I mean, I could do that, but that's kind of missing the point. In fact, I don't particularly disagree with the ideas. I think it would be pretty hard to find pe

I mean, I could do that, but that's kind of missing the point. In fact, I don't particularly disagree with the ideas. I think it would be pretty hard to find people who do! That's what makes the piece so banal - it's saying things that everyone will agree with in a very fluffy, very unexamined way. >It's critiquing an overpriced, socially bankrupt culture and area, and the toll that can take on mental health and happiness. This is what the piece _thinks_ it's critiquing. That's what it wants us to think too. But I'm arguing that it's very obvious where the author is coming from. You can tell from the examples she picks that she's just basically a new Google hire who's not really fitting in, and feeling disillusioned with her cohort. "Everybody goes to Lake Tahoe for the weekend"? Tell me that's not coming directly from somebody who's feeling bored and unfulfilled and surrounded by people she hasn't bonded with. And so my point is that this is something that a lot of people go through, and it doesn't have much to do with the monotony of Silicon Valley or the moral decay of our society (which, as a reminder, I don't really deny as real phenomena!). This is basically a diary entry of someone walking through a tough time in their life, but it's trying to bring the weight of society's problems along with it to make you feel like it's a deep insight. But it ain't. And we, as adults, should be able to understand what's going on there, and call it like it is.