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

Is Silicon Valley only interested in the problems of twentysomethings?

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 86 posts

Re: Is Silicon Valley only interested in the problems of twentysomethings?

#51

Post by kyllo »

davebindy wrote: post #46
kyllo wrote: post #6

If so, it's probably only because young adults are more likely to use the internet and therefore have problems that can be solved by the internet. The internet can't really fix your problems if you don't use it in the first place. Or maybe it could, but you will never know better.

Twenty years ago, this might have been true. I don't think it is today. I'm 60 years old, and while I'm somewhat unusual in that computers and tech have been part of my life, both personally and professionally, for half my life, I would have to think pretty hard to come up with someone in my circle of friends and relatives in the 50-80 age range who doesn't use the Internet. My 80 year old aunt has a desktop, an iPad…

You're probably right. But SV's startup culture is pretty unfriendly to 50-80 year old enployees with family and financial obligations and less risk tolerance.

I suppose SV companies are going to tend to solve young adult problems because they are composed of young adults. It's what they know.

Re: Is Silicon Valley only interested in the problems of twentysomethings?

#52

Post by logn »

seanlinehan wrote: post #17
ritchiea wrote: post #5

The title is deceptive because shortly after asking that question in the article, the author comes to a resounding "no" and goes on to talk about why it is our impression that SV only works on the problems of 20-somethings. The core of the author's comment comes at the end: "Imagine how odd it would be to read an article saying that the people who work for manufacturing firms are really just out to make money, or tha…

Here is a strategy that I have heard repeated a few times: When you see a rhetorical question in the title of a news article, the answer is no. The answer is always no. The article may say maybe. But the answer is no. Just like that you've saved yourself a few minutes.

I've come to count on another thing too: someone on HN comments will always point out the answer is 'no' and then point out this generality, and then you'll often have a comment like mine point this out. :)

Re: Is Silicon Valley only interested in the problems of twentysomethings?

#54

Post by coldtea »

jimmaswell wrote: post #45
gamble wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the technology industry depends on a lot of idealistic young workers putting in plenty of unpaid overtime, and no one ever motivated that commitment with a call to increase shareholder returns by 17%.

Unpaid overtime isn't legal in the United States where SF is, as far as I know.

What passes for "salaried time" in the US and SF is called unpaid overtime to everywhere else in the world.

Re: Is Silicon Valley only interested in the problems of twentysomethings?

#55

Post by coldtea »

A similar question I wanted to ask: "Who are all this skaters, hip hop singers wannabees, surfers, brooming indie artists" and such BS that 99% of ads, videos and startup media material seems to target to?

I've been all around the US (literally: the 48 states), and those are like 1% of the youth population, if that.

Re: Is Silicon Valley only interested in the problems of twentysomethings?

#56

Post by davebindy »

kyllo wrote: post #51
davebindy wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twenty years ago, this might have been true. I don't think it is today. I'm 60 years old, and while I'm somewhat unusual in that computers and tech have been part of my life, both personally and professionally, for half my life, I would have to think pretty hard to come up with someone in my circle of friends and relatives in the 50-80 age range who doesn't use the Internet. My 80 year old aunt has a desktop, an iPad…

You're probably right. But SV's startup culture is pretty unfriendly to 50-80 year old enployees with family and financial obligations and less risk tolerance. I suppose SV companies are going to tend to solve young adult problems because they are composed of young adults. It's what they know.

Your description of SV startup culture isn't unique - it seems to be pretty much SOP for virtually any company these days. Lose your job after 50 and finding an equivalent position can be daunting.

>I suppose SV companies are going to tend to solve young adult problems because they are composed of young adults. It's what they know.

It's not only what they know, it's what they think is cool as well. And that's okay - I think a lot of the software I look at today is cool, too. But is it useful to me? Nope.

I'm no student of business, but it does seem to me that historically an awful lot of companies have been started by young people who saw a market or niche that needed to be filled, and filled it. How hard would it be for a start-up (or existing tech company) to get a couple of panels of 50-80 year olds together and find out what they'd find useful, and then produce it? You can make the argument that 20-somethings have more disposable income, but I doubt a couple dollar smartphone app or ten buck piece of desktop software is going to break any senior citizen's budget.

Re: Is Silicon Valley only interested in the problems of twentysomethings?

#57

Post by jimmaswell »

jelled wrote: post #47
jimmaswell wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unpaid overtime isn't legal in the United States where SF is, as far as I know.

Are you familiar with the word "salary"?

After researching the issue deeper, apparently there are exceptions to the time-and-a-half regulation, and programmers are an exception. I'm not sure why you're specifically mentioning the word salary though.

Re: Is Silicon Valley only interested in the problems of twentysomethings?

#58

Post by brianbreslin »

tensor wrote: post #40
mjn wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A recent example of that: Google's Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen just wrote a new-agey sort of book explicitly taking that "we're here to change the world" angle. They could've written a different book, more like one Warren Buffet might write, about the business of software and online services, and running a profitable company in the industry. But they don't appear to consider that to be the bar for success.

At least some of Google's work has the possibility of changing the world: AI. Between self driving cars, natural interface methods, and data understanding, the future looks interesting. On the other hand, yet another social network, photoshop filter app, todo list app, instant messaging app, advertising app, these are not going to change the world, though often heralded as such.

I'd argue that google's search changed the world. android is also changing the world.

Re: Is Silicon Valley only interested in the problems of twentysomethings?

#59

Post by quantumpotato_ »

seanlinehan wrote: post #17
ritchiea wrote: post #5

The title is deceptive because shortly after asking that question in the article, the author comes to a resounding "no" and goes on to talk about why it is our impression that SV only works on the problems of 20-somethings. The core of the author's comment comes at the end: "Imagine how odd it would be to read an article saying that the people who work for manufacturing firms are really just out to make money, or tha…

Here is a strategy that I have heard repeated a few times: When you see a rhetorical question in the title of a news article, the answer is no. The answer is always no. The article may say maybe. But the answer is no. Just like that you've saved yourself a few minutes.

Why are people posting articles like this to HN? Please stop :(

Re: Is Silicon Valley only interested in the problems of twentysomethings?

#60

Post by DanBC »

quantumpotato_ wrote: post #59
seanlinehan wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is a strategy that I have heard repeated a few times: When you see a rhetorical question in the title of a news article, the answer is no. The answer is always no. The article may say maybe. But the answer is no. Just like that you've saved yourself a few minutes.

Why are people posting articles like this to HN? Please stop :(

This account is new. Do you have another HN account? Have you been reading HN for a long time?

May I ask: what is it about this story that you dislike? (I'm not disagreeing with you. The article doesn't feel great. But there's potential: People sometimes wonder about what problems need solving, yet this group is mostly young, mostly white, mostly male; mostly well educated. How do these people burst that bubble to find the problems that other people have?)

Also, going to [new] and upvoting good stories is important and a good thing to do.

Post reply on HN