An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs? • Hacker News Board

Re: An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?

#11

Post by RollAHardSix » Fri, Apr 06, 2012, 2:50 AM UTC

meddlepal wrote: post #7

Hyperbole much? She is an entertainment content producer. She is producing entertainment. She is not making a documentary. And only idiots and people looking for a cheap joke really think jersey shore is an actual representation of new jersey... It's more a characterization of long island!

Or a representation of Long Island Ice Tea's perhaps! On a serious note, I just wanted to highlight your comment for it's accuracy and become others in this thread seem to be missing the point (That 'She is producing entertainment').

Re: An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?

#12

Post by sriramk » Fri, Apr 06, 2012, 2:51 AM UTC

reposting my comment from that post

I find the show distasteful but it is as accurate a portrayal of Silicon Valley as Jersey Shore is of that particular geo/demographic. In a way, this shows you how mainstream Silicon Valley now is - instead of just being portrayed as nerds and VCs, this shows that there exists many, many flavors of people/lifestyle here in the Bay Area.

Let's be clear - this is a Bravo show, not a Ken Burns documentary. A realistic portrayal of this place would have a bunch of people staring in front of their text editors all day. Or attending meetings and whiteboarding things. Not exactly riveting television.

Re: An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?

#13

Post by jordanb » Fri, Apr 06, 2012, 2:52 AM UTC

rrbrambley wrote: post #8

What's next? How about: Get 5-10 early-stage startups with decent ideas, put them in a huge house (or office building with several offices) and film them all as they make progress on their product. YC, but being filmed all the time. Judges consist of Silicon Valley bigwigs (PG, some VCs, etc.). The "winners" get funded at the end. The show's title: Series A. No shirtless club dancing. No dumbasses. I'm not saying thi…

I think filming hour after hour of programmers working would make for some terrible television.

Re: An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?

#14

Post by rhizome » Fri, Apr 06, 2012, 2:52 AM UTC

AwesomeTogether wrote: post #6

Actually the most shameful thing about the Bravo show is that it refers to Randi Zuckerberg as an "internet entrepreneur."

Compared to the parade of brogrammers that will inevitably populate the show, she probably is.

Then again, she's in a position where she doesn't have to care how it appears. She's not selling out, she's just another exploiter. Think Trump, not Mayer.

Re: An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?

#15

Post by alanh » Fri, Apr 06, 2012, 2:54 AM UTC

Pendantic, but if it were an “open letter,” shouldn’t it be written in the second person? The body content contains two instances of the word “you,” both directed to the reader; references to RZ are in the third person.

Re: An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?

#16

Post by rhizome » Fri, Apr 06, 2012, 2:56 AM UTC

jordanb wrote: post #13

rrbrambley wrote: post #8

What's next? How about: Get 5-10 early-stage startups with decent ideas, put them in a huge house (or office building with several offices) and film them all as they make progress on their product. YC, but being filmed all the time. Judges consist of Silicon Valley bigwigs (PG, some VCs, etc.). The "winners" get funded at the end. The show's title: Series A. No shirtless club dancing. No dumbasses. I'm not saying thi…

I think filming hour after hour of programmers working would make for some terrible television.

Well it's not like any of these shows are portrayed in real-time. Sheesh.

Re: An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?

#17

Post by robryan » Fri, Apr 06, 2012, 2:57 AM UTC

rrbrambley wrote: post #8

What's next? How about: Get 5-10 early-stage startups with decent ideas, put them in a huge house (or office building with several offices) and film them all as they make progress on their product. YC, but being filmed all the time. Judges consist of Silicon Valley bigwigs (PG, some VCs, etc.). The "winners" get funded at the end. The show's title: Series A. No shirtless club dancing. No dumbasses. I'm not saying thi…

How about just following the ups and downs of startups, without any manufactured "house", or cut in a certain way that overplays tension and underplays what they are actually doing. Please no prizes, eliminations, challenges and generally everything else they put into "reality" TV.

Of course what appeals to people here would never likely get made because it will just cause a wider audience to gloss over. I mean do people want to see a segment with the founders talking about their servers, framework choices etc or with them having a tense stand off with investors, clients or each other.

Re: An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?

#18

Post by michaelkscott » Fri, Apr 06, 2012, 2:59 AM UTC

AwesomeTogether wrote: post #6

Actually the most shameful thing about the Bravo show is that it refers to Randi Zuckerberg as an "internet entrepreneur."

The Wikipedia page on Randi Zuckerberg also refers to her as an "internet entrepreneur."

Is this really the correct way to label her (i.e. What significant thing has she done in tech that earns her that title?)

Someone should probably edit that wiki page. But again, I wouldn't really know what to call her either — other than something like, internet marketer?

Re: An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?

#19

Post by abiekatz » Fri, Apr 06, 2012, 3:00 AM UTC

rrbrambley wrote: post #8

What's next? How about: Get 5-10 early-stage startups with decent ideas, put them in a huge house (or office building with several offices) and film them all as they make progress on their product. YC, but being filmed all the time. Judges consist of Silicon Valley bigwigs (PG, some VCs, etc.). The "winners" get funded at the end. The show's title: Series A. No shirtless club dancing. No dumbasses. I'm not saying thi…

Bloomberg did a decent miniseries based on TechStars New York http://www.bloomberg.com/video/75400336/

It was a lot more serious than this Bravos show will be but they still probably manufactured some conflict to keep things engaging.

Re: An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?

#20

Post by ceol » Fri, Apr 06, 2012, 3:01 AM UTC

vellum wrote: post #4

It’s a Bravo Reality show. Of course they’re going to sex it up. Does anyone really think the “Real Housewives” resemble real housewives? If they taped real developers in their natural habitat, it would just be a timelapse of someone sitting in front of a monitor.

One of her points, stated towards the end, says,

How on earth can Randi Zuckerberg — who knows how one frame of film will be taken as gospel over a thousand books, blog posts, or real interviews — sleep at night?

People are stupid. They are going to assume the Bravo portrayal is an accurate depiction of Silicon Valley, much like how they assumed The Social Network was an accurate depiction of the beginnings of Facebook. She doesn't believe it should be excused because "It's a Bravo reality show."