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> I've been around Silicon Valley since the late 90s. It hasn't changed. I haven't been there physically but observed it from the distance. Google or not, wasn

> I've been around Silicon Valley since the late 90s. It hasn't changed. I haven't been there physically but observed it from the distance. Google or not, wasn't the Silicon Valley of the 1990s more about creating new technologies and less about kissing VC asses, repackaging crap, pumping valuations, and screaming "innovation"?

maxxxxx 9y ago
You are forgetting the .COM bubble which was pretty much a pile of pure bullshit without much substance.
- vadimberman 9y ago
  There was a lot of bullshit but there was a lot of substance. Off the top of my head: * server-side web * first web-based payments * VoIP * first mobile devices * e-commerce * text messaging * music piracy... I mean, sharing * search engines And I could go on forever.
  - maxxxxx 9y ago
    I think it's very similar to now. A lot of good stuff is happening but way too many companies copying each other fueled by an excess of investment money.
    - vadimberman 9y ago
      A lot of good stuff, yes. But the advances of the last decade are dwarfed by the advances of 1990s.
  - amelius 9y ago
    It wasn't high-tech. Just what IT is supposed to be for.
- jacobush 9y ago
  Lots of honest naïveté then though. Edit: also what vadimberman said
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
TheCondor 9y ago
I don’t think a whole lot has really changed, just the actors. VCs have thrust themselves in to the conversation when they basically stayed more behind the scenes years back. They’ve been trying to make themselves in to rockstars that last decade or so which is a little different and I think it promotes the profit based nature of SV a bit more; you know many by name and reputation and reputation means how much they’ve made. That and there has been some substantial innovation in terms of business models, google, Facebook, etc makes giant money and most of their users have never given them a dime. The ability to fully comprehend that (is that the “innovation half-life?”) has just about reached the point where average joe consumer understands it. These service companies draw a softer crowd of engineers than the hardware firms did, design and ux are things now and those types of engineers are a bit more ready and willing to say “hey look what I did” than a firmware engineer on a primitive MP3 player might be. They used to say ‘you never got fired for buying IBM’ but you also never took a beating for talking shit about IBM and there is a deep hacker tradition of that. We have a few more IBMs these days.

maxxxxx 9y ago

You are forgetting the .COM bubble which was pretty much a pile of pure bullshit without much substance.

vadimberman 9y ago
There was a lot of bullshit but there was a lot of substance. Off the top of my head: * server-side web * first web-based payments * VoIP * first mobile devices * e-commerce * text messaging * music piracy... I mean, sharing * search engines And I could go on forever.
- maxxxxx 9y ago
  I think it's very similar to now. A lot of good stuff is happening but way too many companies copying each other fueled by an excess of investment money.
  - vadimberman 9y ago
    A lot of good stuff, yes. But the advances of the last decade are dwarfed by the advances of 1990s.
- amelius 9y ago
  It wasn't high-tech. Just what IT is supposed to be for.
jacobush 9y ago
Lots of honest naïveté then though. Edit: also what vadimberman said

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

TheCondor 9y ago

I don’t think a whole lot has really changed, just the actors. VCs have thrust themselves in to the conversation when they basically stayed more behind the scenes years back. They’ve been trying to make themselves in to rockstars that last decade or so which is a little different and I think it promotes the profit based nature of SV a bit more; you know many by name and reputation and reputation means how much they’ve made. That and there has been some substantial innovation in terms of business models, google, Facebook, etc makes giant money and most of their users have never given them a dime. The ability to fully comprehend that (is that the “innovation half-life?”) has just about reached the point where average joe consumer understands it. These service companies draw a softer crowd of engineers than the hardware firms did, design and ux are things now and those types of engineers are a bit more ready and willing to say “hey look what I did” than a firmware engineer on a primitive MP3 player might be. They used to say ‘you never got fired for buying IBM’ but you also never took a beating for talking shit about IBM and there is a deep hacker tradition of that. We have a few more IBMs these days.