7 ms·

Ten Problems for Silicon Valley in the 2020s

13 points by DrNuke 6y ago

DrNuke 6y ago
solutionism, monopolies, diversity, outsiders, gig economy, misuse, narrowness, obsolescence, manipulation, public mood. ps. This is a literature review, neither a libel nor a manifesto
- iab 6y ago
  Spoiler tag, jeez :)
- kurthr 6y ago
  Thank you for the list... I'd actually argue this is an ad for their (directly linked) amazon ebook ($10). At least it lists the base articles, which are probably as info dense as the review.
  - MattGaiser 6y ago
    I just bought the booklet and read the first few chapters. Not sure what the point of it is. In particular it does a very poor job of defining the problems and it almost seems written to use as many unique adjectives, adverbs, and buzzwords as possible. Not a good use of $10.
- mellosouls 6y ago
  To be clear, it's an advert for a literature review, that is 63 pages long and costs $10.
aiisahik 6y ago
Not sure about the others points but here are some thoughts on 4 of the supposed "problems". 2. Monopolies - See Peter Theil - this is the whole point of any business and not a problem. If you look at a wide enough time scale, startups always have a chance to disrupt - you just need a paradigm shift. Look at what the internet did to Wintel. Monopolies have persisted for MUCH longer periods in industries where paradigm shifts are rare. Look at the cable, wireless or utility industries. 3. Diversity - This is only a problem for liberals - not SV. Since most of SV are liberal this is a problem only by association. 4. Outsiders - Heard of the SV term "domain expert"? SV believes in their value but the ones how are going to push for the change are the rebels. This is not really a problem. 5. Gig economy - Exploiting low paid workers to gain market capitalization is totally a feature of the United States as a whole. SV just figured out how to do it more efficiently. You can't do this in a country like Australia where the minimum wage is $20.
- palijer 6y ago
  I disagree with your idea that lack of diversity is only a problem for liberals. It is a problem for everyone is young white males are the ones building all the technology, because then the only problems we'll be solving is that of young white males. Having diverse teams builds better solutions and tech that benefits everyone in a society, not just the dominant demographics of SV
  - travisoneill1 6y ago
    By your logic, software engineers will only ever solve problems for other software engineers.
  - umeshunni 6y ago
    > young white males are the ones building all the technology I suspect you have never stepped inside a tech company in the valley of anywhere else.
  - beamatronic 6y ago
    I disagree that young white males are the “dominant demographic of SV”. What is your source?
  - MattGaiser 6y ago
    Because only young white men like Uber, Doordash, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Google, etc.
  - gabriel9 6y ago
    Do you have some source to back up this claim? From my experience IT is the most diverse place. I meet so many different people from different countries with diverse opinions.
  - commandlinefan 6y ago
    > young white males At least for the past 30 years, every software organization I’ve ever even heard of, much less been involved with, was dominated by Asians (Indians in particular). That’s still lacking in diversity, but your mischaracterization makes me feel more like you have a specific axe to grind.
riazrizvi 6y ago
> The Valley’s most valuable product is the contrarian thinking that fuels its innovation culture. The most valuable product is its ability to deliver platforms that empower and incentivize more people to engage with economic production. Technologies that democratize capitalism, like the PC; key digital tools like spreadsheets, word processors, desktop publishing; the internet; online communities that democratized publishing and broadcasting like YouTube, podcasting, blogging; online marketplaces that democratized retail. > That might not be true for much longer, however. There are signs that the gilded age for consumer internet businesses may be drawing to a close. Anticompetitiveness and ‘exclusionism’ isn’t dying, the outsized incentives for the few will always be there. There will always be a back and forth. It’s up to Silicon Valley to understand its own nature and not let itself be subverted.
- colmvp 6y ago
  Regarding your first point, I think it's both honestly. I've lived in various major Western cities in NA/EU/AU and SV was cut by a different cloth. I've never met such a confluence of interesting contrarians in my entire life. I don't write that to proselytize SV or to mask criticisms of the region, I genuinely feel my experience living there was substantially different with respect to the exposure of eye-opening ideas than any other place I've lived in. Airbnb isn't even like a crazy idea of a company, but the gist of the company was incredibly oft-putting to the majority of people I told back home in 2009. "What? Short-term rental to a stranger in my place?! No way!" Now of course, Airbnb as a concept is as 'normal' as any other large corporation. It doesn't matter that my hometown produces great engineers or has billions of dollars in funds, when the overall community is highly risk-averse and conformist, it affects the market size, investment, etc.
mellosouls 6y ago
Am I missing something here? It appears to be an advert for something on Amazon. When I follow the link there is a Kindle booklet "not available for purchase". Update: ok, it seems to be a poorly executed Amazon listing that needs country specific URL. Then you can buy a 63 page booklet for $10 (!) or whatever. Basically this is an advert.
MattGaiser 6y ago
I just bought the booklet and read the first few chapters. Not sure what the point of it is. In particular it does a very poor job of defining the problems and it almost seems written to use as many unique adjectives, adverbs, and buzzwords as possible. Not a good use of $10 unless it is intended as a very very high level summary.
- DrNuke 6y ago
  Hi, Thanks for your purchase. These are mainly aimed at non-specialistic audiences, aka people willing to get a fair, recent, high-level picture without investing their time to research, collect and organize such materials. The added value is a thematic structure, coming from the ideas circulating in more divulgative magazines or platforms. Any excerpt in the booklet is taken from the paper or the contribution it belongs, in order to share the researcher’s voice. All referenced papers are available for free in the internet for own consultation, in case audiences want to go deeper: think of specialistic audiences like graduate students, maybe looking for a different perspective or an up-to-date list of recent contributions. As usual with services like these, more similar to consulting than publishing, the market will dictate how this series goes and the format of the updates to come. The Amazon infrastructure takes care of all the backend needed to make these circulate, and the occasional exposure from highly regarded communities like this will provide with valuable feedback, so thanks again.
csomar 6y ago
11th Problem in SV: Dark/Grey patterns which this article is showcasing. This is legitimate irony criticizing the SV tech while doing the exact same thing. How did this article get on the front-page?
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  It is a topic that I think people would love to see covered.
dredmorbius 6y ago
Does anyone have details to share on the publishing organisation? They produce a number of similar literature reviews: https://www.tenproblems.com https://www.tenproblems.com The site seems to have gone active early in 2020 --- there's a Wayback Machine snapshot from February. The domainnexisted as early as 2006 though largely parked. That also produces a working link to an "About" page: WHO IS THE AUTHOR – Dr Giuseppe Cornacchia edited the booklets as the founder of the TenProblems series. He works from Italy as a consultant and applied researcher since 2003. He holds a PhD in Materials Science from The University of Manchester, UK; an MSc in Physics and Technology of Nuclear Reactors from The University of Birmingham, UK; and a Laurea v.o. (Masters’ degree equivalent with honors, five years course) in Nuclear Engineering from Università di Pisa, Italy. LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/giuseppe-cornacchia-564521129/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/giuseppe-cornacchia-564521129/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200314133438/https://www.tenproblems.com/about/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200314133438/https://www.tenpr... There's a sample literature review (on agriculture) at: https://web.archive.org/web/20200322105452/https://www.tenproblems.com/free-sample/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200322105452/https://www.tenpr...

13 points by DrNuke 6y ago

solutionism, monopolies, diversity, outsiders, gig economy, misuse, narrowness, obsolescence, manipulation, public mood. ps. This is a literature review, neither a libel nor a manifesto

iab 6y ago
Spoiler tag, jeez :)
kurthr 6y ago
Thank you for the list... I'd actually argue this is an ad for their (directly linked) amazon ebook ($10). At least it lists the base articles, which are probably as info dense as the review.
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  I just bought the booklet and read the first few chapters. Not sure what the point of it is. In particular it does a very poor job of defining the problems and it almost seems written to use as many unique adjectives, adverbs, and buzzwords as possible. Not a good use of $10.
mellosouls 6y ago
To be clear, it's an advert for a literature review, that is 63 pages long and costs $10.

aiisahik 6y ago

Not sure about the others points but here are some thoughts on 4 of the supposed "problems". 2. Monopolies - See Peter Theil - this is the whole point of any business and not a problem. If you look at a wide enough time scale, startups always have a chance to disrupt - you just need a paradigm shift. Look at what the internet did to Wintel. Monopolies have persisted for MUCH longer periods in industries where paradigm shifts are rare. Look at the cable, wireless or utility industries. 3. Diversity - This is only a problem for liberals - not SV. Since most of SV are liberal this is a problem only by association. 4. Outsiders - Heard of the SV term "domain expert"? SV believes in their value but the ones how are going to push for the change are the rebels. This is not really a problem. 5. Gig economy - Exploiting low paid workers to gain market capitalization is totally a feature of the United States as a whole. SV just figured out how to do it more efficiently. You can't do this in a country like Australia where the minimum wage is $20.

palijer 6y ago
I disagree with your idea that lack of diversity is only a problem for liberals. It is a problem for everyone is young white males are the ones building all the technology, because then the only problems we'll be solving is that of young white males. Having diverse teams builds better solutions and tech that benefits everyone in a society, not just the dominant demographics of SV
- travisoneill1 6y ago
  By your logic, software engineers will only ever solve problems for other software engineers.
- umeshunni 6y ago
  > young white males are the ones building all the technology I suspect you have never stepped inside a tech company in the valley of anywhere else.
- beamatronic 6y ago
  I disagree that young white males are the “dominant demographic of SV”. What is your source?
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  Because only young white men like Uber, Doordash, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Google, etc.
- gabriel9 6y ago
  Do you have some source to back up this claim? From my experience IT is the most diverse place. I meet so many different people from different countries with diverse opinions.
- commandlinefan 6y ago
  > young white males At least for the past 30 years, every software organization I’ve ever even heard of, much less been involved with, was dominated by Asians (Indians in particular). That’s still lacking in diversity, but your mischaracterization makes me feel more like you have a specific axe to grind.

riazrizvi 6y ago

> The Valley’s most valuable product is the contrarian thinking that fuels its innovation culture. The most valuable product is its ability to deliver platforms that empower and incentivize more people to engage with economic production. Technologies that democratize capitalism, like the PC; key digital tools like spreadsheets, word processors, desktop publishing; the internet; online communities that democratized publishing and broadcasting like YouTube, podcasting, blogging; online marketplaces that democratized retail. > That might not be true for much longer, however. There are signs that the gilded age for consumer internet businesses may be drawing to a close. Anticompetitiveness and ‘exclusionism’ isn’t dying, the outsized incentives for the few will always be there. There will always be a back and forth. It’s up to Silicon Valley to understand its own nature and not let itself be subverted.

colmvp 6y ago
Regarding your first point, I think it's both honestly. I've lived in various major Western cities in NA/EU/AU and SV was cut by a different cloth. I've never met such a confluence of interesting contrarians in my entire life. I don't write that to proselytize SV or to mask criticisms of the region, I genuinely feel my experience living there was substantially different with respect to the exposure of eye-opening ideas than any other place I've lived in. Airbnb isn't even like a crazy idea of a company, but the gist of the company was incredibly oft-putting to the majority of people I told back home in 2009. "What? Short-term rental to a stranger in my place?! No way!" Now of course, Airbnb as a concept is as 'normal' as any other large corporation. It doesn't matter that my hometown produces great engineers or has billions of dollars in funds, when the overall community is highly risk-averse and conformist, it affects the market size, investment, etc.

mellosouls 6y ago

Am I missing something here? It appears to be an advert for something on Amazon. When I follow the link there is a Kindle booklet "not available for purchase". Update: ok, it seems to be a poorly executed Amazon listing that needs country specific URL. Then you can buy a 63 page booklet for $10 (!) or whatever. Basically this is an advert.

MattGaiser 6y ago

I just bought the booklet and read the first few chapters. Not sure what the point of it is. In particular it does a very poor job of defining the problems and it almost seems written to use as many unique adjectives, adverbs, and buzzwords as possible. Not a good use of $10 unless it is intended as a very very high level summary.

DrNuke 6y ago
Hi, Thanks for your purchase. These are mainly aimed at non-specialistic audiences, aka people willing to get a fair, recent, high-level picture without investing their time to research, collect and organize such materials. The added value is a thematic structure, coming from the ideas circulating in more divulgative magazines or platforms. Any excerpt in the booklet is taken from the paper or the contribution it belongs, in order to share the researcher’s voice. All referenced papers are available for free in the internet for own consultation, in case audiences want to go deeper: think of specialistic audiences like graduate students, maybe looking for a different perspective or an up-to-date list of recent contributions. As usual with services like these, more similar to consulting than publishing, the market will dictate how this series goes and the format of the updates to come. The Amazon infrastructure takes care of all the backend needed to make these circulate, and the occasional exposure from highly regarded communities like this will provide with valuable feedback, so thanks again.

csomar 6y ago

11th Problem in SV: Dark/Grey patterns which this article is showcasing. This is legitimate irony criticizing the SV tech while doing the exact same thing. How did this article get on the front-page?

MattGaiser 6y ago
It is a topic that I think people would love to see covered.

dredmorbius 6y ago

Does anyone have details to share on the publishing organisation? They produce a number of similar literature reviews: https://www.tenproblems.com https://www.tenproblems.com The site seems to have gone active early in 2020 --- there's a Wayback Machine snapshot from February. The domainnexisted as early as 2006 though largely parked. That also produces a working link to an "About" page: WHO IS THE AUTHOR – Dr Giuseppe Cornacchia edited the booklets as the founder of the TenProblems series. He works from Italy as a consultant and applied researcher since 2003. He holds a PhD in Materials Science from The University of Manchester, UK; an MSc in Physics and Technology of Nuclear Reactors from The University of Birmingham, UK; and a Laurea v.o. (Masters’ degree equivalent with honors, five years course) in Nuclear Engineering from Università di Pisa, Italy. LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/giuseppe-cornacchia-564521129/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/giuseppe-cornacchia-564521129/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200314133438/https://www.tenproblems.com/about/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200314133438/https://www.tenpr... There's a sample literature review (on agriculture) at: https://web.archive.org/web/20200322105452/https://www.tenproblems.com/free-sample/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200322105452/https://www.tenpr...