Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley

gatesnotes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 490 posts

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

#291

Post by Aeolun »

avinium wrote: post #255
Aeolun wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Read the same article yesterday, which got me thinking. I'm not familiar with Fieldbook, but I do wonder if they weren't as savvy as Airtable when it came to sales & finance strategy. Products alone rarely make a business. It's a perfectly viable strategy to keep forging ahead at a loss while you slowly gain market share. You obviously need to show revenue growth (sales savvy) to keep the funding coming through (fina…

I feel like technically Fieldbook had pretty much everything that they needed to compete with Airtable.

Airtable probably does a better job of attracting customers with their extensive collection of premade content though.

But I cannot get over the ‘candy’ look in airtable.

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

#292

Post by lscotte »

cknoxrun wrote: post #195
garmaine wrote: post #146

I find it hits a bit close to home, so much so as to ruin the comedy sometimes... it’d be funny if it weren’t so true, which is depressing. Still watch it, and love it though. And super impressed that a Hollywood production finally understood Northern California. That never happens (see: The Social Network, Hackers, every Steve Jobs movie, etc.)

I would highly suggest checking out Halt and Catch Fire. It's a period piece, but I think it captures the spirit of Northern California. The first 2 seasons are in Texas before they jump ship to San Francisco.

Likewise, it's a great series, very well written, sad to see it so unknown and underrated...

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

#293

Post by walshemj »

esmi wrote: post #264
rusk wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3?

0x11 = 17 That’s like 6 above 11! About right in my opinion.

Our Hexadecimal codes go to Q - bonus points if any one gets the Traveller SF RPG in joke.

Traveller is where of course Elite ripped off the initial space combat system from.

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

#294

Post by Aeolun »

Cyph0n wrote: post #243
Aeolun wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A more healthy and smart society?

Have you heard about the story of eugenics and Nazi Germany?

It seems to me the conditions are completely different.

There’s nothing racial or political about this.

It’s certainly ethically dubious. And I’m not certain it actually has any effect.

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

#295

Post by walshemj »

lucideer wrote: post #279
coleifer wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Laugh tracks are mostly a litmus test for era rather than quality, and also disproportionately affect British comedy, which is excellent.

That depends MASH was broadcast without the laugh track in the UK.

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

#296

Post by ticmasta »

devmunchies wrote: post #211
cknoxrun wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would highly suggest checking out Halt and Catch Fire. It's a period piece, but I think it captures the spirit of Northern California. The first 2 seasons are in Texas before they jump ship to San Francisco.

ditto. Its starts off with a young ex-IBM executive trying to build the first IBM compatible machine and everything that goes with launching the new product. Later seasons go into things like server farms, early gaming, and social networking. really underrated show.

I really like the historical/tech story lines but the soap-opera interpersonal relationships wrecked it for me. The whole "broken imperfection" thing often goes to far and really detracts from the story.

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

#298

Post by ticmasta »

garmaine wrote: post #146

I find it hits a bit close to home, so much so as to ruin the comedy sometimes... it’d be funny if it weren’t so true, which is depressing. Still watch it, and love it though. And super impressed that a Hollywood production finally understood Northern California. That never happens (see: The Social Network, Hackers, every Steve Jobs movie, etc.)

I love Silicon Valley as much as I loathe Big Bang Theory. Talk about a show that plays to what "regular" people think nerds are like. I am absolutely dumbfounded how popular it is. Then again, Chuck Lorre has a track record for that type of garbage...

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

#299

Post by walshemj »

rhino369 wrote: post #270
toyg wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>BBT laughs AT nerds, reinforcing stereotypes in non-nerds and reassuring the mainstream about its superiority. BBT definitely laughs at nerds. But I don't think reassures the mainstream about its superiority. The characters on BBT are depicted as god-tier geniuses that are successful at doing important work. The nerds are the protagonists. SV on the other really sticks it to developers and VC. I don't get a sense th…

BBT is punching down not up.

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

#300

Post by ibudiallo »

A few months ago I wrote a certain story here and to my surprise I received a call from Dan Lyons, one of the writers of the show. We had long discussions about silicon valley and his new book coming out (I'm featured in it). A few weeks ago he was in LA and we had another long discussion about the show.

Silicon Valley is the show most startup founders will refuse to watch. My startup was featured on TechCrunch Disrupt, we were on stage talking about how we will change the world with our product. Then things didn't particularly go as planed.

I discovered the show and started watching it shortly after. It was painful to see that they portrayed our exact journey as it happened. Only the show poked fun of the mistakes we were making. I watched it not only as a comedy, but also as a documentary that would predict our fate. It was eye-opening!

My favorite part (and most humiliating) was when we pitched our startup to a non-silicon valley investor and she simply replied: "OK, cut the crap. Which website are you scraping?"

All my co-founders were offended by the show. I must admit, its painful to watch someone else make fun of the things you put your heart to. But from time to time, someone has to make fun of you or you start to take yourself too seriously.

If you are trying to make it in silicon valley, please watch the show. At best, it will help you make your startup more grounded.

Post reply on HN