How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

Okay so first off, the educated people in this country don't care about this stuff. I stopped reading a few sentences in because it was clear the author had some vendetta against the company. People don't just attempt to crucify businesses for no reason. And just to be clear: most of America has no idea what's going on in SV. We're not all wearing google glass to order Uber delivered Big Macs despite what you might think.

Secondly, a lot of Americans are behaviorally conditioned by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes. They elected our President, but they don't represent America (as I assume you don't support Mussolini's ideals because you're from Italy - also check out "The Brainwashing of my Dad" on Amazon Prime to understand the plight of many young Americans dealing with this insanity)

Some people live off emotional editorials. Not to be confrontational, but how worked up you seem to be upon reading this fluff piece in Italy makes me think you're not that far off from a middle-america pleb.

Our media system has been developed to evoke emotion because emotions sell... don't buy into it unless you want to be pissed off.

Also, what don't you like about the Olive Garden specifically? While I was in the process of becoming an engineer, I was a OG waiter trying to pay my college bills. Nobody is calling it Italian... It was developed as an American company. I really don't understand the argument. Americans should just eat wheat, corn and chicken? Sounds a lot like cultural appropriation which is the first sign of fascism.

My curries are not Indian, they're American. My Mole isn't Mexican, it's American. My paella isn't Spanish, my fried rice isn't Chinese, my panang curry isn't really Thai, and yeah, I make a grilled cheese macaroni that might blow your mind. Deal with it.

Food is the common denominator between cultures. It doesn't matter where you're from or who you were raised by, if you enjoy food: you love everyone, because we all have our secrets of deliciousness. Please don't try to make it a dividing factor.

To add insult to injury, people from your country came here, incorporated what they loved about your culture with ours and to you they're 'portrayed as "pizza, mafia, gobbledygook mamma mia".' I don't think this way, and I don't believe anyone I know in this country feels that way.

If you want to generalize, I will too which means as an Italian, you're a Mussolini supporting fascist. However, if you're willing to be an empathetic human being, I will too, and maybe you'll understand generalizations are one of the main sources of hatred that you should avoid.

The author here either has an agenda against someone at this company or an issue with gentrification (an issue all major American metropolises are dealing with). Don't assume some wacko's point of view defines America's situation because Silicon Valley was name dropped. Again: Nobody wears google glass in this country aside from the diluted.

When I first saw that initial article of them mentioning their startup which was titled: “ Two Ex-Googlers Want To Make Bodegas And Mom-And-Pop Corner Stores Obsolete “ I already knew it was doomed. I mean an upper middle class Caucasian guy and an upper middle class South Asian guy who previously worked at Google make this startup with the idea of “making mom and pop corner stores obsolete” And they name the startup “Bodega” whose name has Latino roots....

How can these two be so tone deaf and insensitive to how people will react to this?

This sounds cruel and bad just from the phrasing of the headline. It’s like they didn’t use any common sense and have no heart for local businesses.

I just don’t understand why a decent amount of these Silicon Valley techies are so time deaf? Did they grow up with silver spoons in their mouths?

How can you be so smart technically yet so culturally tone deaf at the same time? I would have thought sharp critical thinking and common sense would apply to more than just technical problems...

You can complain about how people are overreacting and perhaps you have a point but that doesn’t change the fact that people will overreact.

Why are so many upper middle class and rich people so disconnected from the poor and middle class?

I’m fairly well off now but I still remember what it was like when my family was poor when my parents first immigrated from Malaysia (we were racial and religious minorities and Malaysia’s government discriminates against racial/religious minorities so my parents left) back in the mid 90s...

and we had to go to food banks in Michigan to get some food when my dad’s two menial jobs didn’t make enough.

And I also remember when my family was middle class (about 60K) back in Idaho. The middle class life was much better than when we were poor (no food security issues and we had a nice house) and we got a smartphone back when I was in high school. (Only one smartphone for the family, more than one was too expensive, they let me have it because I was the oldest).

So even though I’m upper middle class now here in Silicon Valley, I still remember those harder times.

And I want Silicon Valley to make startups to help those poor and middle class people, instead of trying to displace or hurt those people.

All the machine learning they use in Bodega they could have instead sold that as a service to local Bodegas to empower their businesses by giving the local Bodegas a way to know what to stock up on.

And I believe that would have still been profitable but also community conscious.

Ugh the level of liberal snobby-ness and elitism that you see on Silicon Valley

Makes me super bummed sometimes when I think about Silicon Valley

When I see the immense income inequality which I didn’t see as much back in Idaho.

Now I’m partially a hypocrite since I love my upper middle class tech job here at a top company which I would not have found in Idaho.

I won’t kid. This is the best standard of living and quality of life I’ve ever experienced so far. I’m very grateful for that.

But the income inequality here reminds me somewhat of what I saw in India when I visited there for the first time last year.

Like it looked like 1/3 of the population has a gesta upper middle class or rich life with great stuff.

But 2/3 in like abject poverty.

Now California isn’t as bad as that but out of all the States I’ve lived in or visited,

It’s the closest to that and perhaps that’s partly due to the fact that our education system doesn’t prepare Americans for these well paying tech jobs....

But if that’s the case then we need to fix that or we’ll turn into India if we don’t change or fix our current problems here in the US.

I didn’t vote for Trump but I understood why many of my friends back in Idaho did because hey feel hopeless in this new changing economy and their education system didn’t prepare them for it.

Anyway I refuse to believe that it’s impossible to come up with profitable startup ideas that also empower local communities and businesses.

Sorry I don’t mean to put anyone here down btw this was just a general rant on Silicon Valley.

I’m really sorry if I came off as rude.

I normally don’t comment on hacker news this is my second comment ever.

Pardon my typos I typed all this on my smartphone.