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

If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley

gatesnotes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 490 posts

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

#91

Post by smsm42 »

24gttghh wrote: post #36
blocked_again wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pardon my ignorance but what did big bang theory got wrong?

Pardon the terminology, but I consider that show to be Nerd-Blackface. I'm not sure how else to describe it. I find how the show deals with anything technical to be an affront to intelligence in general.

I think you set your expectations way to high if you expect a general-appeal TV show to get what theoretical physicists to right. That said, a couple of moments were pretty good - e.g. when the guys were thinking about something with "eye of the tiger" playing on the background. Nice lampshading of the fact that it's impossible to show intellectual work on TV. They had some pretty good moments early on. They should've stopped there.

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

#92

Post by coleifer »

This well-written article has been discussed before, but I figured it was worth posting. It's a bit more in the "black humor" vein than Silicon Valley, but it also just nails the real SV vibe:

https://nplusonemag.com/issue-25/on-the-fringe/uncanny-valle...

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

#93

Post by saagarjha »

ng12 wrote: post #28

I always describe Silicon Valley (the show) as being solidly in the Uncanny Valley ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley ). It's humorous and absurd, but at the same time so close to reality it's unsettling.

I think that's the whole point. It's meant to be satire, so it (the show) draws attentions to the quirks of Silicon Valley (the place) by exaggerating them.

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

#94

Post by powvans »

rbanffy wrote: post #76
amyjess wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Office Space and Silicon Valley, sure, but Idiocracy has aged _horribly_. That movie is full of memes that haven't been relevant since the mid-00s (and specifically, the humor in the movie has a distinct Bush-era vibe which straight-up feels foreign in 2018... it feels like a period piece even though it's set in the future), and I lost whatever enjoyment of it that I had left when actual Neo-Nazis began using the mov…

> Idiocracy has aged _horribly_. Are you sure? Who is the POTUS now?

And in the movie the POTUS was Dwayne Camacho an ex pro wrestler... and in real life many people want an ex pro wrestler named Dwayne Johnson to run for POTUS as an improvement to the current POTUS?!

I'd say you can't make this stuff up, but Mike Judge made this stuff up before it was real life!

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

#95

Post by komali2 »

imgabe wrote: post #9

King of the Hill has also resurfaced on Hulu recently after not being available to stream anywhere. Mike Judge has a real talent for nailing essence of a culture.

Woah, I had no idea Mike Judge was involved with King of the Hill.

Growing up in Texas, I never appreciated how on-point the show was, until I left the state and realized that the subtle culture cues of Texas didn't exist elsewhere, which means that King of the Hill nailed it. I mean, every detail is perfect.

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

#97

Post by [deleted] »

skunkworker wrote: post #7
slivym wrote: post #3

It's quite amazing how good a job Silicon Valley does considering how badly wrong it could go (I'm looking at you Big Bang Theory). I'm sure there are quite a few industries that could have similar comedies about them from people who really know what the industry is like. W1A is another great example.

This Venn diagram always gets me. https://i.chzbgr.com/full/8291744000/h3159FC59/

[deleted]

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

#98

Post by raverbashing »

johan_larson wrote: post #55
ng12 wrote: post #28

I always describe Silicon Valley (the show) as being solidly in the Uncanny Valley ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley ). It's humorous and absurd, but at the same time so close to reality it's unsettling.

"Silicon Valley" is like Silicon Valley, but it goes to 0x11.

Or to 0x0B?

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

#99

Post by hnaccy »

kakarot wrote: post #56
wil421 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad you made this comment as well. Mike Judge is one of the best at capturing culture and Americana specifically. The voice for Hank was based on some redneck guy who kept calling MTV and complaining about Bevis and Butthead.

Do you have a citation for that? Hank Hill is ripped straight from Tom Anderson, a character from Beavis and Butthead. AFAIK Tom Anderson appeared on the show very early and the timeline you're suggesting doesn't make sense.

He meant Boomhauer.

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

#100

Post by geggam »

elliekelly wrote: post #85
saagarjha wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it would be kind of odd if the show's writers came up with something novel and instead of rushing to patent it decided to make a TV show out of it. Meanwhile, it's OK for the other companies to work on things that already exist–it adds to their run-of-the-mill-ness.

That hasn't stopped people from trying to make PiedPiper a viable startup though: https://www.wsj.com/articles/actual-silicon-valley-startup-g...

My experience in Silicon Valley has me uncomfortably laughing at the show.

This startup is laughing at themselves and the valley. It's so absurd that a VC actually funded this it makes me wonder if they aren't laughing too.

Post reply on HN