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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

#391

Post by derangedHorse »

tootie wrote: post #234
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.

Sometimes I feel like it got out of hand with how emotional they made the characters.

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

#392

Post by sytringy05 »

nkoren wrote: post #334
ibudiallo wrote: post #300

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 Disru…

Man, you need to get better co-founders! I agree that Silicon Valley often hits painfully close to home, but that's precisely what makes it so fantastic. My own startup has been mostly outside of America, but we get enough brushes with Silicon Valley culture -- or, worse, wannabe Silicon Valley culture -- to make the show really resonate. Even closer to home, for me personally, is the Australian comedy "Utopia" (or "…

Utopia is brilliant. The new logo episode is one of the greatest pieces of tv ever made.

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

#393

Post by derangedHorse »

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…

I think in both shows there are occasions where you laugh with AND at the "nerds". I think the problem is a lot of people judge BBT without even seeing more than a couple episodes.

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

#394

Post by dylan604 »

KyeRussell wrote: post #382
dylan604 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it has a "studio audience" laugh track, I'm out.* If the joke is funny, I don't need a laugh track to tell me about it. If it's not funny, it's not funny, and a laugh track doesn't make it funny. If it's so esoteric of a joke that I missed, then I missed it. Silicon Valley has a lot of these. "Is it Apple Maps bad?" There was one about Theranos that if you had no idea what Theranos is/was, then you'd never have a…

Laugh tracks are of their time. It's unfair to pick TBBT out as a bad show because it has a laugh track. TBBT is a bad show because it's a bad show. There are plenty of good "laugh track" shows - old ones.

While my reply was to a comment about BBT, I never mentioned it. I don't care what it is, but if a laugh track is used like that, then I'm not a fan of it. It's the final part of the equation of pandering to the lowest common denominator. I understand why they choose to do it. Without it, they'd have a fraction of the fan base. With it, they have/had the highest watched show. So clearly, the numbers don't lie; it's a good show.

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

#395

Post by sjg007 »

ibudiallo wrote: post #300

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 Disru…

I can watch Silicon Valley but I can't make it through Social Network... it's too painful.

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

#396

Post by wingerlang »

buboard wrote: post #23
kohanz wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Big Bang Theory Oh how I loathed that show, especially at height of its popularity. I got so tired of smiling and nodding (or rolling my eyes, depending on who it was) as non-technical people at work and even my mother-in-law made it clear they thought of me when they watched that show (simply because I was the "smart engineer", so obviously a huge nerd with no social ability). None of these people were my age thou…

did the authors of that show ever apologize?

Apologize to who?

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

#397

Post by prawn »

sjg007 wrote: post #395
ibudiallo wrote: post #300

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 Disru…

I can watch Silicon Valley but I can't make it through Social Network... it's too painful.

I find the start of Social Network really inspiring. The great soundtrack (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) from the scene where he is running back to his room and then getting to work will get me productive every time.

Running home - "Hand Covers Bruise" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXdFJggkjzM Starting work - "In Motion" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y2mDjPR7oU

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

#398

Post by BurningFrog »

derangedHorse wrote: post #388
BurningFrog wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that mildly annoys me about the show is how white the cast is. At least in my Silicon Valley career, the "cast" around me has been vastly less so.

I have no idea where you're working at but if you've ever looked at Google's public diversity report (one of the largest companies in the valley), you'd see that your Silicon Valley career does not reflect what the majority of people in this very large company experience. https://diversity.google/annual-report/

By this report Google is 56.6% white.

My experience is that white male Americans are roughly 25% of the Silicon Valley workforce, but if you bundle in white immigrants and women you might reach 40-50%.

As I remember the TV show, the main characters are 80% white, and the Indian guy is the whitest one I've seen.

Small sample, I know, and I'm not offended. Just a little bored...

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

#399

Post by SmirkingRevenge »

kakarot wrote: post #47
blocked_again wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pardon my ignorance but what did big bang theory got wrong?

All of these commenters seem genuinely offended by the demographic representations on the show but I'm here to tell you, it's awful because of the terrible writing, predictable humor, reliance on a laugh track to sell its "jokes" and it's overall just aimless and boring.

I'm with you. I'm not quite sure what elevated it beyond "yet-another-sitcom" in the eyes of so many people, but it really seemed like standard sit-com fare to me, the few times I watched it (terrible writing, predictable humor, etc).

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

#400

Post by PhasmaFelis »

Aeolun wrote: post #377
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which group of people do you trust to decide which other groups should be allowed to continue and which should become extinct, without any bias or personal preference? Eugenics is always political. > It’s certainly ethically dubious. And I’m not certain it actually has any effect. Then why are you defending it? I'm confused.

If it does works it is entirely possible it will lead to a healthier and smarter society. I see it mainly as an implementation problem, not necessarily objectively bad by itself. A bit like communism :)

> If it does works it is entirely possible it will lead to a healthier and smarter society.

Sure, and if Elon Musk invented flying hamburgers we could solve world hunger, which is just about as plausible as successfully using genetic selection to solve a non-genetic problem. The premise is false; anything that proceeds from a false premise is useless.

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