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This Is Silicon Valley

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Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#141

Post by crushcrashcrush »

mykowebhn wrote: post #106
crushcrashcrush wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brooklyn, Miami (wynwood), Chicago, Austin, Portland (WEIRD!), Seattle, LA (creative as all hell) - it is better elsewhere. Even midwestern cities (Pittsburg, Cleveland, etc - really great!)

I'm seriously interested. What do you think makes Pittsburg, Cleveland, etc a "better" cultural destination than NYC. Examples would be great. BTW, I live near Portland, and while I do love it and its weirdness, I wouldn't call it the most culturally sophisticated city I've lived in, at least in some respects. For example, the Oregon Symphony has this concert listed in its calendar: https://www.orsymphony.org/concert…

Sorry, not better than NYC, but better than the Bay Area :)

NYC is still the epicenter of culture. Period.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#144

Post by jonathankoren »

crushcrashcrush wrote: post #72
xiphias2 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was living in Zurich and before Tinder I had no idea how much difference can my sexual value be between cities. I really wish I knew that my dating life would have been so much easier if I move to NYC.

Dating in Silicon Valley is legitimately awful. It's staggeringly bad.

I often think back to this obviously first coffee date I came across one weekend at Red Rock in Mountain View. The woman came in, she's dressed nice, walks in with confidence, and finds her date, who is dressed like a schlub wearing a faded free company t-shirt, and couldn't even bother to comb his hair.

If I was her, there wouldn't have been a second date.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#145

Post by Nasrudith »

president wrote: post #87

People that enjoy living in Silicon Valley are either delusional, have never lived anywhere else in their life, or moved here from the middle of nowhere. The only thing this soul-less valley is good for is tech and money. If that's not what you base your life on (most normal people with a life), then you're not going to like it. Most people I've talked with (excluding new college grads and people in their 1-2 year Va…

Listing the middle of nowhere as a dismissive qualifier seems ironic in contrast with lived their their whole life. Perhaps you are taking things for granted about it or your preferred location.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#146

Post by mykowebhn »

ericd wrote: post #131
mykowebhn wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but I've visited many times since the 80s. The NYC I remember, and love, from then was dirty, smelly, and culturally adventuresome. It was also diverse ethnically and socio-economically in a not so segregated way. Today, when I visit NYC, and even Brooklyn for that matter, it feels like a city for the wealthy, and it feels much less ethnically diverse than it used to.

It’s still dirty and smelly :-) I’d also argue that it’s still much more ethnically and culturally diverse than SF, but yeah, it’s definitely gentrified compared to what I remember it being in the 90s.

Touche!

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#147

Post by jjulius »

crushcrashcrush wrote: post #132
jjulius wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't agree more. The Bay Area was always one of the only places my wife and I could mutually agree on whenever we'd chat about places we'd like to move to. I grew up in Seattle and have family scattered throughout SF and the East Bay, and was fortunate enough to have made multiple trips per year to the area since I was a kid. Those trips fostered a love for the region, for SF as a city, and the people here. The…

Don't stall too long. This area takes a toll on relationships and mental health (unless you're fabulously wealthy) The extreme costs of everything pushes out creatives, which leads to a lack of culture.

Completely agree! Our relationship has stayed strong for the few years we've been here, but the mental aspect around trying to afford the cost of living here when we're both making good money just blows my mind. I can't imagine adding a child into the mix while also trying to save for a down payment on a house in the area. I think we'll be here for a bit longer as we work to figure out what our long-term plans look like, but I don't think we'll be settling down properly out here.

Also, as a creative, I couldn't agree more. They're the heart and soul of a community. They've been priced out of SF, now they're being priced out of Oakland. I want to raise my children around a strong artistic culture, and I've struggled to find more than a few small pockets of that out here.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#148

Post by sebastos »

>I just started working at Google and it wasn't everything I had hoped

This person just graduated college. This is a wildly unremarkable piece of writing about a widely discussed issue, and the author has no unique insight into the problem. The sanctimony of repeating "This is Silicon Valley" over and over as if this pedestrian blogpost carries the weight of an MLK speech is just silly. Yes, life can be disappointing in these ways. No, discussing Google's use of plastic straws is not deep. Yes, our whole culture has a problem with isolation. No, your "I'm quitting facebook" post is not an incisive expose of that problem.

I'm actually not trying to be mean, because I know part of growing up is clarifying these thoughts to yourself and trying to make sense of it all. And I don't mean to diminish her experience - I'm sure it's sincerely felt. We can probably all agree that it's a frightening and disorienting experience entering the "real world" and discovering that you have to find your own meaning.

So the problem isn't the author - everybody thinks or writes these self-righteous, disillusioned screeds from time to time, even if we don't put them on a blog. The issue is - can't we, the readers of hackernews, find a better object of discussion? There have to be a million better words written on this topic. Seeing this on the frontpage makes me feel like people are really nodding their heads to this and thinking "Thank God somebody has said it!" But... we're better than that right? We all understand this for what it is, right? Please?

EDIT: As I'm reading through the replies, I feel a little better. At least there's some level of consensus that this is a pretty juvenile hot-take. It'd be better if the snark was directed at ourselves rather than the author though. The world is full of 22 year olds' opinions, it's our fault for putting it on the front page like it's some great piece of writing

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#149

Post by sctb »

JesseObrien wrote: post #93
bsamuels wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a little invasive to go out of your way to find someone's social media profiles to help prove a point in a thread on a hacker news post

I didn't go out of my way, I clicked his profile here, which has a link to his website, which has all of his social media on it. I made an honest attempt to understand someone before engaging with them, next time I'll just spew some uninformed BS if that's better?

No, you made personal attacks. This is not appropriate on Hacker News so please don't do it.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#150

Post by crushcrashcrush »

jonathankoren wrote: post #144
crushcrashcrush wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dating in Silicon Valley is legitimately awful. It's staggeringly bad.

I often think back to this obviously first coffee date I came across one weekend at Red Rock in Mountain View. The woman came in, she's dressed nice, walks in with confidence, and finds her date, who is dressed like a schlub wearing a faded free company t-shirt, and couldn't even bother to comb his hair. If I was her, there wouldn't have been a second date.

Oh. My. God.

I thought I was the only one. This will probably go over most heads here, but man - the way people DRESS, particularly men, is staggeringly bad. Hysterically awful.

I've seen this same situation before as well.

Here's a hint - don't wear anything with your company logo on it unless you're at a company event. You're welcome.

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