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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

#411

Post by Camillo »

snowwrestler wrote: post #63

Amazing anecdote from a 2016 New Yorker article on the show: > During one visit to Google’s headquarters, in Mountain View, about six writers sat in a conference room with Astro Teller, the head of GoogleX, who wore a midi ring and kept his long hair in a ponytail. “Most of our research meetings are fun, but this one was uncomfortable,” Kemper told me.... > “He claimed he hadn’t seen the show, and then he referred ma…

Hang on a second. Why would there be a badge reader to get _out_ of a conference room? Can anybody who's been at Google HQ confirm the setup?

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

#412

Post by sharcerer »

riazrizvi wrote: post #278
snowwrestler wrote: post #63

Amazing anecdote from a 2016 New Yorker article on the show: > During one visit to Google’s headquarters, in Mountain View, about six writers sat in a conference room with Astro Teller, the head of GoogleX, who wore a midi ring and kept his long hair in a ponytail. “Most of our research meetings are fun, but this one was uncomfortable,” Kemper told me.... > “He claimed he hadn’t seen the show, and then he referred ma…

It was a great show because of on point, biting satire like this. Then in the last season the writing dropped off a cliff, I guess they got neutered - post Gawker world and all that.

X labs actually does great things. Nobody has invested into such different areas of scientific research as Alphabet. I love SV, but hated that potato cannon joke. They painted X Labs as a joke, which it isn't. Sure, they have had their failures,but I'd rather take their failures rather thn "successes" like Snapchat, Tiktok. Craig Frederighi demoing Memoji is much more laughable.

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

#413

Post by petepete »

autokad wrote: post #323
ramraj07 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The it crowd is one of my absolute favorite shows. Maybe it will work better without a laugh track but there are a lot of British shows id rather have with a track than without the show in my life.

I can never get over how ahead of its time the IT crowd was. I just went back and watched a couple episodes and it still nails many things right on the head

I didn't like the IT Crowd but if you want something ahead of its time, track down Nathan Barley. It kind of foreshadows the rise of vlogging, memes and 'lad culture' but was released in 2005. Written by Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris.

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

#414

Post by cm2012 »

marshray wrote: post #350
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…

To be fair, there are plenty of professionally managed funds that haven't beaten the index over the last several decades.

He also inherited that 600 mil in the form of NYC real estate, which of left untouched would be north of 10 bil now.

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

#415

Post by cm2012 »

ikeboy wrote: post #210
clairity wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, but that doesn't matter. at the end, they estimate the current value from indexing to be about $2B. the trump wealth transfer started over 60 years ago. over the long run, market timing doesn't matter that much. (EDIT: and that opinion piece was not coherent; the author mixed up trump's businesses with his net worth, and convoluted other finance concepts to render his desired "opinion". it was awful.)

That's just not the case - if you assume he bought in during a low point you'll get a much higher figure. Besides, there's no claim that he was given anywhere close to $400M over 60 years ago, nor can anyone be realistically expected to invest their inheritance starting at the age of 12.

Trump inherited most of it in 2000 when his mother died. He had money before that from gifts though.

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

#416

Post by cm2012 »

thwy12321 wrote: post #242
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…

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.

According to actual tax filings, he inherited 600 mil in the year 2000 in the form of NYC real estate, which of left untouched would be north of 10 bil now.

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

#417

Post by AnthonyMouse »

ticmasta wrote: post #298
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...

> I love Silicon Valley as much as I loathe Big Bang Theory.

Big Bang Theory: Purposelessly inaccurate in ways that upset you.

Silicon Valley: Purposefully accurate in ways that upset you.

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

#418

Post by daveFNbuck »

Camillo wrote: post #411
snowwrestler wrote: post #63

Amazing anecdote from a 2016 New Yorker article on the show: > During one visit to Google’s headquarters, in Mountain View, about six writers sat in a conference room with Astro Teller, the head of GoogleX, who wore a midi ring and kept his long hair in a ponytail. “Most of our research meetings are fun, but this one was uncomfortable,” Kemper told me.... > “He claimed he hadn’t seen the show, and then he referred ma…

Hang on a second. Why would there be a badge reader to get _out_ of a conference room? Can anybody who's been at Google HQ confirm the setup?

That and the idea that he would wear skates to a meeting where he intends to show a group of comedy writers the seriousness of his work make this anecdote very unbelievable.

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

#419

Post by rorykoehler »

ibudiallo wrote: post #336
pj_mukh wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"show most startup founders will refuse to watch" Hah! Anecdotally, I've had the opposite experience watching the show and running a startup in the valley. Most of my co-founder friends have seen it and see it as a sort of catharsis. "We aren't the only ones, this happens to everyone, so much so, there's a show about it" And then there's the inspirational, "Let's have the team coalesce around a deadline and jam out s…

We talked a lot about how many founders that somewhat found success, try to be Gavins or Russ Hannemans. But the show doesn't portray these people as the visionaries they think they are. In fact it makes fun of them.

Even the Presidents shit stinks. I'm really wondering how fragile your ego has to be to be offended by watching Silicon Valley. Are these really people who should be trying to "change the world"? Better to work on themselves first.

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

#420

Post by smt88 »

BurningFrog wrote: post #398
derangedHorse wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

> the Indian guy is the whitest one I've seen

What do you mean by that? Can you explain?

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