Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley • Hacker News Board

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#201

Post by PhasmaFelis » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 7:10 AM UTC

tomcam wrote: post #191

nugget wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've known deca-millionaire trust fund kids who ended up broke (or dead). I've known immigrants who started with nothing and ended up fantastically independently wealthy. And the vast, vast majority of people who settle somewhere near the middle. What nobody teaches you is: it's all about luck. Below that, the fine print: the harder you work and the more you sacrifice, the luckier you will get. ''If only'' works both…

it's all about luck Bullshit. Luck sure goes a long way, but so do working very, very hard and smart and making course corrections and constantly doing things people say will fail.

99% of the time, when you do something that lots of smart people say will fail, you fail. People look at that 1% and conclude that if you just keep whacking your head against a brick wall, it will eventually turn into gold, completely ignoring the combination of smarts, habits, and the sheer dumb luck that are actually behind success. But the gutters are full of ambitious failures.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#202

Post by sarciszewski » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 7:10 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #145

colechristensen wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can confirm, I'd place much more value (including monitary- and career- value) on the connections made with people sharing the experience of being an irresponsible young person than I would the connections made during study/projects/"networking" etc. This isn't to say that A) these groups didn't overlap significantly or B) I wish I'd gotten blackout drunk more often; but the social aspect of being forced into close…

I think the most important part of networking is to do it authentically. If you are naturally a partier, go to parties. If you are naturally studious, study with other people. I made a lot more useful connections with the folks I worked on projects with (or even moreso, folks I met on the Internet) than those I partied with, but that's because I always felt very out-of-place at the blackout-drunk party scene.

I tend to grow my network through researching security vulnerabilities in open source projects, even though that's not my goal. :\

(I'm agreeing with your post.)

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#203

Post by rickyyean » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 7:11 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #180

[deleted]

Author here. I'm inspired by your story. The responses I've been getting so far has been overwhelming. People from around the WORLD are telling me that the story resembles theirs and that they face very similar mindset challenges. I know my experience at Stanford was transformative and I feel extremely lucky, but that's part of the reason why I wrote it. I may be in a better position to talk about than most. Thank you for sharing your story.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#204

Post by jnbiche » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 7:14 AM UTC

ginsurge wrote: post #103

This really resonates with me, I was the first person in my family to go to university, and my grandparents had to work multiple jobs when they migrated from Europe in order to survive. My dad did slightly better, but both my parents only had high school education and worked blue collar jobs. It does make it really hard to change your mindset when you come from this sort of background, when you've achieved more than…

> highly educated parents I could have amazing conversations with, who would encourage me to achieve and grow even more.

I realize you may not be implying this, but I just wanted to point out that highly-educated parents don't always have amazing conversations with their children, or encourage them to achieve and grow even more, or even accept or approve of the accomplishments their children have achieved.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#205

Post by jmspring » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 7:20 AM UTC

I was soft in my earlier comment, but fine taking a rep hit.

This is not the only post recently where the topic is "oh golly gee, look at the hardship I went through to get through college and the found something."

It's a millennial post, and there have been many of them.

Going through college is a challenge ... Having to work or be responsible during such sucks (I interned at Borland as well as worked for an astronomical research company).

Post college, more than a few have to deal with life obligations that come up.

Our profession certainly offers a bit of a cushion and flexibility, but we have to manage that and our obligations.

I don't see someone here whining about having to support their parents due to the last downturn or the many other personal decisions made.

The blog would have been better written as challenges met and overcome and left out the for lack of tact whiny bits...

Yes, coming from poverty has challenges, and friends in such stretched into their late 20s to complete a degree...but perspective and awareness of the wider world is needed... Not another post about personal insecurities..

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#206

Post by um_ya » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 7:23 AM UTC

rdlecler1 wrote: post #35

I had a similar experience starting life with opportunity debt. Single parent family whose mother had no high school education. Have ADD and dyslexia, moved around a lot with a good part my life in subsidized housing, and never graduated from high school. No one teaches you the basics, so that when you do start coming into your own and taking control of your own life you are so incredibly behind your peers socially,…

I feel like the majority of people make the mistake of reflecting on themselves and saying "if only I had this", or "if only I wasn't disadvantaged in this way"... In reality, everyone is disadvantaged in some way, and I can guarantee you that the successful people had a lot of disadvantages and setbacks. You shouldn't dwindle on what you don't have, but rather on what you do have. Successful people don't wait for the stars to align to do what they want. Safety and security is NEVER guaranteed, and if you want to be successful, you must understand this and risk it anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktlTxC4QG8g

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#207

Post by gnaritas » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 7:23 AM UTC

tbrownaw wrote: post #199

NhanH wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Socially awkward" seems to be a loaded term in your use case. If you are "socially shy", then yes reading would help. But in the case you're not socially awkward in your natural environment (ie you just lived in a different culture), the nuisances are impossible to learn unless you encountered it. Just think of it as a different culture, no East Asian will come to the US without fucking up something small or big a f…

impossible to learn unless you encountered it Why? How can there be such a thing? What is there that prevents someone from recording what they encountered and learned, and passing that knowledge on to others?

Nuance. Words are not sufficient to convey all things; some things take practice, not knowledge. You cannot learn to play a guitar merely by reading everything there is to know about playing music on a guitar and humans are far more complex than guitars.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#208

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 7:29 AM UTC

rickyyean wrote: post #203

[deleted] wrote: post #180

[deleted]

Author here. I'm inspired by your story. The responses I've been getting so far has been overwhelming. People from around the WORLD are telling me that the story resembles theirs and that they face very similar mindset challenges. I know my experience at Stanford was transformative and I feel extremely lucky, but that's part of the reason why I wrote it. I may be in a better position to talk about than most. Thank yo…

[deleted]

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#209

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 7:29 AM UTC

return0 wrote: post #146

> We think this is the reason why poor founders tend not to be successful. The essay by PG actually meant that there are no poor founders at all. It would be interesting to have statistics on whether poor founders fail more, or don't even get a chance to try at all. I have reasons to believe that the rare poor person is more motivated and determined than the average groomed-to-be middle class entrepreneur, and there…

[deleted]

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#210

Post by alexashka » Sat, Jan 23, 2016, 7:33 AM UTC

ginsurge wrote: post #103

This really resonates with me, I was the first person in my family to go to university, and my grandparents had to work multiple jobs when they migrated from Europe in order to survive. My dad did slightly better, but both my parents only had high school education and worked blue collar jobs. It does make it really hard to change your mindset when you come from this sort of background, when you've achieved more than…

Everyone would like better relationships :)

If you feel like you are not good enough - maybe you aren't. Maybe it will take another few years to work on something you are proud of and then you'll feel ready.

You sound relatively young - there is no rush to join google/facebook this year or the next. If you look at the bigger picture - you'll likely be working until you're in your 60s.

That's a long time. So I'd say don't sweat the goals you set for this year or the next so much, once you have the bigger picture, things will fall into place much more naturally.