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This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

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Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#111

Post by melling »

econner wrote: post #108
whatever_dude wrote: post #103

Great read, not just for people from Silicon Valley. It's good to put things into perspective. It also reminds me of an article [1] about John Carmack and his choice of Dallas. To quote, > “A lot of people, especially from California, say, ‘Texas? Why the hell are you in Texas?’ But I am generally happy to wave the flag and say, ‘No, I am not here under duress.’ I actually like it here. And we appreciate the sense of…

I assume he's in Menlo Park now at Oculus. I wonder if he still feels the same way.

Sounds like he's in Dallas:

https://www3.oculus.com/en-us/blog/john-carmack-joins-oculus...

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#113

Post by whatever_dude »

econner wrote: post #108
whatever_dude wrote: post #103

Great read, not just for people from Silicon Valley. It's good to put things into perspective. It also reminds me of an article [1] about John Carmack and his choice of Dallas. To quote, > “A lot of people, especially from California, say, ‘Texas? Why the hell are you in Texas?’ But I am generally happy to wave the flag and say, ‘No, I am not here under duress.’ I actually like it here. And we appreciate the sense of…

I assume he's in Menlo Park now at Oculus. I wonder if he still feels the same way.

His quote is exactly in response to that. He is not moving there. People act surprised when he says that, so that is his reasoning: he prefers the culture of Texas/Dallas.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#114

Post by amyjess »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #21

Sounds more like my friends doing ibanking in NY than my friends doing startups in SF.

Yes, part of this definitely reminded me of my cousin in NYC. Her husband is some big shot at Goldman Sachs, and their toddlers are raised by a nanny and being pushed into elite schools (yes, as toddlers). Their attitude towards restaurants is basically the same, and her husband has a similar lack of time (he works all his waking hours on the weekdays... and then crashes on the weekend).

Oh, and the kicker: they shop for clothes for their kids exclusively on Amazon. How do they know the clothes will fit? They don't; they order the clothes in every single size Amazon has available. I don't know what they do with the stuff that's the wrong size.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#115

Post by amyjess »

exstudent2 wrote: post #101
nommm-nommm wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's with the current cultural obsession with spending every single moment with ones children? How can this possibly be healthy for the children (never mind the parents)?

I'm pretty sure that having both parents work and raising your child via nanny is the current obsession and having a stay at home parent was normal human operating behavior for ~200,000 years.

Maybe for the lower classes, but the upper class has always had nannies raise their children.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#116

Post by hifumi »

I'm not sure how much of this is satire and how much is just jabs at the way things are. It reads a lot like "Cracking the Coding Career" or "The Lean Startup": a piece written for the older (35+) generation trying to understand this modern field that generates so much money. For instance, when you're working for a startup having kids is not an attractive option. Startup hours are nothing like a 9 to 5 and insanely risky. Not to mention the cost of living if you in the Silicon Valley area.

Why wouldn't the majority of your friends on Facebook share similar political views? That's surely a factor of why you are friends in the first place. You wouldn't share a political article to them with the intention of proving an argument. There isn't much debate to be had with them.

Why would you not use small apps that make small things convenient? This is brought to attention so often in the article but it's not even unique to Silicon Valley. It's common to a whole generation.

The constant use of social media also makes it painfully obvious that this article isn't following the life of an engineer.

Most of this probably is satire, but it seems in poor taste.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#117

Post by savanaly »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #100
rob wrote: post #97

This is so sad, especially the part in the beginning about hiring a nanny to watch their kids as they grow up. You can't get those memories and time back. But hey, you have a WiFi coffee maker and Roomba.

What's with the current cultural obsession with spending every single moment with ones children? How can this possibly be healthy for the children (never mind the parents)?

I was going to make a comment along the lines you have here, but I held off because I think you are mistaking his argument. He just is talking about the memories and time you, the parent, can't get back, not any deleterious effects on the child. You're right that people in general way overrate the importance of high interaction parenting on a child's development, but I don't think you're right if you're saying the parents don't enjoy it and won't be glad they did it later.

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#118

Post by caseysoftware »

rob wrote: post #97

This is so sad, especially the part in the beginning about hiring a nanny to watch their kids as they grow up. You can't get those memories and time back. But hey, you have a WiFi coffee maker and Roomba.

PG's article on this one was great.

You only get ~8 Christmases where the "magic" is still there for kids... from roughly 2-10 and then it's just another day of gifts and (potentially) envy.

I'm traveling a ton right now with an 18 month old and dying to get back there.

Edit: PG said it here: http://www.paulgraham.com/vb.html

Re: This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley

#120

Post by whatever_dude »

turnip1979 wrote: post #81
mms1973 wrote: post #47

It reminded me of "Chaos Monkeys" that I read recently.

Would u recommend it?

The book is frequently mentioned in HN comments. In general, it is well recommended even if not overwhelmingly.

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=chaos%20monkeys&sort=byPopular...

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