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Silicon Valley Is Filled With Liars

nickoneill.com

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Re: Silicon Valley Is Filled With Liars

#81

Post by defen »

pg wrote: post #53

Every place full of ambitious people is full of liars, but I've lived in several such places and overall the ratio of lying to ambition here is lower than anywhere else I've found. There are a lot more posers in New York and LA and Cambridge than there are in SV.

New York poser: Lies about how much money they have, how much they enjoy investment banking/BigLaw, the cool bands they know, etc

LA Poser: Lies about being friends with celebrities, deals they're working on, movies they're making etc

Cambridge poser: ??? How many books they've read? How many ancestors came over on the Mayflower?

Re: Silicon Valley Is Filled With Liars

#82

Post by JonnieCache »

mattmanser wrote: post #25

When I was about 12 I remember doing some school craft competition where we had to make and then sell our wares to our teachers. A teacher said something to me that's always stuck, but I always struggle with following. It was "Don't point out your own short comings" I was saying things like 'in the final run the paint job will be better', highlighting the deficiencies of our Xmas decorations instead of highlighting t…

Isn't it this line of thinking which caused our current international financial woes?

Re: Silicon Valley Is Filled With Liars

#83

Post by emmelaich »

lsc wrote: post #42
mattmanser wrote: post #25

When I was about 12 I remember doing some school craft competition where we had to make and then sell our wares to our teachers. A teacher said something to me that's always stuck, but I always struggle with following. It was "Don't point out your own short comings" I was saying things like 'in the final run the paint job will be better', highlighting the deficiencies of our Xmas decorations instead of highlighting t…

>It was "Don't point out your own short comings" actually... Once you have credibility with the person you are selling to? pointing out your own weaknesses, I think, builds a lot of trust.

Well, to a point. But be careful, it may come over as false modesty or as an attempt to deflect possibly justified criticism from the other party.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Filled With Liars

#84

Post by mmcnickle »

ScottBurson wrote: post #38
mattmanser wrote: post #25

When I was about 12 I remember doing some school craft competition where we had to make and then sell our wares to our teachers. A teacher said something to me that's always stuck, but I always struggle with following. It was "Don't point out your own short comings" I was saying things like 'in the final run the paint job will be better', highlighting the deficiencies of our Xmas decorations instead of highlighting t…

Agreed. When I read Walk around any conference that startup founders are attending and you are bound to hear countless stories of how well things are going. I think, "Well, duh. You know, the truth might not be any of your business."

Also, I think, no one wants to hear a real answer. Is it not the same as the "How are you?", "Fine." of running a business?

Re: Silicon Valley Is Filled With Liars

#85

Post by mmcnickle »

michaelochurch wrote: post #68

People are piling on Shirley Hornstein because (1) she got caught, and (2) she's female. The second of these is 90 percent of it. If you "trick" powerful people into accepting you as one of your own by claiming connections you don't have, and succeed in doing so, you've earned it. (If you fail, then slink away quietly and try again in a couple of years.) A lot of people are dumbasses who let the crowd make their deci…

>>> (2) she's female. The second of these is 90 percent of it.

Women do get a terrible time in tech,the video game industry in particular, because of their gender, but this doesn't seem to be the case here. Care to explain why you think otherwise?

Re: Silicon Valley Is Filled With Liars

#86

Post by blario »

mattmanser wrote: post #25

When I was about 12 I remember doing some school craft competition where we had to make and then sell our wares to our teachers. A teacher said something to me that's always stuck, but I always struggle with following. It was "Don't point out your own short comings" I was saying things like 'in the final run the paint job will be better', highlighting the deficiencies of our Xmas decorations instead of highlighting t…

Both are deception. How one is worse than the other I have no idea. The difference is, due to our capitalist upbringing, the former is considered justified and just "our way of doing business". That's probably rather unique (this distinction you're drawing) compared to less capitalist cultures.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Filled With Liars

#87

Post by ucee054 »

tomkit wrote: post #39

White lies are a necessary evil in business and in life. Would you tell someone with terminal illness that they look like shit and that there's no hope? It is a good thing, however, that YC has been turning back the dial on presenting vanity metrics + funding pitches at their demo days. At some unquantifiable threshold, white lies do become outright lies.

Traxler: How do I look?

Vukovic: Like shit, boss

Traxler: Your mama!

The Terminator, 1984

Re: Silicon Valley Is Filled With Liars

#88

Post by rdl »

pg wrote: post #53

Every place full of ambitious people is full of liars, but I've lived in several such places and overall the ratio of lying to ambition here is lower than anywhere else I've found. There are a lot more posers in New York and LA and Cambridge than there are in SV.

Posers in Cambridge? I assume you mean in the Boston finance/brahmin/etc. world, or maybe in "academia", not in engineering programs or the tech world.

MIT grad students seem pretty transparent about what they're doing, what impact it could have, etc.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Filled With Liars

#89

Post by rdl »

paulsutter wrote: post #75
michaelochurch wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most successful people I know are straight shooters who tell it like it is. Once you're successful, you can be that way. I think it's pretty rare that people get successful as "straight shooters". Telling the truth makes you a bearer of bad news a lot of the time. I know, because I've been described as "pathologically honest", and often it doesn't end well. You can "speak truth to power" if you wish. Power alread…

I've found that a lot of people will use "telling the truth" to rationalize a lot of negative behavior. We can all easily mistake our own uninformed opinions for "the truth". One way to learn the difference is to notice when "telling the truth" causes you to be misunderstood often. The successful people I'm referring to were not bullshitters before or after their success. Bullshitting really not a success trait. It's…

What I think works is being totally forthcoming about problems, risks, etc. in the past and present, but maybe being a bit optimistic about future possibilities. i.e. "This quarter our sales were down 10%, but we think it was due to reason x, and we have strategy y in place to address that. We will be monitoring closely and adjust as needed.".

You don't want to say "there wasn't a problem", but you also don't want to say "sales went down, we have no idea why, we're just going to continue" or "sales went down, we're doomed."

Re: Silicon Valley Is Filled With Liars

#90

Post by thatdrew »

michaelochurch wrote: post #68

People are piling on Shirley Hornstein because (1) she got caught, and (2) she's female. The second of these is 90 percent of it. If you "trick" powerful people into accepting you as one of your own by claiming connections you don't have, and succeed in doing so, you've earned it. (If you fail, then slink away quietly and try again in a couple of years.) A lot of people are dumbasses who let the crowd make their deci…

She stole money (credit cards) from her "friends." I think that makes her sex a non-issue. She's a psychopath.
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