If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley • Hacker News Board

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

#231

Post by dlivingston » Mon, Nov 19, 2018, 10:33 PM UTC

toyg wrote: post #200

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who fits almost all of the boxes for people Big Bang Theory has made fun of, I still enjoy the series immensely, as I have since it started. Sometimes I wonder if it just hits too close to the truth for some people, or if on the opposite end, they are too detached from the sort of people it characterizes and hence don't see where it draws from. Silicon Valley is a very different show, but definitely on sol…

BBT laughs AT nerds, reinforcing stereotypes in non-nerds and reassuring the mainstream about its superiority. SV laughs WITH nerds, satirising the excesses of a culture that is presented as filthy rich and dominant beyond belief. It also deals with the actual wet dreams of the culture in a fairly realistic way. Think about the material that a dim bully could get from BBT (tons), versus what he could get from SV (ver…

IMHO it doesn't matter who a show laughs at - the essence of comedy is offense. My problem with BBT is that it just isn't funny

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

#232

Post by tootie » Mon, Nov 19, 2018, 10:36 PM UTC

lsd5you wrote: post #201

Judgmentality wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://xkcd.com/603/

It's teasing us. What is the refutation?

The Flynn Effect. People aren't getting more ignorant, we're becoming more aware of our ignorance. Of all the foolishness and idiocy in the world, if you look at human history it's always been worse than now.

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

#233

Post by Aeolun » Mon, Nov 19, 2018, 10:36 PM UTC

nathan_f77 wrote: post #78

> Somebody gets an idea almost right, but not quite, and their business fails; then someone else does it just a little bit better and they are viewed as a genius for the rest of their life. I'm still thinking about this comment about Fieldbook shutting down [1], and the "What Happened at Fieldbook" [2] article: > In contrast, our closest competitor, Airtable, seems to be getting more traction. Was really sad to read…

I was thinking about the same thing. Probably because of recent news about Airtable.

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

#234

Post by tootie » Mon, Nov 19, 2018, 10:38 PM UTC

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.

I watched a bunch of Halt and Catch Fire. It's trying hard to be an accurate history of the early days of the internet, but at the same time it's a melodrama conveyed by ridiculously good-looking and wildly emotional people.

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

#235

Post by chaostheory » Mon, Nov 19, 2018, 10:40 PM UTC

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…

In rare instances, the show just misses stuff and it annoys me since they get a lot of things right, especially the characters. The season 1 adderall episode annoys me because it felt like the writers on that episode didnt do their homework. Someone who is good at breaking into stuff is not the same as someone who is good at building stuff. Also the plot where Hendrix couldn't figure out how to explain the benefit of their compression technology to normal people also drove me insane. In real life, there's a very small chance that everyone on the team from the other devs, QA, to support, or even the VC's themselves couldn't borrow / miss the "unlimited storage space" marketing trick from the telecoms and ISPs?

Other than those two things so far, I really love the show.

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

#236

Post by huaw6 » Mon, Nov 19, 2018, 10:41 PM UTC

samstave wrote: post #188

ham_sandwich wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This chart holds only in the sense that the Kardashians play dumb caricatures of themselves. They may cater their brand to the lowest common denominator but they most certainly aren’t dumb themselves. They essentially parlayed Robert Kardashian’s friendship with OJ Simpson into a media empire; there is something to be said for how media savvy they are.

I met someone who worked for the kardashians on the show and said they are king, generous and respectful to the staff working their brand. Said that they know full well they are managing a brand and that they are parlaying that as they know it shall run out soon. They said that the mom is the eagle-eye over the brand and pushing it to ensure max profit for them. While i wanted to respect that, and i respect the hustl…

Well throughout history the education gap has always existed. "Bread and Circuses". In every culture, from the east to the west.

What has changed today is hyperconnection. That changes the rules of game.

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

#237

Post by danans » Mon, Nov 19, 2018, 10:41 PM UTC

screye wrote: post #216

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…

They ring true. Some moments don't even have to exaggerated to be funny. That is exactly how being "cool" works in parts of India, and just the fact is enough to make a person from the west crack up. Dinesh is one of the few nerdy Indian stereotypes that I do not mind. All the others seem like caricatures and generalizations of South Asians. Dinesh on the other hand, could be sitting right across my table, coding....…

> That is exactly how being "cool" works in parts of India, and just the fact is enough to make a person from the west crack up.

Indeed. In the context of the show, and American culture, it was Dinesh's perspective that stood out as seeming odd or unique.

But I wonder if the post-1950s American/Hollywood understanding of "cool" - the glorification of rebel/outcaste that Gilfoyle's personality represents - is itself really the anomaly on the global scale.

I'd imagine many/most parts of the world don't develop a romantic cultural trope around the underdog, or the person who doesn't fit in with the mainstream. But I'd be interested to learn otherwise.

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

#238

Post by RussianCow » Mon, Nov 19, 2018, 10:41 PM UTC

rightbyte wrote: post #174

clairity wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

having money (as you note, the family wealth came from kris jenner's husband) makes it easier to make more money, with no implications about the intelligence of the wealth holder. take trump for example. nytimes detailed about $600+ million in wealth transfer to him from his dad. while we don't have tax returns or financial statements to confirm this, he's probably worth about a billion dollars now. that rate of retu…

A index fund doesn't follow the index. There is a broker fee, stock transaction fees for the broker to keep the fund balanced and stock falling out of the index (because of the company eg. halfway to bankruptcy) is a loss for the fund but in the index the next biggest stock just takes it's place. To keep up with the index is probably really hard.

The iShares S&P 500 ETF (quote: IVV) has an expense ratio of 0.04%, is offered commission-free on many brokerages, and based on some quick calculations, follows the official index to within about 0.5% returns. You're right that it's not completely "free", but the total "cost" is only about half a percentage point, meaning you can pretty closely follow the index in the long run with a single ETF purchase. I don't know what could be easier. :)

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

#239

Post by jancsika » Mon, Nov 19, 2018, 10:42 PM UTC

> It’s more fun to root for the underdog.

Outside of dumb luck, I don't see a plot arc that favors Richard's team at all.

Especially when one of the overarching themes is that over the seasons the "underdog" throws friends under the bus, hacks competitors, rents a botnet, lies, commit fraud, and all kinds of other abuses.

What's the difference between Richard dumping a gf because she uses spaces and Gavin screwing over Jack because Jack wanted to get dropped off first from the private plane? The only difference I see is that Richard's narcissism doesn't come with the weight of a $100 billion company behind it.

Richard's bad behavior comes off as less jarring because almost all of the time he has considerably less power than Gavin. Richard doesn't have a wall of lawyers who he can casually probe about assassinating a foe. Gavin does.

Edit: clarification

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

#240

Post by tootie » Mon, Nov 19, 2018, 10:44 PM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #95

imgabe wrote: post #9

King of the Hill has also resurfaced on Hulu recently after not being available to stream anywhere. Mike Judge has a real talent for nailing essence of a culture.

Woah, I had no idea Mike Judge was involved with King of the Hill. Growing up in Texas, I never appreciated how on-point the show was, until I left the state and realized that the subtle culture cues of Texas didn't exist elsewhere, which means that King of the Hill nailed it. I mean, every detail is perfect.

I've never even been to Texas, but I consider King of the Hill to be on the best written sitcoms ever. My wife and I still make jokes about Aisle 8A all the time. No other TV show I've seen has ever crossed that threshold of comedy so beautifully.