This Is Silicon Valley • Hacker News Board

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#11

Post by conanbatt » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 6:01 PM UTC

Its a rant but I'm also surprised at how she writes "people's perfect life". Whats perfect about San Francisco, that has such a low demographic representation of family, the city is super dirty, people live with 6 figure salaries live in terrible housing conditions.

Maybe google gets to shelter their employees from a lot of the cruft of SF, but walk 2 blocks away from the google offices in SF and you'll get yelled at by homeless people.

Also sad that the writer does not see a correlation between homelessness and public policy, but blames it to income inequality due to the tech companies. Without tech companies SF as a dump would not be masked by 6 dollar coffee.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#12

Post by misiti3780 » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 6:01 PM UTC

erulabs wrote: post #5

Weird flex, but okay. But seriously, it’s hard to read “look how tough we have it” about getting a 6 figure job out of school. You didn’t get into Harvard. That’s not a life defining tragedy... hoping this is parody. The vast vast vast majority of the world works harder for less. We should be thankful, not weirdly bragging about how hard our childhoods were. Try Detroit or Bangladesh....

I agree with the Harvard thing, in the grand scheme of things, hopefully that floats to the bottom

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#13

Post by nielsbot » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 6:02 PM UTC

yalogin wrote: post #7

San Francisco definitely feels like that to me. Everyone and everything just seem like they are part of a cult and worshipping at altar of startups. I can't explain it.

It's an industry town now. I personally worry how sustainable it is to have a city that's just "high paid white startup workers and fancy restaurants." I think a more diverse and affordable San Francisco would benefit all its residents.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#14

Post by infinteLooping » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 6:02 PM UTC

Love how the map doesn't even show the actual "Silicon Valley". Anyways this is also why I now prefer to live with "non-techies". It's a great way to separate work life from home/personal life. Just hard to find roommates who can afford to live here and are also not engineers/techies.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#15

Post by svachalek » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 6:02 PM UTC

zyncl19 wrote: post #2

The map doesn't show Silicon Valley

It's definitely migrating north over the years. Some would argue it's centered in SF now, which I'd disagree with, but I have to admit it's moving that way.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#16

Post by misiti3780 » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 6:03 PM UTC

danbmil99 wrote: post #10

erulabs wrote: post #5

Weird flex, but okay. But seriously, it’s hard to read “look how tough we have it” about getting a 6 figure job out of school. You didn’t get into Harvard. That’s not a life defining tragedy... hoping this is parody. The vast vast vast majority of the world works harder for less. We should be thankful, not weirdly bragging about how hard our childhoods were. Try Detroit or Bangladesh....

this is not parody. Perhaps you would be more sympathetic to the perspective of the OP if you were raising children here.

I don't think raising kids has anything to do with. If you're a parent and your main hope and dream is your kids go to harvard, you're doing something wrong.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#17

Post by jfrankamp » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 6:04 PM UTC

joncrane wrote: post #4

Meh. Extreme circumstances result in extreme behaviors. It's a story as old at time.

The start of the story is. This one has a different ending though w/ climate change. We'll optimize our ad spend right up until the end.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#18

Post by applecrazy » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 6:05 PM UTC

misiti3780 wrote: post #16

danbmil99 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is not parody. Perhaps you would be more sympathetic to the perspective of the OP if you were raising children here.

I don't think raising kids has anything to do with. If you're a parent and your main hope and dream is your kids go to harvard, you're doing something wrong.

Bay Area student here. I'm certainly not going to Harvard for my undergrad (and not like I care), but unfortunately the mindset within parents here (and students, to an extent) is that the arbiter of success is an elite institution like Harvard.

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#19

Post by apl002 » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 6:05 PM UTC

erulabs wrote: post #5

Weird flex, but okay. But seriously, it’s hard to read “look how tough we have it” about getting a 6 figure job out of school. You didn’t get into Harvard. That’s not a life defining tragedy... hoping this is parody. The vast vast vast majority of the world works harder for less. We should be thankful, not weirdly bragging about how hard our childhoods were. Try Detroit or Bangladesh....

A problem we have in the world today is just an overall lack of empathy. Just because people have material things better than people in other parts of the world doesn't mean they don't experience problems and struggles. Your comment implies money (or being well off) = happiness. We all know that isn't true. Have some empathy and just be happy you might be able to handle problems living in SV better then others

Re: This Is Silicon Valley

#20

Post by smacktoward » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 6:05 PM UTC

matchbok wrote: post #3

>The lack of diversity doesn’t stop at work — it permeates every aspect of life. Everyone wears Patagonia and North Face, everyone has AirPods hanging from their ears, and everyone goes to Lake Tahoe on weekends. And everyone talks about the same things: startups, blockchain, machine learning, and startups with blockchain and machine learning. Superficial, much? This entire article sounds like a parody.

HN, where wishing you could talk to your neighbors and co-workers about something other than blockchain makes you superficial.