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> You understand that the vast majority of jobs in Silicon Valley are not start ups. Google, Apple, Facebook -- these aren't start ups, and people aren't workin

> You understand that the vast majority of jobs in Silicon Valley are not start ups. Google, Apple, Facebook -- these aren't start ups, and people aren't working 20 hour days there. The guy I responded to was talking about startups and VC funding, so that's why I focused on startups. > Moreover it's just not the case that someone can be productive for 20 hours a day for any extended period of time. Maybe you can do that for a few days, max, but then your productivity plummets and you'd be better off working 8 hours. Sure. But when you have deliverables and are time constrained, you just don't have much choice. The client has expectations and we had to work extra hard to meet them. 20 hour workdays are definitely not viable over the long term. > This notion that 20 year olds have amazing concentration ability, rather than just poor time management, is believed only by 20 somethings with poor time management skills. I mostly talked about stamina, energy, quicker to learn, etc. Not sure about concentration ability, but I do tend to think younger people with a passion are better at concentrating and focusing on something. Also, I'm no longer a 20 something. Sadly, I'm one of those heading to 40s rather quickly. I didn't mean to upset people. I was just talking from experience and trying to explain why VC money goes to younger founders and why startups prefer younger devs. That formula isn't going to change until older founders and older devs start creating googles, facebooks, apples, microsofts, etc. It isn't a bias against older people since almost all of the VC investors are older people in their 40s, 50s, etc. It's a matter of what demographic has delivered the 1000000% returns. It isn't set in stone. Money will go where money is made. Especially in a high risk, high reward environment like the startup sector. Believe me, as someone who is older now, I would like nothing more than to see things change. Being viewed as over-the-hill when you turn 30 is a difficult pill to swallow.

rsj_hn 9y ago
But again, the article was about discrimination in the valley, and the parent was also referring to sv, although they again identified sv as a start up scene when it's really not. Sure, start ups discriminate against older workers, against women, against blacks, etc. Hell, I've seen them discriminate against people with different musical tastes. Start ups, by definition, are small businesses and we tolerate/have lower standards for small businesses than large corporations. That's why you have restaurants that only hire family members, for example. Fortunately start ups are kind of irrelevant in terms of total developer employment in the valley. There just aren't that many start ups and they don't survive that long, so they don't account for most employment. They do capture the imagination of the valley, so whenever someone brings up age discrimination in the valley, the come back is always "well, in a start up.." >That formula isn't going to change until older founders and older devs start creating googles, facebooks, apples, microsofts, etc. Intel was started by Robert Noyce when he was 41. Gordon Moore was 40. Geschke and Warnock were 45 and 42 when they founded Adobe. Cisco and AMD were founded by 30 somethings. Huang was 39 when he founded NVIDIA. Interestingly in China, Jack Ma was 35 when he founded Ali Baba -- would he have been able to raise capital in SV today? None of the original companies in SV were founded by someone in their 20s. It just didn't happen. The idea that only 20 somethings can start companies is very new, and whether or not it's a good idea, it's not the case that workers in their 30s and 40s need to "prove" that they are able to found big companies, as we are all living in the shadows of great tech companies founded by people in this age bracket.

rsj_hn 9y ago

But again, the article was about discrimination in the valley, and the parent was also referring to sv, although they again identified sv as a start up scene when it's really not. Sure, start ups discriminate against older workers, against women, against blacks, etc. Hell, I've seen them discriminate against people with different musical tastes. Start ups, by definition, are small businesses and we tolerate/have lower standards for small businesses than large corporations. That's why you have restaurants that only hire family members, for example. Fortunately start ups are kind of irrelevant in terms of total developer employment in the valley. There just aren't that many start ups and they don't survive that long, so they don't account for most employment. They do capture the imagination of the valley, so whenever someone brings up age discrimination in the valley, the come back is always "well, in a start up.." >That formula isn't going to change until older founders and older devs start creating googles, facebooks, apples, microsofts, etc. Intel was started by Robert Noyce when he was 41. Gordon Moore was 40. Geschke and Warnock were 45 and 42 when they founded Adobe. Cisco and AMD were founded by 30 somethings. Huang was 39 when he founded NVIDIA. Interestingly in China, Jack Ma was 35 when he founded Ali Baba -- would he have been able to raise capital in SV today? None of the original companies in SV were founded by someone in their 20s. It just didn't happen. The idea that only 20 somethings can start companies is very new, and whether or not it's a good idea, it's not the case that workers in their 30s and 40s need to "prove" that they are able to found big companies, as we are all living in the shadows of great tech companies founded by people in this age bracket.