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If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley

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Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley

#221

Post by hk__2 »

btym wrote: post #111
hk__2 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A compression algorithm that works well enough to make a P2P Internet practical seems like a ground-breaking technology that is close-to-believable. That’s not the amount of transfered data that makes a P2P Internet practical or not, but rather its reliability, something a compression algorithm can’t do anything about.

Such a compression algorithm could make it much cheaper for the community to volunteer capacity to the network (short-range relays? data storage nodes? crowdfunded cell towers?), which could make it much more feasible to build a reliable P2P network.

If this were true, there would be much more P2P networks today than fifteen years ago, but that’s not the case. According to [1], in 2004 BitTorrent accounted "from 20 to 35% of all traffic on the Internet". At that time the bandwidth cost was at least two orders of magnitude higher than today. The price of hard drive has since been divided by 40 [2] and the total Internet traffic has been multiplied by 40 [3].

[1]: http://history-computer.com/Internet/Conquering/BitTorrent.h...

[2]: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3182207/data-storage/c...

[3]: https://blogs.cisco.com/sp/the-history-and-future-of-interne...

Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley

#222

Post by danans »

toyg wrote: post #207
danans wrote: post #69

Love the show partly for how deeply researched its identity and culturally driven jokes are. Here are a few: Erlich passing Dinesh off as Latino to get a deal on a graffiti logo design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSzmVFF58Mo Dinesh recounting to a puzzled Gilfolye about how he was a "cool" kid back in Pakistan, and why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKz0M6SmQ8c The latter one, in particular, implies that the w…

That’s Kumail Nanjani’s actual experience being used. If you listen to his early material, on podcasts like Harmontown or standup, there are a lot of similar jokes about his youth.

Makes sense. As someone who experienced both the Gilfoyle and Dinesh cultural perspectives, the joke really made me laugh.

Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley

#224

Post by otachack »

russellbeattie wrote: post #60

I haven't watched the show much, as I've lived and worked in Silicon Valley for 20+ years and I don't see much besides a superficial resemblance. I saw a bit of an episode where a few 'brogrammers' were making fun of the main character like it was a 'mean girls' high school, and I thought it was ridiculous. Then I saw another bit where one of the characters was threatening a kid for his Adderall prescription and, aga…

Mike Judge does his homework. Being in the industry myself, he does many other aspects in the show. I recommend you try another episode, such as one that involves the VCs.

Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley

#225

Post by dlivingston »

blocked_again wrote: post #13
slivym wrote: post #3

It's quite amazing how good a job Silicon Valley does considering how badly wrong it could go (I'm looking at you Big Bang Theory). I'm sure there are quite a few industries that could have similar comedies about them from people who really know what the industry is like. W1A is another great example.

Pardon my ignorance but what did big bang theory got wrong?

Watch a video of Big Bang Theory without a laugh track and all of your questions will be answered: https://youtu.be/jKS3MGriZcs

Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley

#226

Post by tootie »

hindsightbias wrote: post #212
komali2 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the yogurt scene that did it for me. When one of the main characters yells at the other about how all the small spoons are missing, and he can't get the big spoons into the greek yogurt jam section. Not only did I have that exact same conversation with my coworker the day previously about the exact brand of yogurt, on post-analysis we're pretty sure our company has stocked the exact same spoons they used in th…

In Austin, my coworkers would always stop at lunch and look if Mike Judge was nearby. We were convinced he just followed us around for Office Space and King of the Hill material.

Mike Judge is just an absolute artistic genius. Even though it's all light-hearted pop culture, the breadth of his work is just so amazing.

Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley

#228

Post by sidlls »

asgionio1235 wrote: post #177
awakeasleep wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A compression algorithm that works well enough to make a P2P Internet practical seems like a ground-breaking technology that is close-to-believable. I challenge any of us to come up with something better or an alternative!

A P2P Internet is not only practical but used in practice. BitTorrent at one point accounted for the majority of Internet traffic. My problem with that technology is that, if the main character actually wanted to do good, he'd donate that algorithm to Apache and the show would be over in ten minutes. Or, if he wanted to make loads of money, he could license it for millions. Instead he wound up launching an ICO. The s…

Your last sentence describes a number of actual startups, though, and that's part of why it's funny.

Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley

#229

Post by tootie »

polartx wrote: post #52
ng12 wrote: post #28

I always describe Silicon Valley (the show) as being solidly in the Uncanny Valley ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley ). It's humorous and absurd, but at the same time so close to reality it's unsettling.

A couple years ago I found myself at a user conference party for the funded SaaS company I worked for. The concert was complete with open cocktail bar, Cirque du Soleil aerial performers, and (you guessed it), Flo-Rida. For a while I couldn't decide if it was life imitating art, or a tongue-in-cheek nod to the stereotype we were seen as. But it wasn't the latter, the founder/president wasn't that self-aware.

Mr. Florida.

Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley

#230

Post by tzs »

coleifer wrote: post #81
skunkworker wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Venn diagram always gets me. https://i.chzbgr.com/full/8291744000/h3159FC59/

I use this simple litmus test: if it has a laugh-track, then it's for dumb people.

That's a bad test. It mainly just filters out shows filmed in front of a live audience.

If you film a comedy in front of a live audience, the actors have to adjust their delivery to speak around the laughter. If you take the laughter out of the final cut the pauses were the actors were waiting for the laughter to die down make it weird and awkward.

If a scene only needs one or two takes to get right, they can just go with the laughter from the live audience. If it takes several takes, they will still be getting laughter from the live audience, and so changing the timing of the delivery, but it won't be as intense as it should be for the quality of the joke, and if that live laughter was used it could change the perception of the joke for the broadcast audience. (Our perception of a joke is influenced by how we think others perceive it).

Hence, if you use a late take you need to replace the late take live laughter with either earlier take live laughter or laughter from a laugh library.

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