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"there’s a libertarian ideological bias in Silicon Valley that seems to turn people into ignorant morons when it comes to social state-related issues. As engine

by vitno 10y ago

"there’s a libertarian ideological bias in Silicon Valley that seems to turn people into ignorant morons when it comes to social state-related issues. As engineers, some don’t even get the political stakes." "So enough already. Grow up now, study history..." Regardless of the actual content of the article, I found the style of so many unnecessary ad hominim attacks offputing. The actual content of the article isn't really backed up. It mostly seems to say that engineers are seduced by the elegance of Basic Income and that they should really just focus on making the existing social system have less friction. Not a bad opinion, just not really in line with the many statements that "Basic Income won't work".

jbuzbee 10y ago
Agreed - The arrogance in the article really turned me off to what might have been some valid points. I read it as: "You simpletons don't have a clue. I know the answer to all the problems". This guy is probably a real "joy" at cocktail parties.
Nicolas_Colin 10y ago
I wrote the article. Thank you for your response. I'm certainly not the first to point out that Silicon Valley, as an ecosystem, is fundamentally uninterested in politics and history (especially social history). Would you disagree with that? I didn't write that basic income won't work as a solution designed to fix a problem. My point is that I don't see a political path to enacting it, and even though it was enacted, I don't see how it could survive the next round of election. So yes maybe it's time to focus on more winnable fights such as implementing universal health insurance. https://medium.com/@Nicolas_Colin/thanks-for-all-the-responses-399027114d12#.w99ezrg6f https://medium.com/@Nicolas_Colin/thanks-for-all-the-respons...
- dang 10y ago
  > Silicon Valley, as an ecosystem, is fundamentally uninterested in politics and history (especially social history). Would you disagree with that? Yes, for two reasons. First, the meaning of the label 'Silicon Valley' is unclear, but whatever it means, it shouldn't be anthropomorphized. Doing that is usually just a rhetorical device, and that dilutes arguments. Second, the people I know in Silicon Valley are acutely interested in those things, so I'd say your claim is way off base.
  - Nicolas_Colin 10y ago
    Thanks for replying. I'd say Silicon Valley is synonymous with tech industry here (the article effectively mentions "Silicon Valley and its satellites"). As for the second argument, I trust there is much progress in terms of tackling politics and history in SV, but many sources contributed to forming my opinion: - In "Googled" (published in 2004), Ken Auletta of the "New Yorker" explains in great detail how clueless Google initially was in dealing with Washington, DC., a trait he claims can be linked to the naïveté of engineers who see the world as a collection of "problems" all waiting for a "solution". As an engineer myself, I really recognize that engineering bias. Yet I agree the engineering culture may be stronger at Google than at other tech companies. But it's still dominant in the tech industry. - In his "Secret History of Silicon Valley" conference, Steve Blank constantly jokes about the fact that people in Silicon Valley are ignorant of history, to the point where even students at Stanford University don't have a clue about who was Frederick Terman. - More recently, another "New Yorker" article told the story of Mark Zuckerberg "getting an education" in his failed attempt to transform the education system in the state of New Jersey—see http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/05/19/schooled http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/05/19/schooled -In Europe most of us are appalled at how clumsy SV-based tech companies are when dealing with local governments and adapting to the various cultures, institutions, and special interests => hence the many problems that Uber, Airbnb, Google, and others have here in Europe on the regulatory front (Apple being the latest to suffer that fate with the infamous €14B European tax bill). Maybe it's a false impression. Or maybe in Silicon Valley those who are genuinely interested in geography, history, and politics are not in the executive seats and so far fail to make a difference. But I can assure you that the tech industry's passion with basic income has a direct consequence on the ground: when you try to open up the discussion about the future of social policy, the tech people's response is always: "nevermind those complex policies from the past, basic income will solve everything". Ugh. In most cases the reason is that they read the books by Peter Thiel and others, they read the blogposts by American Entrepreneurs and VCs, they believe the hype around basic income, and, I'm sorry to say, I think they don't have a clue about what it takes to build inclusive and sustainable social institutions.
  - Nicolas_Colin 10y ago
    Proof of current progress: http://a16z.com/2016/05/16/regulatory-hacking/ http://a16z.com/2016/05/16/regulatory-hacking/ I can't wait for regulatory hacking to join the field of social policy. Many people will convert to social realpolitik at that point :-)

by vitno 10y ago

jbuzbee 10y ago

Agreed - The arrogance in the article really turned me off to what might have been some valid points. I read it as: "You simpletons don't have a clue. I know the answer to all the problems". This guy is probably a real "joy" at cocktail parties.

Nicolas_Colin 10y ago

I wrote the article. Thank you for your response. I'm certainly not the first to point out that Silicon Valley, as an ecosystem, is fundamentally uninterested in politics and history (especially social history). Would you disagree with that? I didn't write that basic income won't work as a solution designed to fix a problem. My point is that I don't see a political path to enacting it, and even though it was enacted, I don't see how it could survive the next round of election. So yes maybe it's time to focus on more winnable fights such as implementing universal health insurance. https://medium.com/@Nicolas_Colin/thanks-for-all-the-responses-399027114d12#.w99ezrg6f https://medium.com/@Nicolas_Colin/thanks-for-all-the-respons...

dang 10y ago
> Silicon Valley, as an ecosystem, is fundamentally uninterested in politics and history (especially social history). Would you disagree with that? Yes, for two reasons. First, the meaning of the label 'Silicon Valley' is unclear, but whatever it means, it shouldn't be anthropomorphized. Doing that is usually just a rhetorical device, and that dilutes arguments. Second, the people I know in Silicon Valley are acutely interested in those things, so I'd say your claim is way off base.
- Nicolas_Colin 10y ago
  Thanks for replying. I'd say Silicon Valley is synonymous with tech industry here (the article effectively mentions "Silicon Valley and its satellites"). As for the second argument, I trust there is much progress in terms of tackling politics and history in SV, but many sources contributed to forming my opinion: - In "Googled" (published in 2004), Ken Auletta of the "New Yorker" explains in great detail how clueless Google initially was in dealing with Washington, DC., a trait he claims can be linked to the naïveté of engineers who see the world as a collection of "problems" all waiting for a "solution". As an engineer myself, I really recognize that engineering bias. Yet I agree the engineering culture may be stronger at Google than at other tech companies. But it's still dominant in the tech industry. - In his "Secret History of Silicon Valley" conference, Steve Blank constantly jokes about the fact that people in Silicon Valley are ignorant of history, to the point where even students at Stanford University don't have a clue about who was Frederick Terman. - More recently, another "New Yorker" article told the story of Mark Zuckerberg "getting an education" in his failed attempt to transform the education system in the state of New Jersey—see http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/05/19/schooled http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/05/19/schooled -In Europe most of us are appalled at how clumsy SV-based tech companies are when dealing with local governments and adapting to the various cultures, institutions, and special interests => hence the many problems that Uber, Airbnb, Google, and others have here in Europe on the regulatory front (Apple being the latest to suffer that fate with the infamous €14B European tax bill). Maybe it's a false impression. Or maybe in Silicon Valley those who are genuinely interested in geography, history, and politics are not in the executive seats and so far fail to make a difference. But I can assure you that the tech industry's passion with basic income has a direct consequence on the ground: when you try to open up the discussion about the future of social policy, the tech people's response is always: "nevermind those complex policies from the past, basic income will solve everything". Ugh. In most cases the reason is that they read the books by Peter Thiel and others, they read the blogposts by American Entrepreneurs and VCs, they believe the hype around basic income, and, I'm sorry to say, I think they don't have a clue about what it takes to build inclusive and sustainable social institutions.
- Nicolas_Colin 10y ago
  Proof of current progress: http://a16z.com/2016/05/16/regulatory-hacking/ http://a16z.com/2016/05/16/regulatory-hacking/ I can't wait for regulatory hacking to join the field of social policy. Many people will convert to social realpolitik at that point :-)