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A popular criticism of Silicon Valley, usually levied by people not building anything at all themselves, is that no one is working on or funding “hard technolog

A popular criticism of Silicon Valley, usually levied by people not building anything at all themselves, is that no one is working on or funding “hard technology”. Don't pretend that Silicon Valley is not superficial in many regards. Yes, some of those silly, fluff apps have gone on to make money and that's your metric so you defend it. But for many people, Silicon Valley embodies a different principle, like the one found at Xerox PARC, of people trying to make the future better and not just drive a nicer car.

nxzero 11y ago
On the flip side, there's some that are willing to sell their soul to play with the tech of the future. Honestly wish it was easier to find people that aren't into tech for the money or somehow forgot the meaning of what it is to be evil.
adrianbd 11y ago
I had actually never checked out any YC demo day presentations, so this post pushed me to do so. I watched about a dozen of them from the latest batches and I must say I did feel that they were very underwhelming. Sure, I understand that my expectations of how a company looks so early on might be skewed and they have only about 3 minutes, but all the speeches were so templated (stressing ridiculously overhyped market values etc.) that I thought they were really uninspiring. Might be the fault of the VCs who are just looking to randomly jump on the next potentially successful ship endorsed by YC, but I honestly got tired of hearing about the next app that will change the world of X within 10 minutes. As you mentioned, some of these products have been genuinely amazing and winning lottery tickets that on average bring huge profits to YC, so we should probably look at it more pragmatically rather than expecting them to make the future better.
bpchaps 11y ago
Entirely agreed. This whole thing is frustrating. I just went to apply to YC but ended up closing the tab. A significant portion of the process seemed geared towards "We want highly visible projects with highly charismatic individuals." For example, I'm required to post a video of myself/group talking about the project. I'm not posting a damn video. Fine - I get that you want to be able to see the product/s up close with the passion of the founders, etc. But, hell - the project I'm working on is dirty, "hard", far from glamorous and isn't very presentable - especially on camera where my strong anxieties come out. Though, because of my personality I'm effectively disqualified, despite all else. If I'm missing something I'd very much like to me corrected.
- Strom 11y ago
  The reality is that in most cases in order to be successful you need to constantly talk to customers, both to sell and to get feedback. Having social anxiety is a pretty strong negative signal.
  - bpchaps 11y ago
    This isn't most cases and the kind of work doesn't really require talking to that many folk, really. I understand what it shows as a signal. It's a shitty signal. Not trying to sound too negative here, but it's a legitimate problem that needs to be addressed. The general heuristic these days is to follow charisma, which in my experience has led to mediocrity, disaster and only everything that comes between. It's the exact impression I got from YC after that process.
    - freyr 11y ago
      You're claiming that VCs select for charisma as a general heuristic today. You also claim that you're a special case, and that you're project doesn't require that you interact with many people. Fine. But if you want VC money, give them some credit and assume that they can decide for themselves whether or not your lack of charisma will be a factor in your business. Presumably, some of them are good at their jobs and can correctly make that determination. Furthermore, to refute your entire claim, there have been many articles suggesting that VCs actually exhibit a selection bias towards social awkwardness, since so many socially awkward people have been terribly successful recently. You're assuming that they're looking for highly charismatic salespeople (and maybe for some companies they are), but what facts support your claim?
      - bpchaps 11y ago
        The heuristics comment was more of a reflection of what I've seen outside of YC - at workplaces, gatherings, etc. It is what it is. What makes you think it's a problem with social awkwardness. There's nothing awkward about it, unfortunately. I'm sure I'm not the only one dissuaded by the requirement to post a video. Phone call, skype, in-person, morse code would be better. I'm not exactly saying that they're actively looking for charismatic people. I'm saying that requiring a video artificially creates a preventable bias towards those much more comfortable in front of a camera.
Hydraulix989 11y ago
Right, there are enough "builders" out there (some of the most brilliant implementers I know even) that take that stance about SV that I'm not sure you can use hypocrisy/cognitive dissonance as an argument.

nxzero 11y ago

On the flip side, there's some that are willing to sell their soul to play with the tech of the future. Honestly wish it was easier to find people that aren't into tech for the money or somehow forgot the meaning of what it is to be evil.

adrianbd 11y ago

I had actually never checked out any YC demo day presentations, so this post pushed me to do so. I watched about a dozen of them from the latest batches and I must say I did feel that they were very underwhelming. Sure, I understand that my expectations of how a company looks so early on might be skewed and they have only about 3 minutes, but all the speeches were so templated (stressing ridiculously overhyped market values etc.) that I thought they were really uninspiring. Might be the fault of the VCs who are just looking to randomly jump on the next potentially successful ship endorsed by YC, but I honestly got tired of hearing about the next app that will change the world of X within 10 minutes. As you mentioned, some of these products have been genuinely amazing and winning lottery tickets that on average bring huge profits to YC, so we should probably look at it more pragmatically rather than expecting them to make the future better.

bpchaps 11y ago

Entirely agreed. This whole thing is frustrating. I just went to apply to YC but ended up closing the tab. A significant portion of the process seemed geared towards "We want highly visible projects with highly charismatic individuals." For example, I'm required to post a video of myself/group talking about the project. I'm not posting a damn video. Fine - I get that you want to be able to see the product/s up close with the passion of the founders, etc. But, hell - the project I'm working on is dirty, "hard", far from glamorous and isn't very presentable - especially on camera where my strong anxieties come out. Though, because of my personality I'm effectively disqualified, despite all else. If I'm missing something I'd very much like to me corrected.

Strom 11y ago
The reality is that in most cases in order to be successful you need to constantly talk to customers, both to sell and to get feedback. Having social anxiety is a pretty strong negative signal.
- bpchaps 11y ago
  This isn't most cases and the kind of work doesn't really require talking to that many folk, really. I understand what it shows as a signal. It's a shitty signal. Not trying to sound too negative here, but it's a legitimate problem that needs to be addressed. The general heuristic these days is to follow charisma, which in my experience has led to mediocrity, disaster and only everything that comes between. It's the exact impression I got from YC after that process.
  - freyr 11y ago
    You're claiming that VCs select for charisma as a general heuristic today. You also claim that you're a special case, and that you're project doesn't require that you interact with many people. Fine. But if you want VC money, give them some credit and assume that they can decide for themselves whether or not your lack of charisma will be a factor in your business. Presumably, some of them are good at their jobs and can correctly make that determination. Furthermore, to refute your entire claim, there have been many articles suggesting that VCs actually exhibit a selection bias towards social awkwardness, since so many socially awkward people have been terribly successful recently. You're assuming that they're looking for highly charismatic salespeople (and maybe for some companies they are), but what facts support your claim?
    - bpchaps 11y ago
      The heuristics comment was more of a reflection of what I've seen outside of YC - at workplaces, gatherings, etc. It is what it is. What makes you think it's a problem with social awkwardness. There's nothing awkward about it, unfortunately. I'm sure I'm not the only one dissuaded by the requirement to post a video. Phone call, skype, in-person, morse code would be better. I'm not exactly saying that they're actively looking for charismatic people. I'm saying that requiring a video artificially creates a preventable bias towards those much more comfortable in front of a camera.

Hydraulix989 11y ago

Right, there are enough "builders" out there (some of the most brilliant implementers I know even) that take that stance about SV that I'm not sure you can use hypocrisy/cognitive dissonance as an argument.