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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

#311

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.

I was surprised to (re)discover that Monty Python had a laugh track.

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

#312

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…

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.

With that much $$ Mr Trump should have done better than the index if he is that good.

And at least in the UK people and families that want preserve wealth actually run their own funds. There are a number of listed self managed Investment trusts (with low TER) based on preserving family wealth.

RIT Capital Partners is one example 12.6% pa for 30 years its base was Rothschild family money and there are others Much older.

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

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Wow this is hilarious, but are the KK crew actually dumb? I don't think so. Where do you think Silicon Valley sits on this graph? Is Silicon Valley is a show for smart people about smart and dumb people?

I think the claim is more like the Kardashians play dumb characters [who happen to have their real-life names].

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

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Race and class demographics are not the only dimensions to a show. A working class conservative family in the suburbs of Dallas is pretty different from the high tech and high paid world of Silicon Valley is different from uneducated teenage slackers giggling at poop jokes. What Bevis does/thinks/likes versus what Hank does/thinks/likes versus what Richard does/thinks/likes could not be farther from each other. Just…

In office space Peter Gibbons, our white Alpha, and the only guy with any sense, tries to stay sane and hold it together in a world that has gone haywire.

In King of the Hill, our white Alpha, Hank Hill, the only guy with any common sense, tries to stay sane and keep it from all falling apart in a world that has gone Haywire.

In Idiocracy, our White Alpha, Joe Bauer, the only guy with any sense, tries to stay sane and keep it from falling apart in a world that has gone haywire.

In Extract, Joel, our down to earth White Alpha, tries to stay sane and hold it together in a world that has gone haywire.

And in Silicon Valley, well- you get the idea. I love Mike Judge films, he is an astute observer and hilarious. but his ouvre is not broad. He's got a formula, and it works, and that's fine.

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

#315

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.

I love how H&CF talked about innovations of the 80s-90s that we think of as revolutions now that they have taken off: online games, social network, streaming, time-sharing/cloud computing.

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

#316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What mythical better times are Idiocracy theory proponents even mourning? When have literacy rates and educational attainment for the masses ever been better than the present? As a species, we still have a long way to go before the low hanging fruit gains are realized.

To suggest that basic literacy and educational attainment are somehow indicative of above average intelligence or the ability to understand complex and abstract ideas is a bit of a stretch. With grade inflation and babysitting modern age students, what are the realistic requirements to attain a university degree in a low-difficulty major at a mediocre school? 80 IQ? 85? The literacy argument is trivially refuted in a…

What IQ level is optimal? And what is the role of IQ from a societal standpoint, if you are to presuppose that mass literacy and contemporary education is meaningless? What is the benefit of literacy from your perspective, for that matter

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

#317
I don’t watch it. Not because I’m too sensitive; I don’t even live in CA though I do work for a tech company. Rather the bit of it I did watch was just kinda funny, and from what I’ve read it seems to take the most obvious jabs at SV culture. Probably good content for lots of folks, but I just don’t find that very interesting as a mode of critique. I’m up to my elbows every day in the silliness of SV tech, I don’t really need all that to be recapitulated.

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

#318
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.

As I understand it that is not the meaning of the term. It’s meant to describe the phenomenon wherein the closer simulations of humans get to approximating the real thing, the less believable they are.

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

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Race and class demographics are not the only dimensions to a show. A working class conservative family in the suburbs of Dallas is pretty different from the high tech and high paid world of Silicon Valley is different from uneducated teenage slackers giggling at poop jokes. What Bevis does/thinks/likes versus what Hank does/thinks/likes versus what Richard does/thinks/likes could not be farther from each other. Just…

In office space Peter Gibbons, our white Alpha, and the only guy with any sense, tries to stay sane and hold it together in a world that has gone haywire. In King of the Hill, our white Alpha, Hank Hill, the only guy with any common sense, tries to stay sane and keep it from all falling apart in a world that has gone Haywire. In Idiocracy, our White Alpha, Joe Bauer, the only guy with any sense, tries to stay sane an…

Yeah it's really easy to overgeneralize if you boil it down to nothing and ignore everything that isn't convenient to your point.
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