How the world came to hate Silicon Valley • Hacker News Board

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#61

Post by Crake » Wed, Mar 05, 2014, 3:26 AM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #12

steven2012 wrote: post #5

Certainly Silicon Valley has their fair share of douchebags, but the media hype surrounding this is simply nonsense. The world hates Silicon Valley? You're telling me that somehow all these SV douchebags outweigh Hollywood or Wall Street douchebags? Come on, now.

The ethics of the power players in Silicon Valley are far worse than those on Wall Street. (I don't know dick about Hollywood other than its reputation.) Wall Streeters are greedy, but they don't go out of their way to ruin peoples' careers (except in the movies). They'll do a lot of things to get that $10 million bonus, but they don't hold long-term grudges and wreck careers of people who've since flown away from th…

I like the term "false poverty effect." It'd be nice to have something to describe all the annoying people I've met who think they are "poor" but can hit their parents up for an interest free $100,000 "loan" they never have to repay or a brand new 2014 car. Then they make fun of you for struggling to afford (or being unable to afford) college tuition or rent when they clearly had no problems affording it on part time minimum wage.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#62

Post by daemin » Wed, Mar 05, 2014, 5:24 AM UTC

I would have thought having an extra $10 million in the local economy (from the wedding) would be a good thing. Isn't that the whole concept of a trickle down economy?

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#63

Post by waps » Thu, Mar 06, 2014, 9:33 PM UTC

nirnira wrote: post #59

waps wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People getting thrown out of their houses due to lack of money (and lack of earning capability) are complaining about other people spending massive amounts on frivolous uses ? I am amazed. Wait ... no I'm not. I'm even inclined to call those claims justified.

Sorry, what? Nobody is getting "thrown out" of "their" houses. People who were renting other people's for a period of time found themselves outbid by other people who wanted to live in the same area and were willing to pay more for it than they were. And so they were asked to leave. Perfectly legal. 100% the property owner's right. Nobody signed a contract with these people promising to let them live there forever. T…

I don't know about America, but in Europe, this is not how things are done. Rentors need those homes. Landlords, by definition, don't. You should always err on the side of rentors, which is exactly what European courts do.

> Nobody signed a contract with these people promising to let them live there forever.

No but they agreed to something stronger than a contract called "Rent control". And before you say otherwise, if you read this law, it specifically states that it overrides contract provisions. Since we live in a democracy, those landlords agreed to this.

> And if they were so concerned about their ability to continue living there indefinitely, maybe they should have worked harder to ensure their position?

Ah the mafia argument. As if this is anything but money grabbing through threats. As if there is any amount of money that would leave these vultures satisfied.

> These people have no excuse.

Look I am normally pretty right wing, but make this statement to my face and I'll be the first to start throwing bricks through your window. It's that simple.

Btw : do I get to throw you out into the streets the second you are less economically valuable than me too ? Fair's fair after all.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#64

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 08, 2014, 8:57 PM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #46

sskates wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I read HN and see an extremely anti-startup comment I always know it's from you. For a while I'd get angry reading your comments, but I'm actually curious- What on earth happened between you and startups to make you think they're a huge scam to take advantage of the unsuspecting? I'm a nobody who came to Silicon Valley and has done relatively well for himself as a founder. I've seen many, many other founders…

I've written about it at length already and don't choose to relive it in detail, but I worked for an extremely unethical startup. In 3 months, I saw... bait-and-switch hiring all over the place, multiple people hired into the same management role, and (after I left) a CEO who spent months trying to destroy my reputation. At 3 months, I was brought into a room with HR and the CTO. Upper management wanted to get rid of…

[deleted]

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#65

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 08, 2014, 10:28 PM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #46

sskates wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I read HN and see an extremely anti-startup comment I always know it's from you. For a while I'd get angry reading your comments, but I'm actually curious- What on earth happened between you and startups to make you think they're a huge scam to take advantage of the unsuspecting? I'm a nobody who came to Silicon Valley and has done relatively well for himself as a founder. I've seen many, many other founders…

I've written about it at length already and don't choose to relive it in detail, but I worked for an extremely unethical startup. In 3 months, I saw... bait-and-switch hiring all over the place, multiple people hired into the same management role, and (after I left) a CEO who spent months trying to destroy my reputation. At 3 months, I was brought into a room with HR and the CTO. Upper management wanted to get rid of…

[deleted]