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This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley
- cylinder 10y agoHmm. Okay.
- intopieces 10y agoMy reaction exactly. I read through the entire article (inexplicably) and I can't tell what it's trying to "say." What am I supposed to feel after reading this exposition?
- Kalium 10y agoI think it's supposed to be a satirical think-piece? The author is linked to The Bold Italic, the king of local pretension. Something something something unexamined privilege, I rather suspect. It'd be funnier if the author wasn't trying to make some kind of political point muddled by half-baked humor.
- intopieces 10y ago>unexamined privilege Silicon Valley is famous for its navel-gazing. There's even a hit television show devoted to it. The privilege is well and rightfully examined. That's why, I think, this satire falls flat -- it doesn't say anything that isn't painfully obvious to anyone who has even a casual familiarity with the local culture, and even worse, it doesn't say the painfully obvious in any new way. It doesn't 'bite' like the onion does, where it comes too close to reality for comfort. It's not zany and off-beat like a Mad Magazine bit. It's just... not that good.
- quantumhobbit 10y agoCut all the prices in half and replace startup stupidity with enterprises-trying-to-act-like-startups stupidity and you have most people's lives outside of Silicon Valley. Not to make it generational but this feels like how most people my age live anywhere.
- wavefunction 10y agoNannys? Going to fancy restaurants hoping to see venture capitalists? Most people your age do not by any means conduct themselves like this, nor could they if they wanted to. Their "nanny" is their sister or mother or mother in law or a neighbor. They don't go to a fancy restaurant because they don't have the money for both the fancy restaurant and a baby-sitter. They're a two income-family forever, not until stock options vest and can be sold on secondary markets to speculators with easy capital. This whole scenario is ridiculous and not at all representative of anything but a very small demographic. But I guess that's the Valley, at least to this outsider reading articles like this.
- twblalock 10y agoLet me put it this way: I have lived in Silicon Valley my entire life (and I'm not that young), and the only person I've ever met who was raised by a nanny was a rich kid who went to my high school. I've never met anyone who hired a nanny, except that kid's parents. But maybe that's because I don't live in Atherton.
- pfarnsworth 10y agoAnd let me put it this way: Every working couple except for one that I know with a kid has hired a nanny for at least some portion of the time, including myself.
- keefe 10y agoFor the last decade since I moved here, my life in silicon valley was more like: wake up without an alarm, brew a cup of dragon well tea, walk my dog, hit my gym for slow and steady progress, check email for crises, deal with anything other people care about, maybe go to the office. Have some lunch, write code until I'm tired, then maybe make an effort to socialize. As far as coal mining goes, these are sweet digs.
- throwanem 10y agoGreat! I'm really glad to hear you've found a lifestyle that works well for you. Is it possible your experience isn't representative?
- hueving 10y agoLikely not, but this portrayal in the article isn't close either. It only applies to 'hot startup' folks, which are a subset of startups, which are a tiny subset of employees here.
- throwanem 10y agoBut, looking in from the outside, it's the subset which everyone not already in it appears to desire on some level to join.
- pyrrhotech 10y agoReading this was an interesting anthropological experience to me as the lifestyle is so different from my own though it seems the underlying long-term goals are similar to mine (wealth, meaning, having smart and interesting friends and acquaintances). I too live in SV, but in a modest home I own in the East Bay. I too commute a little less than an hour to work, but I do my own grocery shopping and I don't care for nice restaurants, fancy cars or the latest gadgets. I still drive my 08 Prius. I have a fair amount of stock options I've collected from 3 different mid-size companies over the last half decade; all are still in business but none are showing extremely promising outlooks, so I no longer count stock options in my long-term financial planning though it would be a welcomed bonus to my plans. Instead, I count the value of $5000/month left over from my decently high salary minus my non-materialist lifestyle invested in index funds to achieve financial independence the old fashioned way. Somewhat anti-Silicon Valley philosophy? Perhaps, but the Bay Area is all testing diverse ideas and out of the box approaches to life satisfaction. I don't claim my life is superior to the theoretical in this article, but it is much simpler and probably lower stress, and I'm pretty happy on a day to day basis so I'm not yet tempted to dive in to the alternate approach.
- kec 10y agoMost people would consider $60k/year in discretionary income a little more than "decently high".
- duzoajcgk 10y agoOf course, discretionary income and salary are not the same thing. If you are a developer in the valley paying to live in Palo Alto, driving a BMW, etc. you too could choose to have a lot more discretionary income.
- kec 10y ago$60k is more than 88% of Americans make in total income. Having that for discretionary spending would place you well within the top 1-2% of Americans, regardless of how much or how little your living expenses are.
- imperialdrive 10y agobravo - tickling read!
- laurentdc 10y agolivin' the rat race one latte at a time
- sjg007 10y agoYep that's the zeitgeist.
- zubat 10y agoOnly if you want it that way.
- susan_hall 10y agoI admire the fact that the author was able to add a humorous twist to almost every paragraph. However, to get the humor they indulge in a bit of exaggeration. That's fine, I have no problem with parody. I would find this style revolting if the article was longer, or if this was a book, but as a short blog post it reads fine. I am curious if the emphasis on status symbols was meant to be so exaggerated? The first joke was funny, but there were several on the same theme. By the time he got home and was thinking about watching stuff on Netflix, only because other people were talking about it... by that point, either the joke is over-used, or if it's meant to represent "real life" then it is just sad.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- trappedintime 10y agoImagine the author had first tried psilocybin, then no one would've gotten cancer from reading that borderline sociopathic, materialist screed.
- hudibras 10y agoIt's satire, bro. Chill out.
- Kluny 10y agoSounds like a horrible person living a horrible life in a way that will never affect me in any way. I'm okay with this.
- larrywright 10y agoReading things like this makes me glad I've stayed in the Midwest.
- DeadReckoning 10y agoYou guys take yourselves too seriously. I think this article is funny as hell. "You briefly use mobile Safari to browse for Vipassana retreats — you hear a 10 day retreat in Soquel may be the ticket to shake things up. You realize it’s not going to be possible. You download a meditation app. You turn it off. You don’t have time." TOO REAL
- derwiki 10y agoVery surprised to not see any jabs at Burning Man, or waiting in line for brunch.
- throwanem 10y agoI don't really know about brunch, although I guess there's something about waiting the better part of an hour to eat that makes it attractive to hipsters because I sure have seen them do it a lot. But my guess is that Burning Man is rather passé, and has been roughly since people who hadn't been there started hearing about it in large numbers.
- collyw 10y agoBurning Man is your equivalent of Glastonbury. Used to be cool years ago, but now its just for posh kids to say they have been.
- leot 10y agoYou know this because you've been? What does "cool" mean to you?
- Stubb 10y agoWaiting around to eat provides more time to see and be seen at trendy joints.
- aedron 10y agoThe fact that a lot of posters here don't even realize it is satire speaks more to the point than anything.
- kevinkimball 10y agonone of this resonates with me at all
- rdlecler1 10y agoSounds more like my friends doing ibanking in NY than my friends doing startups in SF.
- amyjess 10y agoYes, part of this definitely reminded me of my cousin in NYC. Her husband is some big shot at Goldman Sachs, and their toddlers are raised by a nanny and being pushed into elite schools (yes, as toddlers). Their attitude towards restaurants is basically the same, and her husband has a similar lack of time (he works all his waking hours on the weekdays... and then crashes on the weekend). Oh, and the kicker: they shop for clothes for their kids exclusively on Amazon. How do they know the clothes will fit? They don't; they order the clothes in every single size Amazon has available. I don't know what they do with the stuff that's the wrong size.
- sotojuan 10y agoI went to school in NYC and I always thought it takes a special kind of person to do finance. My friend's brother works from 9am until 7-8pm, sometimes more, everyday. Yet my friend is determined to follow in his footsteps. I can't imagine doing that.
- maguay 10y agoThe screenshot of Excel '97 running in WINE is what makes the post great.
- ryandamm 10y agoMeh, not written by someone who lives here: "the 280"? Freeways don't get articles around here, bub. Clearly a plant from the LA startup scene.
- danbmil99 10y agoGood catch! Puzzler: at what latitude does 101 become "Teh 101"?
- enraged_camel 10y agoThe same latitude at which hipsters turn into douchebags. Source: I lived in LA for nearly a decade.
- selimthegrim 10y agoProbably between Oxnard and Santa Barbara.
- tribby 10y ago"The Noe" jumped out at me, too.
- CPLX 10y agoAn exceedingly brief look at his other Medium posts finds a sentence stating that he was born in Santa Clara.
- kderbe 10y agoThis article is far too on-the-nose for my taste. As an exaggerated critique of Silicon Valley, I much rather enjoyed Anna Wiener's "Uncanny Valley". Article: https://nplusonemag.com/issue-25/on-the-fringe/uncanny-valley/ https://nplusonemag.com/issue-25/on-the-fringe/uncanny-valle... Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11565691 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11565691
- ascendingPig 10y agoUncanny Valley used specifics to satirical and humorous effect, whereas this post just deployed brand names every 10 words. I was really bored.
- hifumi 10y agoThis article seems too far removed though. It's hard to relate to much in it.
- Allamaprabhu 10y agoPerhaps its same back in silicon valley of india too.Life here comes with reduced perks from unlivable traffic to substandard infrastructures.But the story is same everywhere across the industry I believe given greatest advantage is being close to your loved ones.
- dosgonlogs 10y agoLooks like he really struck a nerve based on the comments.
- laxatives 10y agoHalf of the comments are along the lines of, "yeah those guys, but not me, I bought muesli instead o artisinal cheese".
- dosgonlogs 10y agoI wanted to say something to that effect, but you nailed it! I hope stating that isn't against the etiquette here.
- ryanmaynard 10y agoBeing nudged, even momentarily, from our delusion that none of us are all that special, will always hit a nerve. I think these things are healthy to reflect upon occasionally. Delusions are fine, to a point. I really enjoyed this piece.
- guard-of-terra 10y agoSounds like a character straight from http://wumo.com/wumo http://wumo.com/wumo webcomics Which I could not recommend enough, I'm having wumo flashbacks all the time just as with obligatory XKCD.
- pmatev 10y agoFunny that this is still super relevant for the life in London, particularly in East London, where everyone you meet is working in or has started their own startup. I feel like "silicon valley" mentality has spread far beyond just the bay area these days.
- mms1973 10y agoIt reminded me of "Chaos Monkeys" that I read recently.
- turnip1979 10y agoWould u recommend it?
- whatever_dude 10y agoThe book is frequently mentioned in HN comments. In general, it is well recommended even if not overwhelmingly. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=chaos%20monkeys&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=pastMonth&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?query=chaos%20monkeys&sort=byPopular...
- vans 10y agoWell written. I like the tone. I think it's a particular case of a global concern : what the purpose of life and how to live it well ? Even if i'm very different and put my efforts in other domains than "looking smart for other people". I'm asking myself similar questions: doubt about past choices, job, city, and so on.
- sevenless 10y agoAt the point you get to 'self-actualization', you realize that it's best done by helping others get to that point. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a pyramid scheme.
- k-mcgrady 10y ago>> "Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a pyramid scheme." I don't think I've ever done a '+1' style comment on HN before but couldn't resist. I really love that idea.
- pikzel 10y agoA lot of this can be applied to modern day middle class life in Stockholm, Sweden, too for example. I guess SV is a bit more extreme, but the same things are there: the lust for gadgets, using podcasts to find conversational topics with your friends, sharing half-read articles, the "perfectly Instagrammed life", and, perhaps most of all: "The reporters all share photos and videos of the homeless person, but no one talks to him."
- sevenless 10y agoIs it possible to diagnose an entire geographic region with narcissistic personality disorder?
- mkohlmyr 10y agoUnfortunately, it's spreading. You see a lot of this in London as well. I think of it as a learned narcissism with clustering behavior. I would argue you can see it across many groups although they differ in how it manifests - we notice the "hot-startup" narcissist because he/she is in our industry. Social media certainly hasn't helped. It appeals to the worst in human behavior. Communication devoid of truth or nuance in exchange for the shallow and sadly addictive approval of strangers. It teaches us to play games in which we are rewarded for what we portray outwardly rather than to be introspective. It is unfortunate that this mindset has been brought into the workplace, but perhaps much sadder that it likely affects relationships (parenting in particular) as well.
- forgottenpass 10y agoDiagnose? No, probably not. Finding another label for a group of people in the Valley you are already predispositioned to hate isn't insight. And limiting it to a geographic region with such flimsy cultural boundaries smacks of projection. Want a bold stand? The (now defunct) blog The Last Psychiatrist spent years arguing that narcissism was society wide and generations deep. see 75% of the posts, but maybe these in particular (?) http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/11/a_generational_pathology.html http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/11/a_generational_pathol... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/10/the_dumbest_generation_is_only.html http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/10/the_dumbest_generatio...
- sverige 10y agoI remember reading about a third of "Portnoy's Complaint" and then closing the book and putting it aside forever when I realized that it was supposed to be comedy and not tragedy. Same thing happened with this article.
- Gatsky 10y agoI've read the whole thing, it is tragic. Even more so in the context of modern technology's affect on sexuality.
- Ezhik 10y agoMan, stuff like this makes me wonder what my life will even be like when I graduate. Went here because dude, Silicon Valley! Then ended up spending a year depressed and just burning out on the whole thing because as it turns out changing your entire life down to the language you speak doesn't really remove the fact that you're a huge introvert and procrastinator.
- brianwawok 10y agoLot of world outside SV
- Asooka 10y agoIf he can drop the self-loathing and envy, maybe with some guided meditation, I think he could live a quite comfortable routine there. It won't be a sustainable life, as the VC money have to run out sometime but right now that's a bit like saying that the sun has to go out some day. The hyper-connected ultra-technological micromanaged life isn't for me, but kudos to the author for making it work for him.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Gatsky 10y agoAmerican Psycho with smart phones and a family.
- sealjam 10y agoI started reading it in Christian Bale's voice at some point there.
- laxatives 10y agoFor awhile I've been thinking the previous generation's American Psycho finance robot is this analagous to generation's startup/VC ecosystem. Everyone's delusional and eccentric, some more than others.
- spitfire 10y agoThe kids who used to go to wall street go to San Francisco now. Silicon Valley didn't win, they were colonized.
- maxaf 10y agoYou enjoy writing about yourself in a detached second-person style, but with a dull sadness you realize that it's pretentious and does little to mask your inner emptiness. A solution in search of a problem, like many other things in your life, the way you write brings out the worst tendencies in you, and does little to actually improve the way you live. ... No, seriously, stop that. Narrate in the first or second person; those are easier to relate to rather than the not-so-abstract "you". Invent a protagonist for your story if it doesn't already have one. Character building seems to be quickly fading into obscurity as a lost art of sorts, and you can help revive it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- rob 10y agoThis is so sad, especially the part in the beginning about hiring a nanny to watch their kids as they grow up. You can't get those memories and time back. But hey, you have a WiFi coffee maker and Roomba.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoWhat's with the current cultural obsession with spending every single moment with ones children? How can this possibly be healthy for the children (never mind the parents)?
- exstudent2 10y agoI'm pretty sure that having both parents work and raising your child via nanny is the current obsession and having a stay at home parent was normal human operating behavior for ~200,000 years.
- idm 10y agoThe word "parenting" was coined in the 1950s. Prior to modern times, groups of people (maybe related, maybe just neighbours) shared childrearing responsibilities. It's unlikely anybody was a dedicated caregiver in the same sense as modern parenting.
- exstudent2 10y agoMore often than not the mother was highly involved. Almost never was a nanny the primary caregiver.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoNo, it's not the current obsession. The current cultural obsession is over-parenting and massive anxiety and guilt about not "spending enough time" with children no matter how much time is actually spent with children. The comment I replied to is reflective of the current cultural attitude that its "so sad" that kids get a break from their parents for 40 hours a week. Time spent on childcare has actually increased since the 1960s[1] which reflects the increased amount of emphasis on childrearing. There also seems to be little to no questioning of what is healthy for children and parents, it's just seen as "natural" and "obvious" and certainly ideal if possible. The people with this "so sad... you can't get those memories back" attitude never explain why its ok for the working parent to miss out on "memories" while they are at work whereas its absolutely essential that the nonworking parent gets in the maximum amount of "memories" possible. Or why its ok to ever send a child to a public school because "memories" certainly happen during the school day and you're going to miss out! Or why its so terrible for children to bond to several caregivers rather than one or two? [1] http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2007/DoParentsSpendEnoughTimeWithTheirChildren.aspx http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2007/DoParentsSpend... >Time diaries indicate that married fathers spent an average 6.5 hours a week caring for their children in 2000, a 153 percent increase since 1965. Married mothers spent 12.9 hours, a 21 percent increase. Single mothers spent 11.8 hours, a 57 percent increase. >These increases are powerful because the figures are for "primary care" where the child is the main focus of attention, not for time spent with the child while doing other things. Time-diary numbers, however, do not say whether mothers are as accessible to their children at home during as many hours as they were in the past.
- whatever_dude 10y agoGreat read, not just for people from Silicon Valley. It's good to put things into perspective. It also reminds me of an article [1] about John Carmack and his choice of Dallas. To quote, > “A lot of people, especially from California, say, ‘Texas? Why the hell are you in Texas?’ But I am generally happy to wave the flag and say, ‘No, I am not here under duress.’ I actually like it here. And we appreciate the sense of the Southern hospitality. You don’t get the sense that everyone needs to be coddled and taken care of. You get the sense of gumption.” I have since fell in love with that word, "gumption". It's something you don't see in companies where people are being treated as kids and catered to with little superficial perks. But it's what get shit done. I hope tech "visionaries" don't decide to adopt it and make it a new buzzword, however. [1] http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-ceo/2015/september/virtual-reality-of-john-carmack/ http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-ceo/2015/september/v..., discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10136565 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10136565
- econner 10y agoI assume he's in Menlo Park now at Oculus. I wonder if he still feels the same way.
- melling 10y agoSounds like he's in Dallas: https://www3.oculus.com/en-us/blog/john-carmack-joins-oculus-as-cto/ https://www3.oculus.com/en-us/blog/john-carmack-joins-oculus...
- whatever_dude 10y agoHis quote is exactly in response to that. He is not moving there. People act surprised when he says that, so that is his reasoning: he prefers the culture of Texas/Dallas.
- Cshelton 10y agoHe still lives in Dallas. Which by the way is a far better option than Austin if you were to move to Texas.
- amyjess 10y agoHonestly, reading this reminds me of why I intend to never set foot in NorCal and why I'm glad to live in Texas. Edit: and, to be honest, this isn't exclusive to NorCal: this also reminds me disturbingly of NYC culture, and I'll describe NYC as a place I like to visit but would never, ever want to live. I have no interest in coastal urbanite culture.
- traviswingo 10y agoThis article is amazing. What a great way to start the day.
- reedlaw 10y agoThis was an enjoyable read. I especially appreciate the ending. At first it had a somewhat dystopian feeling in the sense that the protagonist's tastes align with whatever's trending at the moment. He's smug and superior. But in the end it was the realization that he lives in a beautiful place and the awe at seeing the sun set that brought true comfort. Nothing else in his life really works, including the meditation app.
- econner 10y agoI always liked jwz's take: > But in 1999 I took my leave of that whole sick, navel-gazing mess we called the software industry. Now I'm in a more honest line of work: now I sell beer.
- hifumi 10y agoI'm not sure how much of this is satire and how much is just jabs at the way things are. It reads a lot like "Cracking the Coding Career" or "The Lean Startup": a piece written for the older (35+) generation trying to understand this modern field that generates so much money. For instance, when you're working for a startup having kids is not an attractive option. Startup hours are nothing like a 9 to 5 and insanely risky. Not to mention the cost of living if you in the Silicon Valley area. Why wouldn't the majority of your friends on Facebook share similar political views? That's surely a factor of why you are friends in the first place. You wouldn't share a political article to them with the intention of proving an argument. There isn't much debate to be had with them. Why would you not use small apps that make small things convenient? This is brought to attention so often in the article but it's not even unique to Silicon Valley. It's common to a whole generation. The constant use of social media also makes it painfully obvious that this article isn't following the life of an engineer. Most of this probably is satire, but it seems in poor taste.
- quicknir 10y agoMost of my good friends, let alone Facebook friends do not share similar views. Some people are pro legalizing drugs, some are anti, some are more socialist whereas some are free marketeers, some are pro foreign intervention and some are isolationist. We don't spend most of our time talking politics and it just doesn't matter that much. If you don't have any friends with different political views, this is an unlikely enough occurrence via chance that it seems like it's a deliberate choice, and that's not a choice that I have anything good to say about.
- k-mcgrady 10y ago>> Why would you not use small apps that make small things convenient? I think what it's getting at is the attitude of 'I'm willing to spend $20 on this simple thing I could do myself for free because my time is worth $x per hour so those 10 mins would really be a waste of $40. I think the point is, chill. Your time may be valuable but you don't need to earning every second you are awake.
- BilalBudhani 10y agoI got chills after reading this article. OP has gathered his thoughts brilliantly in writing. Explaining each situation we face in our day to day life thoughtfully. Kudos.
- khoury 10y agoThis article makes me wanna go back to working in a bar or something and just never come in contact with computers or tech people ever again.
- vonnik 10y agoThis is trying to be funny, but it's not that funny. For a bunch of different reasons. Unless you're an insider telling an inside joke, tech isn't funny, because there's too much to explain, and explanations kill jokes. For the same reason that Wallace Stegner said you can't right novels about Mormons (no one would get them), you can't really write satire about tech. So the author falls back on jokes about Roombahs. Ha! Also, tech workers are not so powerful that they deserve satire. A better attempt at making SV amusing is the book Chaos Monkeys. And a very good example of how to skewer an industry is American Psycho (book, not movie).
- kafkaesq 10y agoYour 27-year-old CEO wants to make every enterprise company in the world switch to your product. He’s never worked for an enterprise company, or any other company at all. Eloquent synopsis a certain well-funded, highly buzzed-about "disruptive" startup I know.
- alecco 10y agoHow timely. I just started reading Disrupted.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]