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> the sf-tech crowds mocking the abstract and psychedelic tend to be a bit unaware where the world they both live and work in came from! I think many of us vie

> the sf-tech crowds mocking the abstract and psychedelic tend to be a bit unaware where the world they both live and work in came from! I think many of us view the thousands of men and women behind the Apollo missions, for example, as the world where we came from. Much more than Jackson Pollock (although I have no strong opinion on Pollock as an artist). And I see already the sneering that dang was referring to (and I'm sure it's happening in the other direction down-thread).

erulabs 6y ago
The men and women of the Apollo program were much more distant from SF than Unix and Berkeley and LSD. I fully understanding desiring to be a closer decedent of Richard Feynman than Timothy Leary, but that's just a desire, not a truth. I myself am an engineer who previously lived in SF, so no sneering - however I came from poverty, southern california, east LA, etc - which is a very different world than my University of Chicago comp-sci friends. It takes all kinds :)
- monoideism 6y ago
  Ehh, if you're going to stress the SV connection to the modern tech industry, I'd say that William Shockley, Robert Noyce, and Gordon Moore had far more influence - even culturally - than Timothy Leary. And I wasn't comparing us to luminaries like Feynman, but rather to the working men and women of the Apollo program.
  - erulabs 6y ago
    Fair enough - I was generalizing heavily. I'd not heard of Robert Noyce before, but I'm glad to have some weekend reading! In response to your comparison then, I suppose I would say we're as close (or closer) to the hippies of burning man and esalen than we are to the engineers of the Apollo program. It's certainly a mixture of both - I just think the former tends to be marginalized is all.
    - monoideism 6y ago
      > we're as close (or closer) to the hippies of burning man and esalen I might concede this for SV, but not for the American tech industry as a whole. SV has an outside cultural influence on the rest of us, but even it doesn't dominant in places like NYC, RTP, etc.

erulabs 6y ago

The men and women of the Apollo program were much more distant from SF than Unix and Berkeley and LSD. I fully understanding desiring to be a closer decedent of Richard Feynman than Timothy Leary, but that's just a desire, not a truth. I myself am an engineer who previously lived in SF, so no sneering - however I came from poverty, southern california, east LA, etc - which is a very different world than my University of Chicago comp-sci friends. It takes all kinds :)

monoideism 6y ago
Ehh, if you're going to stress the SV connection to the modern tech industry, I'd say that William Shockley, Robert Noyce, and Gordon Moore had far more influence - even culturally - than Timothy Leary. And I wasn't comparing us to luminaries like Feynman, but rather to the working men and women of the Apollo program.
- erulabs 6y ago
  Fair enough - I was generalizing heavily. I'd not heard of Robert Noyce before, but I'm glad to have some weekend reading! In response to your comparison then, I suppose I would say we're as close (or closer) to the hippies of burning man and esalen than we are to the engineers of the Apollo program. It's certainly a mixture of both - I just think the former tends to be marginalized is all.
  - monoideism 6y ago
    > we're as close (or closer) to the hippies of burning man and esalen I might concede this for SV, but not for the American tech industry as a whole. SV has an outside cultural influence on the rest of us, but even it doesn't dominant in places like NYC, RTP, etc.