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Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

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Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#181

Post by nish1500 »

Inthenameofmine wrote: post #177
nish1500 wrote: post #152

I grew up other side of the world, amazing by what I heard in the news - that there existed a world beyond mine where smart people with smart ideas built great companies overnight. I am smart. I have merit. I dropped out at 19, taught my self how to code, and built a 6-figure business with my projects online. I want to learn more. I got turned down by 15+ companies and startups in the past few weeks because they coul…

Have you looked into remote jobs? Honestly, moving to the US is overrated. I'm staying in a developing country myself. Get 50% of a US salary, live on the other aide of the world, live a laid back and cheap life.

I want more than a laid-back life. I already make more than an SF-salary. The opportunities to grow and learn are very little in a developing country. I've learnt more from 2 months spent in SF than I did 5 years in my country.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#182

Post by im2w1l »

Frondo wrote: post #10
Karunamon wrote: post #5

Great read. I've become allergic to words like "privilege" as they usually are seen in the company of ill-thought-out and grandiose/insulting/wrong proclamations about How Things Should Be Done, ..but this is none of that - it's an honest look and deep analysis of someone's experience. And knowing how important upbringing is, and the sheer (almost superhuman) tenacity the author had to go through to even partially ov…

To be honest, one thing you can do is retrain yourself to be un-allergic to words like "privilege", and see their use as the consequence of a lot of people's suffering systemic unfairness and injustice. When I see that word, "privilege," especially tied to attacks on white/male/hetero/whatever, my response isn't "oh jeez, not that again".....it's "yeah, that is a problem, and I really wish the other white male hetero…

The reason I'm allergic to "privilege" is that 9 out 10 times, "you are privileged" is followed by "and here is how we are going to fuck you over to fix that"

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#183

Post by marincounty »

I looked through your past posts, and you are legit!

I liked to that you went to a community college. I too screwed up in high school. I didn't even know why people were taking another test--the SAT. That said, I cleaned up my act in my senior year, but it was too late.

Everything, and a lot more, that I missed in high school, I made up for in two semesters at community college.

If anyone in high school is reading this, and thinking, "I wish I could do it over?". You can! I had a great time at my community college. I saved a lot of money, and met some really wonderful people. The teachers really seemed to care. I didn't find that at the four year school, or even my professional school.

Just make sure to transfer, and get that four year degree. So many people don't transfer to a four year university, or even get the associate degree. Yes, so much of college is absolute bull shit, but degrees are still valued in a lot of professions. It's changing though, and I couldn't be happier. British companies are taking the lead. I know at Penguin books; HR isn't even allowed to know if you went to college, or not. You are hired on your experience, and maybe a test? The way it should be.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#184

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

refurb wrote: post #113
sandstrom wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an article I read on the topic. If you are born to parents in the lowest quartile you have ~10% chance of making it into the highest by age 26. For people born in the highest the probability is ~30%. (and if it was random it would, obviously, be 1/4 = 25%) http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21595437-america...

But that's moving from the bottom to the top. How about from the bottom to the middle? What percentage never leave their quartile?

On its own, leaving a quartile doesn't say anything about the magnitude of the change, so it's not a very useful measure of anything.

Another problem is that because the distribution is so heavily skewed toward the top (for both income and wealth, but more heavily for wealth), dividing the population into equal groups creates a somewhat misleading picture of mobility. A nonlinear breakdown of classes is more reflective of the distribution. In that case we might ask something like how many people move from the bottom 40% to the top 5%.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#185

Post by [deleted] »

tn13 wrote: post #47

As an Indian immigrant when I see people complaining about Privilege and Inequality in SV (and in America) I feel like laughing. I lived in a society where everyone was almost the same, similar economic status, similar privilege etc. etc. Life sucked. I decided to move out to be among the top 10% instead of one of the 100%. I eventually ended up in SV. This place is awesome and the very reason I am here is because I…

[deleted]

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#186

Post by zobzu »

People feeling sorry for themselves because they're not male and white from a place with food are annoying.

The world isn't fair, and it's not because Joe Smith had an okay childhood and is now making about 100k/year in a city that asks 3k/mo just to sleep there.

If you wanna make a difference, it's the wrong level to look at. I'm a white male. I made everything I have. I started with no food or place to live. I got lucky to get into the right interests (computers) and find old ones that I could play with. It took me forever to even think about the possibility of starting my own company (I dont own a house, family, car, anything - I'm 35y.o. now.)

I've never blamed it on Joe Smith. My boss is a women, making 6x my salary and has a large house, already paid for, a family. Who cares. Someone else probably makes 6000x my salary. and someone else has barely enough food on their plate (in fact, many of my friends in a far country are in that situation).

If you want to change something, make technology that rocks, instead. It's the only constant in the human world we live in. The only thing that keeps pushing standards of living higher, for everyone, no matter the color, gender, country.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#187

Post by ScottBurson »

[deleted] wrote: post #180

[deleted]

Yes, and we can find someone who had it even worse than you did, and still made good.

Envy is something I've struggled with myself, so don't think I'm talking down to you when I tell you that you have to let it go. Your life is good now and can still get much better.

And even those who seem to have had a lot more privileges than you may have also had difficulties you don't know about. Rich parents too can be alcoholics.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#190

Post by jcoffland »

My favorite line:

> Compare that level of confidence to a kid with successful parents who’d say something along the lines of “If you can believe it, you can achieve it!” Now imagine walking into a VC office having to compete with that kid. He’s so convinced that he’s going to change the world, and that’s going to show in his pitch.

I enjoyed this article a lot but clearly this guy also made some of his own hardships. Going on ski trips just to fit in and then running out of money is incompatible with the image of a frugal poor kid.

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