Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just like all of mike judges work. A genius
Mike Judge created Silicon Valley? OK, now I have to watch it.
The first episode isn't great but if you push through the first season is good.
If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley
241–250 of 490 posts
Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley
#242Earlier 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.
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…
The whole reason that the investment industry exists is because nobody puts that much money at risk in an index fund. Hedge funds literally exist for that reason. This whole idea that trump would drop his wealth in an index fund is propaganda, its meant to manipulate you about trumps incompetency.
Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, Idiocracy is kind of insidiously awful because it thinks that cultural changes are actually genetic . You don't have to follow its arguments very far at all to come to the conclusion that ignorance can be fixed, not by education, but by restricting breeding rights. We all know where that leads. (Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/603/ )
A more healthy and smart society?
Have you heard about the story of eugenics and Nazi Germany?
Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
Office Space and Silicon Valley, sure, but Idiocracy has aged _horribly_. That movie is full of memes that haven't been relevant since the mid-00s (and specifically, the humor in the movie has a distinct Bush-era vibe which straight-up feels foreign in 2018... it feels like a period piece even though it's set in the future), and I lost whatever enjoyment of it that I had left when actual Neo-Nazis began using the mov…
Yeah, Idiocracy is kind of insidiously awful because it thinks that cultural changes are actually genetic . You don't have to follow its arguments very far at all to come to the conclusion that ignorance can be fixed, not by education, but by restricting breeding rights. We all know where that leads. (Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/603/ )
> Yeah, Idiocracy is kind of insidiously awful because it thinks that cultural changes are actually genetic.
But...they are (or, rather, they can reasonably be expected to produce genetic changes which reinforce themselves.) Because cultural changes effect mate selection, and also otherwise improve the relative fitness of those naturally inclined to thrive in the cultural environment.
Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley
#245> 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 ov…
You know, the show continuing well past where the story makes sense is very much in the vein of Silicon Valley. Plot planning be damned.
Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley
#246Maybe it’s longing for byegone days on my part but it feels like the atmosphere of the Valley and tech in general has changed so much so quickly that my head is spinning.
It feels, well, not fun anymore a lot of the time. Development by copy-and-paste and gluing other peoples code together to arrive at a half-baked solution instead of exploring the code to try to understand it as a system so the solution you arrive at is the most effective that time and skill permit.
Being more infatuated with nerd culture than building something great. (I see this a LOT!) Chasing dollars instead of knowledge. And, don’t get me wrong; it’s ok to want to make money. Even a lot of it. But that should be the icing on the cake of solving real problems.
I feel like we used to do this stuff because it was what we loved to do. But now it feels like too many people do it because they want to look cool and/or they want a lot of money. The romance is dying.
Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
All of his work is about middle class suburban white people, and their lives. There's nothing wrong with that, 'write what you know', but 'breadth' isn't really the term to describe it.
Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Flo-Rida performed at NIPS. The top academic ML conference. I can't imagine who thought that the community of some of the world's biggest nerds wanted to listen to Flo-Rida !?
I think a lot of those nerds maybe skipped the dance parties in college, and skipped going to the club as an adult. The experience of being at this kind of event, but where you're the guest of honor instead of an out-of-place spectator, is enticing.
Of course I'm not trying to say all ML researchers are dweebs, but if that description applies to 10% of attendees, you've got a line.
Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley
#249Earlier 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.
The laugh track was a huge part of TV up until the last couple decades, seems unfair to characterize it like that.
Re: If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
All of his work is about middle class suburban white people, and their lives. There's nothing wrong with that, 'write what you know', but 'breadth' isn't really the term to describe it.
Beavis and Butthead?