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From the article: "Many are growing disillusioned because they bought what Silicon Valley sold them: an idealistic and almost utopian vision in which the techno

by geomark 10y ago

From the article: "Many are growing disillusioned because they bought what Silicon Valley sold them: an idealistic and almost utopian vision in which the technological advances of the Information Age would change the world -- or at least the Western world -- for the universal good." Maybe it's just me, but I only occoasionally even heard of that idea, much less bought into it. Am I that far out of the echo chamber?

rimunroe 10y ago
I've heard that idea a LOT, especially from people 10-15 years ago. I think most people abandon that thinking pretty quickly, but it persists with a smaller but still significant number.
- theoh 10y ago
  It was very much the stance of Wired magazine in the 90s, I think, and may still be. One major critique of that position is the "Californian Ideology" theory. Isn't the quoted passage essentially what Mark Zuckerberg claims to believe? What about Google's "don't be evil"?
deleted 10y ago
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AlexB138 10y ago
It used to be a very common idea, but has fallen out of vogue in favor of more raw capitalist sentiment. There very much used to be an idea of changing the world for the better, but it died along with a lot of America's positive outlook in the post-9/11 era.
Kurtz79 10y ago
While not necessarily in these terms, it is something is not uncommon to see in the comments here in HN (as in "truck drivers should learn how to program" and stuff like that). While I feel there is a noticeable and unwarranted resentment growing in the media against SV (and I find kind of stupid binning so many people under the same umbrella), it is also true that many people in the environment do seem to suffer from naïveté and ivory tower syndrome, IMHO.
CPLX 10y ago
If this strikes you as somewhat accurate and funny, then at some point you've heard the idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXuFrtmOYKg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXuFrtmOYKg

by geomark 10y ago

rimunroe 10y ago

I've heard that idea a LOT, especially from people 10-15 years ago. I think most people abandon that thinking pretty quickly, but it persists with a smaller but still significant number.

theoh 10y ago
It was very much the stance of Wired magazine in the 90s, I think, and may still be. One major critique of that position is the "Californian Ideology" theory. Isn't the quoted passage essentially what Mark Zuckerberg claims to believe? What about Google's "don't be evil"?

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

AlexB138 10y ago

It used to be a very common idea, but has fallen out of vogue in favor of more raw capitalist sentiment. There very much used to be an idea of changing the world for the better, but it died along with a lot of America's positive outlook in the post-9/11 era.

Kurtz79 10y ago

While not necessarily in these terms, it is something is not uncommon to see in the comments here in HN (as in "truck drivers should learn how to program" and stuff like that). While I feel there is a noticeable and unwarranted resentment growing in the media against SV (and I find kind of stupid binning so many people under the same umbrella), it is also true that many people in the environment do seem to suffer from naïveté and ivory tower syndrome, IMHO.

CPLX 10y ago

If this strikes you as somewhat accurate and funny, then at some point you've heard the idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXuFrtmOYKg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXuFrtmOYKg