaps much sadder that it likely affects relationships (parenting in particular) as well.
Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley
#86Is it possible to diagnose an entire geographic region with narcissistic personality disorder?
Diagnose? No, probably not. Finding another label for a group of people in the Valley you are already predispositioned to hate isn't insight. And limiting it to a geographic region with such flimsy cultural boundaries smacks of projection.
Want a bold stand? The (now defunct) blog The Last Psychiatrist spent years arguing that narcissism was society wide and generations deep.
see 75% of the posts, but maybe these in particular (?) http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/11/a_generational_pathol... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/10/the_dumbest_generatio...
Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley
#87You guys take yourselves too seriously. I think this article is funny as hell. "You briefly use mobile Safari to browse for Vipassana retreats — you hear a 10 day retreat in Soquel may be the ticket to shake things up. You realize it’s not going to be possible. You download a meditation app. You turn it off. You don’t have time." TOO REAL
I used to work for a non-US company's US Bay Area office during the dot com boom. I recognize a lot of this, especially the parts about our own company. And about myself and my coworkers at the time - worrying a lot about status and superficial issues, a lot more than about our product and what we were actually doing there (nobody really had a clue). That startup didn't even tank but was sold for a few hundred million - because the "market" carried us and at least some people, especially the developers, did some work, and because the Dilbert world is everywhere.
The good thing: I learned that there is no magic in either SV and/or venture capital, they muddle through like everybody else. I learned that I suck at anything "business" (I'm a good techie and communicator, that must suffice).
I also learned that while an American business may be really horrible in many of the details - but on the executive level I experienced (as a techie "guest listener") that when it comes down to business the 0.1% they get right blows most everybody else out of the water. It was so embarrassing for my own executives. At those high-level meetings I gained a huge respect for some of the guys at the top of American firms. It seems they figured out what's important and what is only "nice to have" and concentrate on the former. They also managed to ask exactly the right questions - we didn't have an answer for a single one of them. But we still felt very, very important...
It's not just Silicon Valley though. I remember that my 2nd job after university was with that (foreign) startup (at first in their country). The very first conversation getting a coffee in the kitchen when I came in Monday morning for my first day was a guy heavily complaining about perceived injustices and "office politics": Will I get the (big) office I deserve? I should get the group leader position, that other guy is a leader then so should I be, etc. It was all about status. My 1st job had been with a major multinational company, and while politics certainly existed it wasn't that... childish. Most of the time we thought about and cared about what we were doing, not about status. That's a side effect of joining a huge organization where there isn't nearly as much dynamics, so much less fear of missing out on opportunities of quick advancement. In that startup you have people go from barely-graduated to department head in a very short time (and this was a several hundred people "startup" by that time becoming a "leader" wasn't just an empty title on business cards). Personal connections to the founders mattered a lot!
I think there's a lesson in this. High growth and opportunity for advancing quickly can be quite dangerous for what people are focused on.
Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it in the US ? In the UK to be a nanny, childminder or work in a nursery you have specific regulation and qualification required. A babysitter requires nothing, it can and generally is some teenage kid. The difference with all 3 is where the child go. Nursery has special dedicated facilities to take care of several children, number limited by the number of employee and size. A childminder will take care of 1 to 3…
Again UK-specific: They only _need_ qualifications to register with OFSTED, and as a parent, it's up to you whether you require your childcare to be registered. If you leave your kids with a friend, for example, your friend doesn't need any kind of qualifications. However, you can only get Government subsidies (like child tax credits and childcare vouchers) for a registered childcare provider.
Technically, the requirements are a little stricter: "You must register with Ofsted or a childminder agency if you want to be paid to look after children under 8 for more than 2 hours a day in England"[1]
In the example of leaving your children with a friend, the exemption is for a maximum of 3 hours (per day), if the friend is being paid. Any longer and the friend is obliged to register with Ofsted (with a penalty of an unlimited fine and/or jail for not being registered).
I doubt many people would think to check the legal requirements though.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/register-childminder-childcare-provider/o...
Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley
#89Meh, not written by someone who lives here: " the 280"? Freeways don't get articles around here, bub. Clearly a plant from the LA startup scene.
An exceedingly brief look at his other Medium posts finds a sentence stating that he was born in Santa Clara.
Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Again UK-specific: They only _need_ qualifications to register with OFSTED, and as a parent, it's up to you whether you require your childcare to be registered. If you leave your kids with a friend, for example, your friend doesn't need any kind of qualifications. However, you can only get Government subsidies (like child tax credits and childcare vouchers) for a registered childcare provider.
Technically, the requirements are a little stricter: "You must register with Ofsted or a childminder agency if you want to be paid to look after children under 8 for more than 2 hours a day in England" [1] In the example of leaving your children with a friend, the exemption is for a maximum of 3 hours (per day), if the friend is being paid. Any longer and the friend is obliged to register with Ofsted (with a penalty…
Blimey - I didn't realise that, and I will continue to completely ignore it as it's ridiculous.