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Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem

nytimes.com

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Re: Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem

#221

Post by angersock »

Jaiguss wrote: post #206
judk wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think that the people getting rich off Poke apps are the brilliant ones? That is the fallacy of it all.

Did you read the article? Its not only about the ones who get rich, its moreso about the significant amount of talent flowing towards these superfluous types of "companies" (ie. startups that are really nothing more than mere features, or eCommerce websites), instead of working for a larger "old-guard" company that actually accomplishes much more because the startup is more cool or popular; according to the author. I…

So, erm, what are these large "old-guard" companies that somehow would make better use of my talents?

And further, where did they come from?

Re: Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem

#222

Post by Jaiguss »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #215
Jaiguss wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets just be honest with ourselves. The biggest reason more people are willing to work on these substance-less apps is because its far easier to create something superfluous as a twitter-helper(or any of the hundreds of ecommerce sites that simply provide new ways to do old things like laundry, via your phone), than it is to cure cancer, and they get to call themselves "hackers", "entrepreneurs", "techies", etc. Ther…

Let's just be honest with ourselves. The people who become research doctors working on curing cancer have very, very hard lives, and most aspiring cancer curers never get to do any actual curing. They have to do a PhD/MD, survive their internship and residency process, and most likely publish papers before they're even out of school before a cancer lab will even hire them . Substanceless apps are not only objectively…

I guess we're in agreement then. Its easier to work on these small superfluous apps than to work on something like curing diseases (which is being used as an arbitrary example of something more "meaningful" than say, a sexting app (another arbitrary example)). The cool factor is also something to consider since computers are cool these days.

I took the side of the issue that I did because its what was discussed in the article; I definitely agree that the medical cartel system we have in place here is also a huge problem. Its the only industry I can think of where the number of new practitioners allowed to enter the field is a function of the number of existing practitioners.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem

#223

Post by scott_s »

rosser wrote: post #105
waterlesscloud wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's all someone else's fault?

Of course it is. I'm reminded of a scene in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys , with Kieran Culkin and Emile Hirsch. (Great movie, btw.) Minor spoilers: The boys are riding their bicycles along a country road, and happen upon a dog that's been struck by a passing vehicle, and is dying. Hirsch's character, Francis, says (paraphrased), "Someone needs to come for it. They need to do something." Tim, played by Culkin, re…

The scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ut7L-X1NQ

What always stuck with me was the end: "No one was coming for this dog, I hope you realize that. Nobody around here, no one who passed it, not even the guy who hit it. I hope you realize that. Don't you ever tell me to get real. I know what fucking real is, okay?"

Re: Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem

#224

Post by sjg007 »

api wrote: post #113
jmsduran wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't blame people choosing to work in other business areas rather than putting their efforts in fixing government, curing cancer, improving medicine, rebooting our space program, fixing education, etc. Why? Because it's honestly very hard work, often with little recognition and less pay. People trying to innovate or 'disrupt' these fields are up against deep rooted political institutions, large corporations with m…

"fixing government, curing cancer, improving medicine, rebooting our space program, fixing education, etc." I think a big part of it is less pay. Important things pay very little compared to frivolous metoo.io apps and social advertising and whatever. Capitalism is a greedy optimizer. When it finds a local maximum it goes all in. It does not explore the fitness landscape.

"fixing government, curing cancer, improving medicine, rebooting our space program, fixing education, etc."

-- There are a bunch of startups already in these areas...

Re: Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem

#225

Post by jmalicki »

msandford wrote: post #197
api wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"fixing government, curing cancer, improving medicine, rebooting our space program, fixing education, etc." I think a big part of it is less pay. Important things pay very little compared to frivolous metoo.io apps and social advertising and whatever. Capitalism is a greedy optimizer. When it finds a local maximum it goes all in. It does not explore the fitness landscape.

I think another part of the problem is that there aren't really any important things in the public sector right now. The last public sector thing that engineers got excited about was the Apollo program. Fixing government? Yeah you might be able to modernize a lot of the tech stack that runs various governmental entities but you're not going to actually fix the entities. You'll be implementing failed or broken policie…

>Curing cancer? There's no Federal Department of Stopping >Cancer, either you work for a big pharmaceutical company or >you get a PhD and scramble for grant money.

Actually, there is a Federal Department of Stopping Cancer - the National Cancer Institute.

http://www.cancer.gov/

Re: Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem

#226

Post by helmut_hed »

sbierwagen wrote: post #97

Man I hate the framing on that headline. I hate silicon valley just as much as anyone else who doesn't live there, and I'd gladly upvote an anti-valley piece; but when an old media outlet blames it on Those Damn Millenials right in the title, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. EDIT: But that presumes that the talent at older companies is somehow subpar, less technically proficient, than it is at their younger counter…

I thought it was fairly balanced, and anyway the author is one of Those Damn Millenials.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem

#227

Post by helmut_hed »

lnanek2 wrote: post #169

> It provided an efficient solution to a niche problem — rich techies needed a ride home after a night on the town and couldn’t get one Wtf? Uber is better than a taxi in every way but price. It certainly isn't limited to just rich techies at night. I wonder if he has ever even tried calling a taxi in SF or the valley. In SF, half the time, it will never show up. It just picks up someone else on the way there. In the…

And with Uber X, it's even cheaper than cabs sometimes...

Re: Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem

#228

Post by sbierwagen »

helmut_hed wrote: post #226
sbierwagen wrote: post #97

Man I hate the framing on that headline. I hate silicon valley just as much as anyone else who doesn't live there, and I'd gladly upvote an anti-valley piece; but when an old media outlet blames it on Those Damn Millenials right in the title, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. EDIT: But that presumes that the talent at older companies is somehow subpar, less technically proficient, than it is at their younger counter…

I thought it was fairly balanced, and anyway the author is one of Those Damn Millenials.

Authors don't write headlines, editors do.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem

#229

Post by msandford »

jmalicki wrote: post #225
msandford wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think another part of the problem is that there aren't really any important things in the public sector right now. The last public sector thing that engineers got excited about was the Apollo program. Fixing government? Yeah you might be able to modernize a lot of the tech stack that runs various governmental entities but you're not going to actually fix the entities. You'll be implementing failed or broken policie…

>Curing cancer? There's no Federal Department of Stopping >Cancer, either you work for a big pharmaceutical company or >you get a PhD and scramble for grant money. Actually, there is a Federal Department of Stopping Cancer - the National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/

Point taken.

But it's got a $5b a year budget which is pretty small in the biotech world. It's even worse when you consider that 42% of it is grant money. So my statement isn't quite right, but in my opinion, still close to right. Maybe 70% true.

http://www.cancer.gov/aboutnci/budget_planning_leg/plan-2013...

http://obf.cancer.gov/financial/factbook.htm

Inflation adjusted NASA's budget during the Apollo program was $30 billion a year or so. And that was in a realm that's better understood.

I'm not necessarily suggesting that we should start spending $50 billion or $100 billion a year on cancer research. But I would argue that it might take that kind of investment to really move the needle in a meaningful way and provide enough good paying opportunities for nerds to get them interested.

Thanks for the link though, even if it makes me look a little dumb.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem

#230

Post by alanlewis »

nostrademons wrote: post #133
dalke wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The topic was if there are any arguments where "a carpooling system that gets dozens of cars off the road and allows each passenger to reclaim ten working hours a week [can be] classified as frivolous." I listed three that I considered to be reasonable in that context. They have come up in various discussions I've read about the situation. I fully realize that my view of "reasonable" is not universally shared. For on…

FWIW on #3, Google has been pushing for rezoning the North Bayshore area (the area by its campus, north of 101 around Shoreline) for mixed-use ground-level retail + high-rise apartments since I got here in 2009. This plan would create about 1100 housing units within walking distance of campus, taking that many cars (or more, including spouses) off of 101, off of Shoreline, and probably out of SF or Mountain View wher…

Lemme guess: google employee? Part of what the city council has been blocking is (according to the linked Verge article) stopping Google from doing an environmental report necessary to develop land adjacent to one of their campuses. Why? Because, surprise!, the council members noticed that the environment reports paid for by large companies always happen to come back with a result favorable to the company who paid for the report.

In short, read the article -- lots of sides to the story: http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/26/5444030/company-town-how-g...

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