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Is Silicon Valley only interested in the problems of twentysomethings?

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

#81

Post by kfk »

BrentRitterbeck wrote: post #32
rverghes wrote: post #2

It's hard to design and create software for subjects you don't know much about. It's not really a surprise that people create software for their own lives. A lot of open source is focused on programming languages, libraries and things to help you code. It's what most open source people know, and thus what they create. I wonder if it would have been better for CS to have been only offered as a minor or double-major to…

Domain knowledge is important; however, even more important is domain experience. With domain experience, you learn where the bottlenecks and pain points are in your workflows. During my time as an interest rate risk analyst, I had the displeasure of working with a horrible piece of software. It crashed at the most inopportune times, usually near the end of a run. Considering that one run could be on the order of a f…

That's very interesting stuff. I don't live in Mountain View, but I do work in controlling and I do deal with inefficient software on a daily basis.

What this comes down to is safety/reliability vs speed and efficiency. If you can get a workable extraction, even if we are talking GB's of data (never happened to me, we are always below 1GB and we struggle with it because all has to go in Excel), you could work out a good solution. However, most companies use software that makes extracting data impossible (welcome to SAP). Partly this is due to complexity in users rights, partly is just people ignorance.

This is a very complex domain problem, especially because a SaaS most of the times is not an option because we are talking about very sensible data.

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

#82

Post by precisioncoder »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #80
precisioncoder wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minor nitpick. Video game consoles and games are equal price or cheaper than old ones when adjusted for inflation. Here are a couple articles I found to support that. http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/706637/video-game-infl... http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2010/10/an-inconvenient-truth-...

Wow, thanks for letting me know. I hadn't realized that. (Though admittedly, that makes the financial outlook of games companies even worse .)

Yeah it's one of those things that is really counterintuitive, probably because we tend to underestimate inflation. I thought the opposite as well until I ran across an article a little while back.

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

#83

Post by makomk »

mjn wrote: post #38
mhurron wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who decided that Silicon Valley had to be held over hot coals for building software companies that solve problems and make money. It would appear that Silicon Valley did. Every mundane piece of software is going to 'change the world.' People are just waiting for that to happen.

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.

Did you see the Google I/O keynote? They're looking at selling Android smartphones to the whole world, and they're not just talking about the Western world for once. I'd say that'd be pretty world-changing.

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

#84

Post by [deleted] »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #18
politician wrote: post #11

Well, it's probably harder to meaningfully shift the way older consumers live in general. Between regulations and routine, business has an increasingly difficult time selling to us as we age. For all the dollars in pharma, grandma still won't take her pills and grandpa won't get rid of that old beater. Etc.

There's an article on HN right now about setting up a MacBook for grandma. And everyone talks about how great an iPad has been for the elderly. I don't think they're stubborn, they're just different. I also don't think they're cheap either, because an iPad (let alone a MacBook) is still a consumer electronic luxury.

[deleted]

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

#85

Post by coldtea »

johnjlocke wrote: post #72
coldtea wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Developers can always quit. The only reasons they don't is that they love to code, and they are hoping for an equity cash-out from an IPO or acquisition down the line.

>Developers can always quit. The only reasons they don't is that they love to code, and they are hoping for an equity cash-out from an IPO or acquisition down the line.

Or they need to feed their family.

Seeings as a lot (MOST!) developers are not "rock stars" by any stretch of the imagination, don't make that much, and some are not willing to relocate to another state/city.

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

#86

Post by jimmaswell »

coldtea wrote: post #85
johnjlocke wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers can always quit. The only reasons they don't is that they love to code, and they are hoping for an equity cash-out from an IPO or acquisition down the line.

> Developers can always quit. The only reasons they don't is that they love to code, and they are hoping for an equity cash-out from an IPO or acquisition down the line. Or they need to feed their family. Seeings as a lot (MOST!) developers are not "rock stars" by any stretch of the imagination, don't make that much, and some are not willing to relocate to another state/city.

I've heard that if you're a "good" developer it shouldn't be too hard to get at least 100k a year if you try. Seems like a pretty good amount to me. Depends where you live, I guess - that might only go as far in SF as 80 would go elsewhere, or something like that.
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