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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 b
by 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 agoI 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 agoBy 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 agoI disagree that young white males are the “dominant demographic of SV”. What is your source?
- MattGaiser 6y agoBecause only young white men like Uber, Doordash, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Google, etc.
- gabriel9 6y agoDo 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.
- aiisahik 6y agoThere is only a lack of diversity if you define diversity as "black and latino". SV is one of the most diverse places in the US with HUGE representation from many many countries, backgrounds and social economic status. If you think about the fact that the overwhelming majority of Facebook and Google's users are not based in the US at all, you might start to realize that the diversity problem is not about American black and latinos. There IS a lack of women in tech and especially software engineering roles. This is bad but is something that will change now that computer science is such a popular major. There are plenty of women who are product managers and designers and those are the roles that make decisions about the product. There is a lack of older people at startups but startups are a young person's sport. I'm in my late 30s and I don't want to be working for startups for the starting my 40s. It's tiring as hell. There are plenty of older people in larger tech companies in SV.