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By far the most unrealistic thing about "Silicon Valley" is the complete lack of technical obstacles and setbacks faced by any team in the show. But that's emin

By far the most unrealistic thing about "Silicon Valley" is the complete lack of technical obstacles and setbacks faced by any team in the show. But that's eminently forgivable -- no one (certainly not I) wants to watch three weeks of harried debugging. Everything else is so on-point that it can be uncomfortable to watch as a denizen of Silicon Valley.

nathanvanfleet 10y ago
Yeah that would be an artificial cliff hanger for sure. It's about the human interaction and politics.
jonwachob91 10y ago
Lets not forget we got the Mean Jerk Time because of a technical obstacle. Obviously not a 3 week debugging issue, but still at least some notion of a technical obstacle...
andyjdavis 10y ago
>no one (certainly not I) wants to watch three weeks of harried debugging Although they could potentially throw in a sequence designed to show that aspect. 2-3 minutes of silence with a stationary camera showing a motionless programmer at their computer, frowning slightly. Eventually they break the silence by swearing. Mind you, you could probably only do that once in the entire run of the show. As you alluded to, the reality of working through difficult problems would not make for good TV.
- sbierwagen 10y ago
  Mind you, you could probably only do that once in the entire run of the show. HBO is the same network that aired this skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyrM7GxyzGg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyrM7GxyzGg
- kbenson 10y ago
  > 2-3 minutes of silence with a stationary camera showing a motionless programmer at their computer, frowning slightly. Eventually they break the silence by swearing. Then you see them slowly click. Press backspace once. press the 3 key. Click again, and their eyes widen as then they exclaim "Finally!"
  - namuol 10y ago
    > and their eyes widen as then they exclaim "Finally!" I think you mean: > and their eyes widen as then they exclaim "Oh my god I am such a fucking idiot."
    - kbenson 10y ago
      No, that's when Gilfoyle, who's been watching from the side, says "You are such a fucking idiot."
  - tmd83 10y ago
    If you want a bit realism there you might casually show the clock to make the user realize that while it was 2 minute on camera the actual time was much more.
    - XorNot 10y ago
      You could pretty much do it as a B-plot for an entire episode, and just end it with someone walking by the screen and saying something like: "find" "what?" "you wrote fond." Add profanity as necessary.
  - drumdance 10y ago
    For me it's more like "FUCK! ME!" when I notice a typo'd variable name or what-have-you.
- caseysoftware 10y ago
  And that one 2-3 minute clip would be passed around every year after the holidays when yet another relative asks if your startup life is anything like Elon Musk or The Social Network.
aswanson 10y ago
Yeah, but networks are keen to air bullshit debugging sessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtzaSzO2cE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtzaSzO2cE
ErikAugust 10y ago
Their servers did catch on fire.
lips 10y ago
They did kinda sorta almost delete everything. (ok, less realistic than a fencepost error or something. Just sayin')

nathanvanfleet 10y ago

Yeah that would be an artificial cliff hanger for sure. It's about the human interaction and politics.

jonwachob91 10y ago

Lets not forget we got the Mean Jerk Time because of a technical obstacle. Obviously not a 3 week debugging issue, but still at least some notion of a technical obstacle...

andyjdavis 10y ago

>no one (certainly not I) wants to watch three weeks of harried debugging Although they could potentially throw in a sequence designed to show that aspect. 2-3 minutes of silence with a stationary camera showing a motionless programmer at their computer, frowning slightly. Eventually they break the silence by swearing. Mind you, you could probably only do that once in the entire run of the show. As you alluded to, the reality of working through difficult problems would not make for good TV.

sbierwagen 10y ago
Mind you, you could probably only do that once in the entire run of the show. HBO is the same network that aired this skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyrM7GxyzGg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyrM7GxyzGg
kbenson 10y ago
> 2-3 minutes of silence with a stationary camera showing a motionless programmer at their computer, frowning slightly. Eventually they break the silence by swearing. Then you see them slowly click. Press backspace once. press the 3 key. Click again, and their eyes widen as then they exclaim "Finally!"
- namuol 10y ago
  > and their eyes widen as then they exclaim "Finally!" I think you mean: > and their eyes widen as then they exclaim "Oh my god I am such a fucking idiot."
  - kbenson 10y ago
    No, that's when Gilfoyle, who's been watching from the side, says "You are such a fucking idiot."
- tmd83 10y ago
  If you want a bit realism there you might casually show the clock to make the user realize that while it was 2 minute on camera the actual time was much more.
  - XorNot 10y ago
    You could pretty much do it as a B-plot for an entire episode, and just end it with someone walking by the screen and saying something like: "find" "what?" "you wrote fond." Add profanity as necessary.
- drumdance 10y ago
  For me it's more like "FUCK! ME!" when I notice a typo'd variable name or what-have-you.
caseysoftware 10y ago
And that one 2-3 minute clip would be passed around every year after the holidays when yet another relative asks if your startup life is anything like Elon Musk or The Social Network.

aswanson 10y ago

Yeah, but networks are keen to air bullshit debugging sessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtzaSzO2cE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtzaSzO2cE

ErikAugust 10y ago

Their servers did catch on fire.

lips 10y ago

They did kinda sorta almost delete everything. (ok, less realistic than a fencepost error or something. Just sayin')