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Amazing anecdote from a 2016 New Yorker article on the show: > During one visit to Google’s headquarters, in Mountain View, about six writers sat in a conferen
by snowwrestler 8y ago
Amazing anecdote from a 2016 New Yorker article on the show:
> During one visit to Google’s headquarters, in Mountain View, about six writers sat in a conference room with Astro Teller, the head of GoogleX, who wore a midi ring and kept his long hair in a ponytail. “Most of our research meetings are fun, but this one was uncomfortable,” Kemper told me....
> “He claimed he hadn’t seen the show, and then he referred many times to specific things that had happened on the show,” Kemper said. “His message was, ‘We don’t do stupid things here. We do things that actually are going to change the world, whether you choose to make fun of that or not.’ ” (Teller could not be reached for comment.)
> Teller ended the meeting by standing up in a huff, but his attempt at a dramatic exit was marred by the fact that he was wearing Rollerblades. He wobbled to the door in silence. “Then there was this awkward moment of him fumbling with his I.D. badge, trying to get the door to open,” Kemper said. “It felt like it lasted an hour. We were all trying not to laugh. Even while it was happening, I knew we were all thinking the same thing: Can we use this?” In the end, the joke was deemed “too hacky to use on the show.”
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/how-silicon-valley-nails-silicon-valley https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/how-silicon-v...
- ForHackernews 8y agoNew Yorker, not NYTimes article.
- snowwrestler 8y agoFixed! Thank you
- throw7 8y agoReminds me of Steven Tyler reacting to Spinal Tap: Tyler expounded on his reaction in a rare Library of Congress interview made public back in 2012. "That movie bummed me out," he said, "because I thought, 'How dare they? That's all real, and they're mocking it.'" To be fair, Silicon Valley (the show) never interested me... kinda found it to be boring. But it _is_ hilarious when you run into these art imitates life imitates art things.
- anon2775 8y agoIt's not hilarious when Dr. Strangelove turns out to be a factually-correct mocumentary, although Dr. Strangelove is hilarious. Watch the Daniel Ellsberg series on TRNN on YT about his latest book... you are in for so many shocks, you may want to dismiss him as lying and/or crazy.
- riazrizvi 8y agoIt was a great show because of on point, biting satire like this. Then in the last season the writing dropped off a cliff, I guess they got neutered - post Gawker world and all that.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sharcerer 8y agoX labs actually does great things. Nobody has invested into such different areas of scientific research as Alphabet. I love SV, but hated that potato cannon joke. They painted X Labs as a joke, which it isn't. Sure, they have had their failures,but I'd rather take their failures rather thn "successes" like Snapchat, Tiktok. Craig Frederighi demoing Memoji is much more laughable.
- notSupplied 8y agoAgreed. When the problems they try to tackle are orders of magnitude harder than...making Snapchat, you have to attribute their failure more to difficulty of the problem than incompetence of the people.
- sharcerer 8y agoYes. And thankfully, Ruth Porat has controlled the losses otherwise around 2013 they were on fire,bought so many robotics companies etc. Though, the incentive structure at the Self Driving project led to a lot of great engineers leaving the project and making tons of . I was also excited for Project Soli. Haven't seen any update regarding their work in 3 years. Waiting to see how Loon, Wing monetize as they graduated this year from X. No idea why I got downvotes on my 1st comment above. Probably, Snapchat or other insignificant Social startup employees.
- 1123581321 8y agoI didn’t downvote you, but I wasn’t surprised to see that comment downvoted. The person you replied to said that they thought the show’s satire was really good. You replied, saying Google X does great things. That is either an off-topic reply or a weak way to disagree with whether the satire is good. Like Gates said, the high technology industry can accomplish great things and have some funny aspects at the same time.
- holywoly 8y agoAny shows of the same style on Hollywood? Do the show producers feel something similar to some in their own industry or their surreality is just reality for them? Are they brave enough to mock powerful people they may wish to work with later? Would be fun to watch one on Hollywood and they should have very intimate details to bare.
- vincentmarle 8y ago> Would be fun to watch one on Hollywood and they should have very intimate details to bare. Try Californication or Entourage
- ImprovedSilence 8y agoHeck yeah, Entourage was good. Way good.
- ethbro 8y agoThe Producers?
- KyeRussell 8y agoConversely, I hate seeing TV / movies about Hollywood. It feels like such a crutch for writers, and feels a tad self-obsessed. The only time I've been able to stand Hollywood critiques in recent memory is BoJack.
- tru3_power 8y agoIf you line Seinfield type of humour checkout Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David staring as Larry David.
- beaconstudios 8y agoBojack Horseman does a similar thing for Hollywood. It focuses on the shallowness of Hollywood culture and its effects on the people living in it though, so it swings from hilarious to extremely dark all the time.
- tk75x 8y ago
- nikofeyn 8y agooh man, they definitely should have used that. it fits right into the show in every way. i am laughing just reading a straight account of what happened. silicon valley is really insufferable. i don't understand that place at all and don't ever wish to be there. and i am often reminded of adam curtis' documentary all watched over by machines of everlasting grace. i wish he would do another one along these lines.
- Camillo 8y agoHang on a second. Why would there be a badge reader to get _out_ of a conference room? Can anybody who's been at Google HQ confirm the setup?
- daveFNbuck 8y agoThat and the idea that he would wear skates to a meeting where he intends to show a group of comedy writers the seriousness of his work make this anecdote very unbelievable.
- xiphias2 8y agoJust search for Astro Teller rollerblades :)
- daveFNbuck 8y agoThose search results are heavily polluted by stories of this interview now. It's weird that they would give him trouble if he always wears them. If only Google had figured out a way for people to have human-powered wheeled transportation between buildings without having to be hobbled indoors...
- cblum 8y agoDon’t know about Google but I’ve seen that at HP.
- johan_larson 8y agoSometimes there are conference rooms outside the secured perimeter of a building, in the lobby before you go past the receptionist and have to badge in. I've seen them used for interviews and such. Since Google X has all sorts of top secret stuff, I could see them doing things that way.
- unhammer 8y agoI remember reading a story about someone who got fired from some Silicon Valley tech job, and they almost immediately revoked their key card, so they got stuck in the staircase and had to wait for someone to hold the door open so they could get out of the building. (As if getting fired wasn't bad enough, you have to beg favours from random passers-by.)
- fierro 8y agoI don't believe this. Google doesn't have badge readers to exit a meeting room... sounds heavily dramatized
- naikrovek 8y agoYou know this about ALL Google meeting rooms? There can't be a higher security room in which you must badge out, or rather, badge into a higher security room adjacent to a meeting room? Are you SURE