Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side • Hacker News Board

Re: Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side

#101

Post by webkike » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:42 PM UTC

forgottenpass wrote: post #83

webkike wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Orgies are fine. I've never been to one and have no desire to go to one. The real issue here is the power-asymmetry between the men and women involved. Very true. I feel that if these people were really in the business to live out their kinks they would be a hell of a lot more explicit and safe about these things. As far as I can tell none of these people would explicitly refer to any of these parties as an Orgy in…

>none of these people would explicitly refer to any of these parties as an Orgy in the invite, leaving me to believe they are ashamed of the inherent sexism in the actions they are performing. Or they're ashamed about living in a wider society that isn't fully accepting of the practice. Be careful with that brush you're painting with. There are plenty of now-accepted lifestyles that previously got the exact same trea…

> Or they're ashamed about living in a wider society that isn't fully accepting of the practice.

I disagree, because they are sending these invitations to people they know will be on board. Although it is claimed they avoid the term to not have the photos of the parties if shared be extremely explicit, which supports your hypothesis.

I'm not implying there is anything wrong at all about orgies. I am claiming that calling these parties orgies would be more explicit and upfront and therefore less wrong. It's simply the fact that they can't call it a progressive orgy because they ratio of women to men is so incredibly skewed.

Re: Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side

#102

Post by narrator » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:42 PM UTC

The following seems to be what it's all about:

" Rich men expecting casual sexual access to women is anything but a new paradigm. But many of the A-listers in Silicon Valley have something unique in common: a lonely adolescence devoid of contact with the opposite sex. Married V.C. described his teenage life as years of playing computer games and not going on a date until he was 20 years old. Now, to his amazement, he finds himself in a circle of trusted and adventurous tech friends with the money and resources to explore their every desire. After years of restriction and longing, he is living a fantasy, and his wife is right there along with him."

If I may humblebrag for a moment, I had a really great sex life in the years before I got married when I was young and good-looking, so all this kind of stuff seems like a very risky and mildly pathetic way to create a lot of trouble in one's personal life. Young nerds, I implore you to have a really awesome time while you are young and good-looking so you make some great memories so you won't have to deal with all this regret and pathetic chasing around after a lost youth that these older guys engage in.

Re: Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side

#103

Post by strong_silent_t » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:43 PM UTC

blueyes wrote: post #47

This is a nothing burger of an article. It's about consensual drug use and sex among adults. It happens to involve rich and powerful people who (gasp) can throw these kinds of parties. In any unequal society, there will be people who are willing to trade sex for financial security or access to power, with others who are seeking sex. It would be deeply naive to think otherwise. The outrage here strikes me as hollow.

As a tech-bro type person I'm not enjoying our daily two minutes of hate from ivy league and oxbridge types against our various failures of moral purity. But there is a lot of value in this type of piece for i.e. a 22-year old female fresh grad entering this environment to cast aside euphemisms and frippery and explain in real basic detail exactly who is getting fucked by whom, and what the terms are and are not.

Re: Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side

#104

Post by moron4hire » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:43 PM UTC

drchap wrote: post #31

astura wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no such thing as "the sixth Google result," everyones Google results are different depending on your location, language settings, search history, browsing habits, and probably a million different variables. I just scrolled through many, many pages of Google image search results both from my phone and my work computer and didn't come across anything negative, the only thing cringy I saw was "the future is fema…

I did the same search in an incognito window. Woman kneeing a man in the groin was the fourth result. Maybe your results show more about your search history and browsing habits than anything about the feminist movement or the average person's feelings on the matter.

Just because you're in an incognito window doesn't mean Google doesn't know who you are.

"The neatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing people he wasn't real."

Re: Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side

#105

Post by walshemj » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:44 PM UTC

jpzisme wrote: post #48

What's up with all these sensational articles about Silicon Valley? Maybe the lifestyle is different as a VC, but as an engineer, this seems so disjointed from reality that it's almost farcical. I can barely get some of my coworkers to stop talking about code for more than a breath. There's no way that they're engaging in any of these activities. Can anyone vouch for this behavior being prevalent? To me it just seems…

Hmm the older you get the more you realise that your coworkers maybe are not quite so straight laced.

I remember working in Camden during the 2000 boom and we had a lesbian college who came across as the office mom with pictures of her cats up.

One evening in the Pub she met or former colleague in the film industry and did the whole lovey kiss routine and later on recounted some of her escapades including the classic line

"People have take much less coke than that and died"

Re: Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side

#106

Post by walshemj » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:47 PM UTC

tomcam wrote: post #64

mruniverse wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Artists are very cringy. A lot of musicians are cringy. Some teachers are cringy. Not sure about chefs or dog walkers.

Also cringey

chefs tend to be a bit on edge and drug use is rife as is extreme bullying.

Re: Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side

#107

Post by walshemj » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:49 PM UTC

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #65

crmd wrote: post #7

I'm trying to imagine a cringier situation than a druggy sex party full of industry people. Try chilling with artists, musicians, chefs, teachers, dog walkers, anything but tech people. The mutual discovery of each other's worlds is really hot, and it minimizes the chance of ever being in a work meeting with someone where we need to pretend we haven't seen each other naked.

>I'm trying to imagine a cringier situation than a druggy sex party full of industry people If you hang around investment bankers long enough you'll hear some stories.

I've heard similar stories about the GPO/BT going back years - though the one where they had to break open a remote rural building and found evidence of satanic rituals :-) apparently it was the dismembered chickens not the pentagrams that wa the real squick factor.

Re: Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side

#108

Post by tareqak » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:51 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #98

tareqak wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand. However, a lot of the time article titles are brief and/or misleading and/or click bait, but the article itself is insightful. I don't want to make the call for editorializing a title myself since I'm not a journalist, and I don't want project any bias I may or may not have. Frankly, I only do this because the Techmeme summary is anecdotally superior to the original article's title, but HN's character l…

I think you're right, and often notice titles degrading throughout the day as they get edited into bland nothingness, but comments probably aren't going to help since it's the title on the front page that gets people clicking. Now if you had a browser extension that could display the Techmeme/similar headlines alongside, I'd be interested in that :-D

Thank you for the idea! I'll look into try it. No promises though.

Re: Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side

#109

Post by walshemj » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:51 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #53

Apocryphon wrote: post #40

Wall Street, Hollywood, Silicon Valley... are there any other high-rolling industry hubs out there that don't have a decadent underbelly? Maybe Motor City in its heyday.

It's not just high-rolling ones. Over the last few years I've been involved in the furniture and construction industries and their "decadent underbellies" are just as bad if not worse than what I've seen in tech, finance and elsewhere. According to many insiders I know in the concrete world, they have the most insane industry parties. Carpeting is pretty crazy too from what I've seen. It's not unique to any industry.

Chemical engines have a rep for really hard drinking as do civils I have heard (at a top 5 consultancy) a discussion of the best computer cleaning fluids to make hooch with.

Re: Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side

#110

Post by tathougies » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:53 PM UTC

ImSkeptical wrote: post #41

tathougies wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire article was on how these interactions are facilitated by the intentional use of illegal, mind-altering drugs. Aside from the obvious fact that the drugs are illegal, there is also the question of whether those who are under the influence of these drugs can consent to sex.

I think if you consent to go to the sex party, you consent to physical romantic activity, you consent to taking the drug knowing your context and what the drug will do, and then you consent to sex throughout the experience, it's hard to see how it's anything but consensual. If you have a colonoscopy done, the medication they give you will make it so you don't remember things or (I hope) feel things, but, my doctor to…

Sure... but the drugs in this case are illegal. The key words here are 'illegal drugs'. I believe it is still a crime (I'm guessing a felony) to distribute drugs at any party, sex or otherwise.