4 ms·

"Silicon Valley has empathy" propaganda. The only empathy SV has is how to masquerade empathy for dollars.

bilbo0s 8y ago
That's not unique to Silicon Valley, the entire economy works like that. Which is why so many working class people are falling further and further behind. At it's root, this economy is basically the capital class doing the minimum they have to do to protect capital investments. It's just that the minimum the capital class has to do in Silicon Valley is more than the minimum they have to do outside Silicon Valley.
- FakeComments 8y ago
  My experience of $bigcorp2 is much better than $bigcorp1, and I completely believe it has to do with the second not being a tech company — but instead a traditional company that moved into tech. So, I think tech companies have a kind of pathological treatment of their workers we don’t see broadly. (You’re also greatly simplifying why working class people are falling behind, to the point of misrepresenting it.)
  - jungler 8y ago
    I would hazard a guess that there is an evolutionary lineage type of thing going on here: SV companies have borrowed both workforces and managerial skills from each from the Fairchild days, and as that became increasingly VC-driven it became almost systematic for newer companies to get extremely large in record time. Doing that puts the company on foundations that are fundamentally weak - there's no legacy to follow, just empty air. Hence the default model became a PT Barnum style hokum story, something that stirs up hearts and minds but will show them the egress once their wallets have been emptied.
  - amyjess 8y ago
    My company takes care of their employees much better than pretty much any other tech company I've ever heard of, and while it _is_ a tech company, I can only conclude that it's for the following reasons: - It was founded and is still headquartered in the suburbs of Dallas and has nothing to do with SF/SV. We technically have a sales office in SF, but that's just a place for our account managers on the West Coast to meet with clients (we also have similar sales offices in NYC, London, and Amsterdam... though I think the London office has been expanded into a real office with a handful of non-sales people regularly present). - We're an enterprise B2B telecom, not some web/social/mobile-driven B2C company. B2B has a number of different cultural mores from B2C, and that's reflected in our internal values. And telecom in general is a whole 'nother ballgame entirely. It's a much more conservative industry than the rest of tech. When I tell random people what kind of company I work at, I usually say "we're kind of an enterprise ISP", which is about as far from SV-typical tech companies as you can imagine (though I stress the kind of, because we're more than just an ISP). Working here doesn't feel like working at a tech company at all. It feels like working for a traditional enterprise, and I like it that way. And that's not just me talking: we regularly win awards on Glassdoor because lots of other people think that way. We also have a TV screen in the office that shows our latest Glassdoor reviews. One day, I noticed a particular line scroll by, and it was interesting enough that I hopped on Glassdoor to ctrl-F for it so I could look at it in its entirety. Here's the Pros section from this person's review: > Good work/life balance. Management has Texas values rather than imposing a Silicon Valley-style groupthink. Growing and profitable. It looks like I'm not the only one who's realized that the reason this company is so good to their employees is because they're not from Silicon Valley.
    - dominotw 8y ago
      https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Masergy-RVW21604548.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Masergy-RV... link for the lazy
- bradleyjg 8y ago
  SV tech companies aren’t outliers in terms of being money driven, but they are outliers in sanctimony. The only major sector I can think of that competes on that axis is health care.
  - walshemj 8y ago
    Journalist's or Architects would beat SV for that hands down
    - lwf 8y ago
      Individual journos or architects, sure. Firms? Fat chance. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704317704574503480514474764 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704317704574503... > The Wall Street Journal plans to close its news operation in Boston, eliminating nine positions, amid a historic decline in newspaper revenue. > > The affected journalists can apply for other positions at the newspaper, said Robert Thomson, managing editor of The Journal and editor-in-chief of the paper's parent company, Dow Jones & Co., in a memo to staff on Thursday. The Boston Bureau was home to, among other things, the hard-hitting investigative healthcare reporter, Keith Winstein, the author of Mosh.
    - bradleyjg 8y ago
      Eh. I don't know anything about architects and architecture, but neither most news outlets nor most journalists are doing all that well financially. The saving the world shtick is easier to take when there are actual sacrifices being made.
      - xkcd-sucks 8y ago
        Architecture is low pay and looooong hours unless partner at a hot/top firm. Apparently the thrill of "building cool stuff" and "changing the world" makes up for the low pay. Typically architects age into consulting or management. Thinking about it, not too different from the tech industry.
- drb91 8y ago
  Yea but most industries don’t pretend to make the world a better place. SV does with a bullet; see Steven Pinker’s bullshit that Gates ate up with a spoon.
EduardoBautista 8y ago
This is why I always tell people when they are young with no responsibilities...milk as much money from your employer as you can. If you don’t have a significant amount of equity (5%>), you are not in it “together”. Your employer went into to startups to make money, not to “make the world a better place”.
- warp_factor 8y ago
  exactly. Startups//Employers in Silicon Valley forces that narrative of making the world a better place in order for people to accept being paid less and getting less equity. Also, with all the revelation of the last couple years, I'm not convinced at all that Silicon Valley makes the world a better place.

That's not unique to Silicon Valley, the entire economy works like that. Which is why so many working class people are falling further and further behind. At it's root, this economy is basically the capital class doing the minimum they have to do to protect capital investments. It's just that the minimum the capital class has to do in Silicon Valley is more than the minimum they have to do outside Silicon Valley.

FakeComments 8y ago
My experience of $bigcorp2 is much better than $bigcorp1, and I completely believe it has to do with the second not being a tech company — but instead a traditional company that moved into tech. So, I think tech companies have a kind of pathological treatment of their workers we don’t see broadly. (You’re also greatly simplifying why working class people are falling behind, to the point of misrepresenting it.)
- jungler 8y ago
  I would hazard a guess that there is an evolutionary lineage type of thing going on here: SV companies have borrowed both workforces and managerial skills from each from the Fairchild days, and as that became increasingly VC-driven it became almost systematic for newer companies to get extremely large in record time. Doing that puts the company on foundations that are fundamentally weak - there's no legacy to follow, just empty air. Hence the default model became a PT Barnum style hokum story, something that stirs up hearts and minds but will show them the egress once their wallets have been emptied.
- amyjess 8y ago
  My company takes care of their employees much better than pretty much any other tech company I've ever heard of, and while it _is_ a tech company, I can only conclude that it's for the following reasons: - It was founded and is still headquartered in the suburbs of Dallas and has nothing to do with SF/SV. We technically have a sales office in SF, but that's just a place for our account managers on the West Coast to meet with clients (we also have similar sales offices in NYC, London, and Amsterdam... though I think the London office has been expanded into a real office with a handful of non-sales people regularly present). - We're an enterprise B2B telecom, not some web/social/mobile-driven B2C company. B2B has a number of different cultural mores from B2C, and that's reflected in our internal values. And telecom in general is a whole 'nother ballgame entirely. It's a much more conservative industry than the rest of tech. When I tell random people what kind of company I work at, I usually say "we're kind of an enterprise ISP", which is about as far from SV-typical tech companies as you can imagine (though I stress the kind of, because we're more than just an ISP). Working here doesn't feel like working at a tech company at all. It feels like working for a traditional enterprise, and I like it that way. And that's not just me talking: we regularly win awards on Glassdoor because lots of other people think that way. We also have a TV screen in the office that shows our latest Glassdoor reviews. One day, I noticed a particular line scroll by, and it was interesting enough that I hopped on Glassdoor to ctrl-F for it so I could look at it in its entirety. Here's the Pros section from this person's review: > Good work/life balance. Management has Texas values rather than imposing a Silicon Valley-style groupthink. Growing and profitable. It looks like I'm not the only one who's realized that the reason this company is so good to their employees is because they're not from Silicon Valley.
  - dominotw 8y ago
    https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Masergy-RVW21604548.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Masergy-RV... link for the lazy
bradleyjg 8y ago
SV tech companies aren’t outliers in terms of being money driven, but they are outliers in sanctimony. The only major sector I can think of that competes on that axis is health care.
- walshemj 8y ago
  Journalist's or Architects would beat SV for that hands down
  - lwf 8y ago
    Individual journos or architects, sure. Firms? Fat chance. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704317704574503480514474764 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704317704574503... > The Wall Street Journal plans to close its news operation in Boston, eliminating nine positions, amid a historic decline in newspaper revenue. > > The affected journalists can apply for other positions at the newspaper, said Robert Thomson, managing editor of The Journal and editor-in-chief of the paper's parent company, Dow Jones & Co., in a memo to staff on Thursday. The Boston Bureau was home to, among other things, the hard-hitting investigative healthcare reporter, Keith Winstein, the author of Mosh.
  - bradleyjg 8y ago
    Eh. I don't know anything about architects and architecture, but neither most news outlets nor most journalists are doing all that well financially. The saving the world shtick is easier to take when there are actual sacrifices being made.
    - xkcd-sucks 8y ago
      Architecture is low pay and looooong hours unless partner at a hot/top firm. Apparently the thrill of "building cool stuff" and "changing the world" makes up for the low pay. Typically architects age into consulting or management. Thinking about it, not too different from the tech industry.
drb91 8y ago
Yea but most industries don’t pretend to make the world a better place. SV does with a bullet; see Steven Pinker’s bullshit that Gates ate up with a spoon.

EduardoBautista 8y ago

This is why I always tell people when they are young with no responsibilities...milk as much money from your employer as you can. If you don’t have a significant amount of equity (5%>), you are not in it “together”. Your employer went into to startups to make money, not to “make the world a better place”.

warp_factor 8y ago
exactly. Startups//Employers in Silicon Valley forces that narrative of making the world a better place in order for people to accept being paid less and getting less equity. Also, with all the revelation of the last couple years, I'm not convinced at all that Silicon Valley makes the world a better place.