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The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

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Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#161

Post by wiether »

vrosas wrote: post #58
Aurornis wrote: post #40

> Jim had participated in drug-fueled “founder parties”, group orgies and all other crazy experiences in San Francisco. This naturally led to the breakup with his fiancée and a nervous breakdown. The Bay Area is a weird place. There are countless companies staffed by smart people doing amazing things. There are also countless people cosplaying as smart people and founders who are going through all of the motions, but…

SF is such a weird vibe in general. I've watched a lot of founders/tech bros go to burning man for the first time, completely miss the point of it but adopt an air of superiority for attending. I watched a founder weave in his experience on peyote into a company all hands. They also, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, go out and buy a green Range Rover. And as someone who's been in the ENM space for a long time, SF…

  > They also, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, go out and buy a green Range Rover.
I associate people driving green Range Rover with Dennis, so I'm not surprised that the people you're talking about love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgO0tgWNWYs

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#162

Post by itbeho »

vrosas wrote: post #58
Aurornis wrote: post #40

> Jim had participated in drug-fueled “founder parties”, group orgies and all other crazy experiences in San Francisco. This naturally led to the breakup with his fiancée and a nervous breakdown. The Bay Area is a weird place. There are countless companies staffed by smart people doing amazing things. There are also countless people cosplaying as smart people and founders who are going through all of the motions, but…

SF is such a weird vibe in general. I've watched a lot of founders/tech bros go to burning man for the first time, completely miss the point of it but adopt an air of superiority for attending. I watched a founder weave in his experience on peyote into a company all hands. They also, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, go out and buy a green Range Rover. And as someone who's been in the ENM space for a long time, SF…

> They also, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, go out and buy a green Range Rover.

In my opinion, there are two types of people that buy Range Rovers.

1. Morons that don’t realize they are unreliable and expensive to maintain

2. Morons that attempt to signal their status by flaunting that they can afford to drive something unreliable and expensive to maintain

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#163

Post by thraway3837 »

Hang in there, it's about to get a bit judgmental and harsh:

This blog misses quite a few red flags that are obvious to the reader from the very beginning. Jim is an aimless party boy and got a rich gal to sustain his mediocre life. Blew his first success on thrills, cheated on his fiance and was a terrible human being. He then became worse because everyone around him enabled him, and that's just the character he is. He's not the Steve Jobs charisma that people like the blogger think he is. No. Instead, he's a sleazeball sales guy who is a master grifter and conman. Think more Elizabeth Holmes.

This isn't at all the typical SV founder meat grinder. There are plenty of boring, hard working, regular family folk who show up 9-5 and pursue their passion projects that got funded. This is how we're all on this site. We like to see these projects succeed and we want to see cool stuff that helps us nerd out. Because that's ultimately what being in this industry is: Making a chunk of metal do some really cool stuff and solve problems that are worth solving.

Along the way, it attracted some really unsavory people like Jim who looked at the tech money and wanted a quick piece of the action. It's the same problem we're having with young CS graduates. They have no drive, no passion for this stuff, no obsessive nerding out over the tech. They were told by everyone around them that it was a guaranteed job market and paid well, buy a house, great life. Even without AI coding, I would bet the vast majority of these graduates would have a very difficult time finding a job.

Ultimately what we have to realize is that this world is full of people like Jim who get away with stuff because of privilege and great grifting skills. Think about how many actually sustainable ideas you or people you know have come up with and even prototyped. But could never find the funding to make it work. That's how nearly everything got started. Somewhere along the way, we stopped caring about joy and nerdery of it and started chasing the $ :(

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#164

Post by Obscurity4340 »

itbeho wrote: post #162
vrosas wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SF is such a weird vibe in general. I've watched a lot of founders/tech bros go to burning man for the first time, completely miss the point of it but adopt an air of superiority for attending. I watched a founder weave in his experience on peyote into a company all hands. They also, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, go out and buy a green Range Rover. And as someone who's been in the ENM space for a long time, SF…

> They also, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, go out and buy a green Range Rover. In my opinion, there are two types of people that buy Range Rovers. 1. Morons that don’t realize they are unreliable and expensive to maintain 2. Morons that attempt to signal their status by flaunting that they can afford to drive something unreliable and expensive to maintain

Where does the Golden God fit in there?

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#165

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

Aurornis wrote: post #40

> Jim had participated in drug-fueled “founder parties”, group orgies and all other crazy experiences in San Francisco. This naturally led to the breakup with his fiancée and a nervous breakdown. The Bay Area is a weird place. There are countless companies staffed by smart people doing amazing things. There are also countless people cosplaying as smart people and founders who are going through all of the motions, but…

I always thought that Theranos was the perfect embodiment of this idea. Look, she wears a black turtleneck, just like Steve Jobs! She dropped out of a top university, just like Bill Gates! She started her startup to solve a problem she had (fear of needles), just like the AirBnB guys started their startup because they needed a cheap place to stay!

Except what she didn't have was an actual functional product (oh, and nevermind that teensy detail that the product as envisioned is actually physically impossible).

If I had one but of advice for my younger self, it would be to get very good at sniffing out who is the real deal vs. who is cosplaying. And to be fair to myself, all I really had to do was trust my instincts - in the few instances where I got taken in by bullshit I definitely sensed some red flags in the beginning, but I ignored them because I thought "well, hey, look at all these bigwigs who think this is such a great idea". Bullshit is actually really easy to spot (usually), it's just that for social reasons we're often conditioned to nod and smile in the face of obvious bullshit.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#166

Post by sscaryterry »

danans wrote: post #144
vrosas wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SF is such a weird vibe in general. I've watched a lot of founders/tech bros go to burning man for the first time, completely miss the point of it but adopt an air of superiority for attending. I watched a founder weave in his experience on peyote into a company all hands. They also, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, go out and buy a green Range Rover. And as someone who's been in the ENM space for a long time, SF…

> They also, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, go out and buy a green Range Rover. What part is unfathomable, the Range Rover part or the green part? I ask because Range Rovers are strongly associated being quite well-off everywhere, but maybe there's something with SF and the green paint choice.

https://itsalwayssunny.fandom.com/wiki/Dennis%27_Range_Rover

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#167

Post by schrodinger »

jitl wrote: post #24
schrodinger wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much more likely does becoming a home brewer make you to develop alcoholism, especially for someone who sounds a bit predisposed like Jim?

it’s infinitely easier to become an alcoholic by buying alcohol at a grocery store. brewing is pretty much the least direct most delayed gratification way to get drunk. i guess it can be pretty cheap if you optimize for that but it sounds like jim made enough money and high flying friends it’s unlikely to be major factor.

I find it hard to believe this comment is arguing in good faith.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#168

Post by schrodinger »

jitl wrote: post #24
schrodinger wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much more likely does becoming a home brewer make you to develop alcoholism, especially for someone who sounds a bit predisposed like Jim?

it’s infinitely easier to become an alcoholic by buying alcohol at a grocery store. brewing is pretty much the least direct most delayed gratification way to get drunk. i guess it can be pretty cheap if you optimize for that but it sounds like jim made enough money and high flying friends it’s unlikely to be major factor.

Note: I apologize and rescind my previous comment about not arguing in good faith.

My point isn't that home brewing makes alcohol easier to obtain; clearly it doesn't, as you pointed out.

Rather, it provides a respectable rationale for having a beer (e.g. testing a batch, checking the bottle fermentation, seeing how it pairs with a meal).

Drinking is now part of a productive, interesting hobby. For most people that's harmless, but for a vulnerable individual, the hobby supplies frequent opportunities, a steady supply, and an intellectually respectable reason to consume. That's all.

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