111–120 of 219 posts
I think, if you look hard enough in any city, you'll find just about anything, including sex dungeon parties. I knew some people who were not very secretive about it in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and DC. Those are the only cities I've lived in, so considering it's been 3-for-3 so far, I suspect it's pretty prevalent. The fact that in SV it's full of VCs is not surprising, as nowhere else would you find the density of V…
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…
My goodness, the pearl clutching sex panic is hilarious coming from Vanity Fair. Rich people have parties and they're fun because when you're rich you can afford good drugs and nice venues. News at 10.
No. It's film at 11.
But, no matter what you "think" you're doing, what you will find there is drama. Lot's of drama. Try as you might to keep that out, it is impossible to do that. It's human nature.
The women who attend are every bit as calculating and self absorbed as the men who pay them to come, so I have no special sympathies for their plights that ensue from it. And the men are hardly immune themselves. I have no doubt that some of them have fallen deeply in love with a woman at one of those parties and spent many long hours crying in bed alone because the woman didn't give a single shit about them afterwards.
Another thing that's bullshit is that this is a "progressive" lifestyle. It's a sex obsessed lifestyle. That too is a human nature that some cannot resist, but again, there's always drama down that path. And some who you'll find there thrive on that drama and constantly work at creating it and can cause you all kinds of stress with their bullshit.
So, no, there's nothing "progressive" about it. That stuff is as old as civilization itself. Calling it "progressive" is putting lipstick on a very old pig.
And finally, the entire “OH MY GOD, THIS IS SO F---ED UP” approach to paint this as an exposé is bullshit too. You can find the same thing going on in Branson, Missouri with plumbers and concrete finishers.
To me, the idea that one must participate in this "open" lifestyle to climb the ladder is bullshit. You either decide to go to the party and jump in the cuddle puddle, or not. But, no matter what you "think" you're doing, what you will find there is drama. Lot's of drama. Try as you might to keep that out, it is impossible to do that. It's human nature. The women who attend are every bit as calculating and self absor…
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…
How would you know? Maybe it's a side of their lives they do not want to share with their coworkers.
I have a family member whose philosophy professor (back in the 70s) seemed to be as straight-laced as they they come. One day she discovered, to her astonishment, that he was the author of these books:
Preface: I spend a lot of this response talking about a hypothetical high-status man and a low-status woman. This isn't to be sexist or perpetuate stereotypes; it's just to use a common example that we've all probably seen and witnessed. Preface 2: this response was to someone else in this thread but it got pulled out to the top level for some reason. The intention of the article was, probably, just to shed light on…
The old-fashioned method you are suggesting requires much more effort than Silicon Valley parties that are currently being thrown. Changing who you are as a person is tough, and why do that when there are easier options. In places like SV and Seattle where there is an imbalance between men/women, you could follow these instructions perfectly but you would still be playing with bad odds. There was recently an article…
On the east coast:
- I get 5x as many matches.
- Most of my matches respond to my openers.
- My matches are significantly higher quality.
- My matches suggest meeting up for dates.
- My matches compliment me.
- My matches never unmatch me.
The whole silicon valley gender skew seems like a bad situation for everyone involved. But I'm not sure what can be done about.
I suggested the old-fashioned method because it does no harm. My only issues with the orgies described in the article is there seems to be quite a bit of consent-through-manipulation.
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.
I think the outrage comes from the appearance of predatory behavior by men who hold great power in an already male-dominated industry. I'm sure it's nice to have enough money to get people to bend to your will, but using it to manipulate people who are already marginalized in your industry into sleeping with you is not exactly an ethical thing to do. It may not be illegal, but people should maybe ask themselves if th…
Yeah, I'm fine with it. Really. I honestly don't care what they do. As long as I get my fat engineering paycheck every other week. Gonna pick up a Tesla Model 3 soon.
There's a lot in this article that raises red flags for me, but more about the journalism then the subject. There's an element of sensationalism implying that this is a 'side' of Silicon Valley without offering evidence of prevalence. > ... Founder X told me. The things here on the record are by those who aren't involved, those who are involved speaking on the record do so anonymously. It really seems less that this…
From my perspective, there seems to be some weird intermixing between various alternative cultures in this article. Some parts of the article reminded me of swinger culture. Some parts of the article reminded me more of MDMA oriented cultures. Burns and bondage clubs are briefly mentioned.
Although there is some interplay between all these cultures, these cultures are in many other ways very separate from each other. MDMA, for instance, or other hallucinogenic / empathetic drugs really isn't found that much in a lot of swinger culture (or, for that matter, the majority of BDSM culture).
All of the above alternative cultures tend to heavily emphasize consent, but they are also very frequently misinterpreted from the outside. If people are being forced and coerced into these types of parties by VC types as this article implies, that would be a bad thing indeed. But it also would very much be against the spirit of these cultures. From my perspective, the author seems to be combining several entirely different subcultures together here with an overfocus on the lurid, so I personally don't have a lot of confidence in the accuracy of this article.