17 ms·

As someone on HN had previously mentioned - the crash and burn is more for “cathartic” purposes. Big Tech is the equivalent of 2008 derivatives and the greed ,

by nus07 4y ago

As someone on HN had previously mentioned - the crash and burn is more for “cathartic” purposes. Big Tech is the equivalent of 2008 derivatives and the greed , the brashness of I am smarter,the IPOs and VC exits,the parties, the insane wealth to gobble up competition and create monopolies. The nerdy tech worker was replaced by the modern day chiseled , slick , stock options loaded tech worker who would have gone to banking in 2006. They pop adderall and leetcode and crack coding interviews like the bankers did brutal Goldman interviews. They go to burning man as a sign of lifestyle instead of counter culture. Big Tech has upended the middle class and data privacy and gamed our emotions and attention so much that I am tired . I will gladly see my stock values halved if I can get back my simpler times of 1998. I wish I could escape the monopolies and their hold on my everyday life . But maybe I am an old fart so ignore me .

whimsicalism 4y ago
This sort of tech worker is more of a creation of the media and people's minds that than the actual median highly compensated tech worker. Truth is: nerds mostly remain nerds.
- nus07 4y ago
  I disagree. If nerds remain nerds and the focus is on learning and trying out cool stuff then Leetcode would not exist . There would be way more companies coming out to compete or springing up with cool stuff . Apart from TikTok upending Facebook , none of the other big tech firms have any competition and I do not see them having a viable threat in the next 5-6 years . They will buy up any competitors. Anecdotally- I know of two people who quit tenured professor positions in physics and neuroscience to join big tech . The one in neuroscience had recently made a big find and Google Deepmind came and offered an insane amount of money she would never make even if she won the Nobel prize.
  - novok 4y ago
    Leetcode is a counter response to an interview type that existed well before the current tech boom, and the interview type existed as long as google was an ascendant company, since they were the ones that popularized it. Before algorithmic interviews, there were microsoft's lateral thinking interviews that were the bullshit interview type du-jour that everyone complained about. The money is the relatively recent thing that made people practice for leetcode more that wouldn't necessarily go into software otherwise, but the algorithmic interview was there before tech started paying a lot and became the only growth engine of the american economy that is left.
  - paulpauper 4y ago
    Facebook and TikTok are in a very strong position, imho. Netflix is the weakest of the big tech and has the most competitors.
    - imachine1980_ 4y ago
      I feel Netflix used to look like a tech companies couscous they where the first that use the new medium, and expand to the world market whit easy. But in the long run they aren't, you (regular joe,jhon,juan, karen, maria,Raphaël) don't care whats the tech stack of Netflix and not as much for the ux, you care about content, and now you have all the platform who produce content (hbo, cbs, disney), they want to maximize they profits, and they know how to creates long term fans, sustain numbers of rating, Netflix don't. They focus on license media, and short dopamine hits who work for 5 years, but now nobody care anymore.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      Despite the FAANG acronym, Netflix was always a nothing burger in terms of BigTech. Even befits the crash they were like #50 in terms of market cap. BigTech should have always been FAAMG. With Microsoft instead of Netflix. Those five ads worth more than a trillion
      - neeleshs 4y ago
        MAAMA? (Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet)
        msikora 4y ago
        This is good too, but that MAGMA the other guys suggest makes sense and is a real spelling of a word. I like it! Also GAMMA could be good: Google - Apple - Meta - Microsoft - Amazon
        alexb_ 4y ago
        I've recently heard the acronym "MAGMA" thrown around.
      - 4y ago
  - l33t2328 4y ago
    > Apart from TikTok upending Facebook , none of the other big tech firms have any competition and I do not see them having a viable threat in the next 5-6 years . They will buy up any competitors What does that have to do with nerds remaining nerds?
    - whimsicalism 4y ago
      It doesn't lol
  - uejfiweun 4y ago
    Oh please. The questions asked in modern day interviews are ridiculous. If you don't receive a specific quality and caliber of education, then you will be completely hopeless without Leetcode practice and CTCI. Do you seriously expect people to intuitively discover the Blum-Floyd-Pratt-Rivest-Tarjan algorithm in the space of a 30 min whiteboard interview?
- pm90 4y ago
  This seems right. Theres definitely positions which the “slick MBA type” can fill in a tech company (PM, TPM, VP etc). But building, operating and reasoning about complex software systems is just hard and so demanding. It’s not possible to do this without having some level of “nerdiness” or love of technical things.
  - polio 4y ago
    There are people who are both arrogant and intelligent.
  - vineyardmike 4y ago
    > is just hard and so demanding. Keep telling yourself that. What we do is soooo hard and special and we're soooo smart. There are plenty of smart people, and guess what - they used to go into harder and more demanding jobs in search of high pay. Plenty of would-be bankers end up in tech, and plenty of would-be-could-be doctors end up in tech. Plenty of people who care more about success and money than twos complement are ending up in tech. Investment Banking? Way worse hours, way worse culture. Medicine? Way longer hours, way more difficult road to a career. Tech? Easy path (BS in CS is easy), than LC for a few weeks, and boom, you'll land a job - unlike medicine which takes a decade and 2 degrees. Most people can stop work after a 9-5, except maybe for on-call which IB and Medicine both deal with in their own way. Tech isn't nearly as dependent on networking and socializing as IB, which means way more smart people who want good pay can do it, even if they aren't born into a great professional network. > It’s not possible to do this without having some level of “nerdiness” or love of technical things. Plenty of people aren't nerdy but are smart are filling up Silicon Valley and those open-offices across the country. Google's Operating System research teams? Probably nerdy. ACME Co's Random CRUD App team? Chill guy making a lot of money without knowing or caring about how compilers work, but very happy he can afford to visit Tahoe every weekend. At my last FAANG job one of my coworkers didn't know what UDP or TCP were, and didn't care and wouldn't learn. Didn't want to learn about anything unless it was needed next sprint. He wasn't the best at his job, but he could do it just fine. Missed some opportunities to be more efficient by leaning on prior art and existing libs he never learned about, but got his work done and supported business goals. Parents told him to get a good job so he did.
- rapind 4y ago
  I agree but people hear nerd and they picture the John Hughes caricature. This is no more accurate than Hollywood’s “Wall Street bro”. There’s some seriously douchey needs around.
- t_serpico 4y ago
  On average yes, but I tend to agree that the 'jock' tech worker is an archetype that didn't exist 20 years ago. Tech is no longer counterculture and has become a more high status profession in the eyes of the public. This is probably good for short term productivity but bad for long term innovation. I'm a big believer in the idea that the biggest innovations generally begin as low status or 'unsexy' endeavors.
  - jen20 4y ago
    I have yet to encounter this kind of person at the FAANG I work for. Perhaps they all work at Facebook.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - tayo42 4y ago
      Same experience, I never met another tech person that fits the bro stereotype? most of my colleagues are like people on h1b. My idea of a bro is like those frat guys with the popped collars years ago. Some of this other stuff just sounds like over excited college kids, like adderal and stuff?
      - rschachte 4y ago
        Hop on Blind for 5 minutes and you’ll see
        hamburglar 4y ago
        Is there a nonfiction section of blind?
  - yourapostasy 4y ago
    > I'm a big believer in the idea that the biggest innovations generally begin as low status or 'unsexy' endeavors. This is generally because low status or "unsexy" confers sufficient time to tinker, make recoverable mistakes and polish until the innovation gains traction. High status or "sexy" attracts all the wrong kinds of attention that brings all the wrong kinds of pressure that steals away that time.
reidjs 4y ago
This part resonated with me > monopolies. The nerdy tech worker was replaced by the modern day chiseled , slick , stock options loaded tech worker who would have gone to banking in 2006. They pop adderall and leetcode and crack coding interviews like the bankers did brutal Goldman interviews. They go to burning man as a sign of lifestyle instead of counter culture I think you are right. The money is moving towards tech and now the MBA crowd is looking to signal that they can code well enough to build products. I went to burning man about 5 years ago, it was already about money and status signaling more than counter culture. many of the people I met there were fairly successful tech people, they’re the ones who can afford it after all.
- acchow 4y ago
  > The nerdy tech worker was replaced by the modern day chiseled , slick , stock options loaded tech worker who would have gone to banking in 2006 Did you work in banking in 2006? They partied at strip clubs and hired escorts for parties. The sort of 'tech bro' you are describing already left tech years ago and moved to crypto
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
jackblemming 4y ago
Amen. The ladder climbing careerist tech bros who only talk about total comp can please move on to the next grift.
davidgay 4y ago
> The nerdy tech worker was replaced by the modern day chiseled , slick , stock options loaded tech worker who would have gone to banking in 2006. This reads to me as someone who has been in tech since the 80s as a new way to put down the nerds now that they are actually not socially despised any more. Thanks but no thanks.
- nus07 4y ago
  “nerds now that they are actually not socially despised any more.” - go to any working class area in San Francisco and tell them you work in big tech . See if you are not socially despised . Go tell anyone working blue collar jobs that you work in big tech in the Bay Area or Seattle and see if their reaction is not one of despisal. That did not exist before unless I was living in a bubble.
  - almost_usual 4y ago
    > go to any working class area in San Francisco and tell them you work in big tech . See if you are not socially despised . Go tell anyone working blue collar jobs that you work in big tech in the Bay Area or Seattle and see if their reaction is not one of despisal. This doesn’t have anything to do with being a ‘nerd’ or even “big tech”. It’s about housing costs and the result of NIMBYism from long term residents longing for the past. People are going to move to the Bay, you can’t stop change. If you make it harder only the people with more money will be here which is what’s happening.
    - anothernewdude 4y ago
      I'd say people are moving away, especially those in tech. Why pay more for less when you don't have to?
      - shuckles 4y ago
        Most of the out migration from expensive regions is low and middle income earning families. There’s a net in migration of high income households.
hackernewds 4y ago
Not to mention the jealousy of the unprecedented and massive bull run that tech has had
hackernewds 4y ago
This reeks of bitterness. "Simpler times" of 1998 when a whole generation of boomers benefited from Alpha squeezed through multiple wars, fossil fuel addiction, polluting the planet, severely destabilizing the real estate markets, unethical banks. Sure people that thrived then are not thriving as much now, but it's a much more sustainably prosperous few decades since then.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
scyzoryk_xyz 4y ago
“They go to burning man as a sign of lifestyle instead of counter culture.” This. So so so well said
- almost_usual 4y ago
  Counter culture stopped existing a decade ago. Everything is profitable now, capitalism is pretty efficient.
  - Agamus 4y ago
    Correct - Burning Man was already lame by 1999 among the contributing counter-culture!
  - strken 4y ago
    I'm 100% sure that countercultures still exist in general, and I think most people who say otherwise are from a specific counterculture that's gone mainstream. Think about things that are outright criminal, that breach the TOS on most websites, or that are wildly offensive or ridiculous. Being repulsive doesn't mean something isn't a counterculture; in fact, it can be sign that it is.
    - almost_usual 4y ago
      Fire up IG and you can find people vandalizing property illegally. Really search anything graffiti related. That didn’t exist 15 years ago, maybe hosted on some niche forums, other content was underground magazines and shops. Flickr was the first place you really started seeing this start, IG changed eveything. Illegal shows? Well dead city punx just had an illegal show in the LA river! Cops couldn’t even break it up. Streamed live on IG, lots of good advertising content. All counterculture is mainstream, all of it is profitable with advertising. Burn a house down, riot about capitalism, at the end of the day you’re making a capitalist or mega corp money if someone can get the content from a device. Want to truly be rebellious? Be boring and stop using social media.
      - 4y ago
EGreg 4y ago
Perhaps you simply want this… https://qbix.com/blog/2021/01/15/open-source-communities/ https://qbix.com/blog/2021/01/15/open-source-communities/
djtango 4y ago
https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/28/beware-the-pretty-people/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/28/beware-the-pretty-people/ You reminded me of this this article. I always struggled to find it until today. It's opening paragraphs warned about the same thing you talk about. It's funny to read this now and see how they think about Bitcoin and Uber vs today
papito 4y ago
I will tell you how we know. There is a correlation between Ivy League graduates flooding Wall Street and an inevitable market crash. Why? Because they can't help themselves but come up with exotic trading (read: gambling) instruments that no one understands and then torching a whole sector for profit. See: the 2008 housing crisis. I just rewatched the Big Short. It's absurd. Well, now we have Web 3.0. It's the same type of people, creating new devices of gambling, cleaning out the laymen. Tired - NFTs, wired - Soulbound tokens.
- h0p3 4y ago
  Hey there. I think you'll find this worth your time: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1552Gu7F2cJV5Bgw93ZGgCONXeenPdjKBbhbUs6shg6s/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1552Gu7F2cJV5Bgw93ZGgCONX...
- yourapostasy 4y ago
  > Well, now we have Web 3.0. It's the same type of people, creating new devices of gambling, cleaning out the laymen. So what are the tech and "BigTech" equivalents of broad market index funds like VTSAX held for the long-term starting in one's teens and dollar cost averaging out into bonds in latter decades?
  - papito 4y ago
    There aren't. I am not comparing the web to the market, I am pointing out that in the past the tech sector did not attract such a large number of frauds and conmen. It was just this thing the nerds did.
puranjay 4y ago
Been hanging out on a lot of personal finance related communities. For people outside the tech bubble, this has been brutal. Rents have increased 20-50% in many cases and wages haven't kept pace. People making otherwise decent income are being forced to shack up with roommates in their 30s just to pay rent. Worst of all, it has debased work. Idiots threw random dollar amounts on crypto memecoins and came out with hundreds of thousands. Degens gambled on memestocks and made millions. Anyone who did the "stable" thing of saving and investing wisely got left behind. The worker shortage isn't just because people suddenly became lazier. They've absolutely debased money. And in the process, debased work. Why work hard when gambling and speculation and straight up lying ("hustling") are rewarded way, way more? Anyone who thinks this is sustainable is delusional. And insensitive.
- whimsicalism 4y ago
  > Rents have increased 20-50% in many cases Maybe in some cases. Not on average [0]. Here is SF [1] > Anyone who did the "stable" thing of saving and investing wisely got left behind. Gambling has always been a thing. Lots of people lost big on crypto. > Why work hard when gambling and speculation and straight up lying ("hustling") are rewarded way, way more? If you actually think that, go ahead and make your millions. Efficient markets are not that easy. If you knew you could make more ahead of time, it would already be priced in. I suggest spending less time hanging in communities and hearing people spitball and more time looking at the facts. [0]: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SEHA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SEHA [1]: https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/san-francisco-ca https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/san-francisco-ca
  - MisterMower 4y ago
    Yeah, last year’s rent was up 10%. Now do the past decade. Home prices in my middle of nowhere Nebraska town are up 50% over the past decade. Rents too. I don’t trust statistics saying “we’re not debasing the currency” from the very people who are currently debasing the currency.
    - 4y ago

by nus07 4y ago

whimsicalism 4y ago

This sort of tech worker is more of a creation of the media and people's minds that than the actual median highly compensated tech worker. Truth is: nerds mostly remain nerds.

nus07 4y ago
I disagree. If nerds remain nerds and the focus is on learning and trying out cool stuff then Leetcode would not exist . There would be way more companies coming out to compete or springing up with cool stuff . Apart from TikTok upending Facebook , none of the other big tech firms have any competition and I do not see them having a viable threat in the next 5-6 years . They will buy up any competitors. Anecdotally- I know of two people who quit tenured professor positions in physics and neuroscience to join big tech . The one in neuroscience had recently made a big find and Google Deepmind came and offered an insane amount of money she would never make even if she won the Nobel prize.
- novok 4y ago
  Leetcode is a counter response to an interview type that existed well before the current tech boom, and the interview type existed as long as google was an ascendant company, since they were the ones that popularized it. Before algorithmic interviews, there were microsoft's lateral thinking interviews that were the bullshit interview type du-jour that everyone complained about. The money is the relatively recent thing that made people practice for leetcode more that wouldn't necessarily go into software otherwise, but the algorithmic interview was there before tech started paying a lot and became the only growth engine of the american economy that is left.
- paulpauper 4y ago
  Facebook and TikTok are in a very strong position, imho. Netflix is the weakest of the big tech and has the most competitors.
  - imachine1980_ 4y ago
    I feel Netflix used to look like a tech companies couscous they where the first that use the new medium, and expand to the world market whit easy. But in the long run they aren't, you (regular joe,jhon,juan, karen, maria,Raphaël) don't care whats the tech stack of Netflix and not as much for the ux, you care about content, and now you have all the platform who produce content (hbo, cbs, disney), they want to maximize they profits, and they know how to creates long term fans, sustain numbers of rating, Netflix don't. They focus on license media, and short dopamine hits who work for 5 years, but now nobody care anymore.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    Despite the FAANG acronym, Netflix was always a nothing burger in terms of BigTech. Even befits the crash they were like #50 in terms of market cap. BigTech should have always been FAAMG. With Microsoft instead of Netflix. Those five ads worth more than a trillion
    - neeleshs 4y ago
      MAAMA? (Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet)
      - msikora 4y ago
        This is good too, but that MAGMA the other guys suggest makes sense and is a real spelling of a word. I like it! Also GAMMA could be good: Google - Apple - Meta - Microsoft - Amazon
      - alexb_ 4y ago
        I've recently heard the acronym "MAGMA" thrown around.
    - 4y ago
- l33t2328 4y ago
  > Apart from TikTok upending Facebook , none of the other big tech firms have any competition and I do not see them having a viable threat in the next 5-6 years . They will buy up any competitors What does that have to do with nerds remaining nerds?
  - whimsicalism 4y ago
    It doesn't lol
- uejfiweun 4y ago
  Oh please. The questions asked in modern day interviews are ridiculous. If you don't receive a specific quality and caliber of education, then you will be completely hopeless without Leetcode practice and CTCI. Do you seriously expect people to intuitively discover the Blum-Floyd-Pratt-Rivest-Tarjan algorithm in the space of a 30 min whiteboard interview?
pm90 4y ago
This seems right. Theres definitely positions which the “slick MBA type” can fill in a tech company (PM, TPM, VP etc). But building, operating and reasoning about complex software systems is just hard and so demanding. It’s not possible to do this without having some level of “nerdiness” or love of technical things.
- polio 4y ago
  There are people who are both arrogant and intelligent.
- vineyardmike 4y ago
  > is just hard and so demanding. Keep telling yourself that. What we do is soooo hard and special and we're soooo smart. There are plenty of smart people, and guess what - they used to go into harder and more demanding jobs in search of high pay. Plenty of would-be bankers end up in tech, and plenty of would-be-could-be doctors end up in tech. Plenty of people who care more about success and money than twos complement are ending up in tech. Investment Banking? Way worse hours, way worse culture. Medicine? Way longer hours, way more difficult road to a career. Tech? Easy path (BS in CS is easy), than LC for a few weeks, and boom, you'll land a job - unlike medicine which takes a decade and 2 degrees. Most people can stop work after a 9-5, except maybe for on-call which IB and Medicine both deal with in their own way. Tech isn't nearly as dependent on networking and socializing as IB, which means way more smart people who want good pay can do it, even if they aren't born into a great professional network. > It’s not possible to do this without having some level of “nerdiness” or love of technical things. Plenty of people aren't nerdy but are smart are filling up Silicon Valley and those open-offices across the country. Google's Operating System research teams? Probably nerdy. ACME Co's Random CRUD App team? Chill guy making a lot of money without knowing or caring about how compilers work, but very happy he can afford to visit Tahoe every weekend. At my last FAANG job one of my coworkers didn't know what UDP or TCP were, and didn't care and wouldn't learn. Didn't want to learn about anything unless it was needed next sprint. He wasn't the best at his job, but he could do it just fine. Missed some opportunities to be more efficient by leaning on prior art and existing libs he never learned about, but got his work done and supported business goals. Parents told him to get a good job so he did.
rapind 4y ago
I agree but people hear nerd and they picture the John Hughes caricature. This is no more accurate than Hollywood’s “Wall Street bro”. There’s some seriously douchey needs around.
t_serpico 4y ago
On average yes, but I tend to agree that the 'jock' tech worker is an archetype that didn't exist 20 years ago. Tech is no longer counterculture and has become a more high status profession in the eyes of the public. This is probably good for short term productivity but bad for long term innovation. I'm a big believer in the idea that the biggest innovations generally begin as low status or 'unsexy' endeavors.
- jen20 4y ago
  I have yet to encounter this kind of person at the FAANG I work for. Perhaps they all work at Facebook.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - tayo42 4y ago
    Same experience, I never met another tech person that fits the bro stereotype? most of my colleagues are like people on h1b. My idea of a bro is like those frat guys with the popped collars years ago. Some of this other stuff just sounds like over excited college kids, like adderal and stuff?
    - rschachte 4y ago
      Hop on Blind for 5 minutes and you’ll see
      - hamburglar 4y ago
        Is there a nonfiction section of blind?
- yourapostasy 4y ago
  > I'm a big believer in the idea that the biggest innovations generally begin as low status or 'unsexy' endeavors. This is generally because low status or "unsexy" confers sufficient time to tinker, make recoverable mistakes and polish until the innovation gains traction. High status or "sexy" attracts all the wrong kinds of attention that brings all the wrong kinds of pressure that steals away that time.

reidjs 4y ago

This part resonated with me > monopolies. The nerdy tech worker was replaced by the modern day chiseled , slick , stock options loaded tech worker who would have gone to banking in 2006. They pop adderall and leetcode and crack coding interviews like the bankers did brutal Goldman interviews. They go to burning man as a sign of lifestyle instead of counter culture I think you are right. The money is moving towards tech and now the MBA crowd is looking to signal that they can code well enough to build products. I went to burning man about 5 years ago, it was already about money and status signaling more than counter culture. many of the people I met there were fairly successful tech people, they’re the ones who can afford it after all.

acchow 4y ago
> The nerdy tech worker was replaced by the modern day chiseled , slick , stock options loaded tech worker who would have gone to banking in 2006 Did you work in banking in 2006? They partied at strip clubs and hired escorts for parties. The sort of 'tech bro' you are describing already left tech years ago and moved to crypto
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

jackblemming 4y ago

Amen. The ladder climbing careerist tech bros who only talk about total comp can please move on to the next grift.

davidgay 4y ago

> The nerdy tech worker was replaced by the modern day chiseled , slick , stock options loaded tech worker who would have gone to banking in 2006. This reads to me as someone who has been in tech since the 80s as a new way to put down the nerds now that they are actually not socially despised any more. Thanks but no thanks.

nus07 4y ago
“nerds now that they are actually not socially despised any more.” - go to any working class area in San Francisco and tell them you work in big tech . See if you are not socially despised . Go tell anyone working blue collar jobs that you work in big tech in the Bay Area or Seattle and see if their reaction is not one of despisal. That did not exist before unless I was living in a bubble.
- almost_usual 4y ago
  > go to any working class area in San Francisco and tell them you work in big tech . See if you are not socially despised . Go tell anyone working blue collar jobs that you work in big tech in the Bay Area or Seattle and see if their reaction is not one of despisal. This doesn’t have anything to do with being a ‘nerd’ or even “big tech”. It’s about housing costs and the result of NIMBYism from long term residents longing for the past. People are going to move to the Bay, you can’t stop change. If you make it harder only the people with more money will be here which is what’s happening.
  - anothernewdude 4y ago
    I'd say people are moving away, especially those in tech. Why pay more for less when you don't have to?
    - shuckles 4y ago
      Most of the out migration from expensive regions is low and middle income earning families. There’s a net in migration of high income households.

hackernewds 4y ago

Not to mention the jealousy of the unprecedented and massive bull run that tech has had

hackernewds 4y ago

This reeks of bitterness. "Simpler times" of 1998 when a whole generation of boomers benefited from Alpha squeezed through multiple wars, fossil fuel addiction, polluting the planet, severely destabilizing the real estate markets, unethical banks. Sure people that thrived then are not thriving as much now, but it's a much more sustainably prosperous few decades since then.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

scyzoryk_xyz 4y ago

“They go to burning man as a sign of lifestyle instead of counter culture.” This. So so so well said

almost_usual 4y ago
Counter culture stopped existing a decade ago. Everything is profitable now, capitalism is pretty efficient.
- Agamus 4y ago
  Correct - Burning Man was already lame by 1999 among the contributing counter-culture!
- strken 4y ago
  I'm 100% sure that countercultures still exist in general, and I think most people who say otherwise are from a specific counterculture that's gone mainstream. Think about things that are outright criminal, that breach the TOS on most websites, or that are wildly offensive or ridiculous. Being repulsive doesn't mean something isn't a counterculture; in fact, it can be sign that it is.
  - almost_usual 4y ago
    Fire up IG and you can find people vandalizing property illegally. Really search anything graffiti related. That didn’t exist 15 years ago, maybe hosted on some niche forums, other content was underground magazines and shops. Flickr was the first place you really started seeing this start, IG changed eveything. Illegal shows? Well dead city punx just had an illegal show in the LA river! Cops couldn’t even break it up. Streamed live on IG, lots of good advertising content. All counterculture is mainstream, all of it is profitable with advertising. Burn a house down, riot about capitalism, at the end of the day you’re making a capitalist or mega corp money if someone can get the content from a device. Want to truly be rebellious? Be boring and stop using social media.
    - 4y ago

EGreg 4y ago

Perhaps you simply want this… https://qbix.com/blog/2021/01/15/open-source-communities/ https://qbix.com/blog/2021/01/15/open-source-communities/

djtango 4y ago

https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/28/beware-the-pretty-people/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/28/beware-the-pretty-people/ You reminded me of this this article. I always struggled to find it until today. It's opening paragraphs warned about the same thing you talk about. It's funny to read this now and see how they think about Bitcoin and Uber vs today

papito 4y ago

I will tell you how we know. There is a correlation between Ivy League graduates flooding Wall Street and an inevitable market crash. Why? Because they can't help themselves but come up with exotic trading (read: gambling) instruments that no one understands and then torching a whole sector for profit. See: the 2008 housing crisis. I just rewatched the Big Short. It's absurd. Well, now we have Web 3.0. It's the same type of people, creating new devices of gambling, cleaning out the laymen. Tired - NFTs, wired - Soulbound tokens.

h0p3 4y ago
Hey there. I think you'll find this worth your time: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1552Gu7F2cJV5Bgw93ZGgCONXeenPdjKBbhbUs6shg6s/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1552Gu7F2cJV5Bgw93ZGgCONX...
yourapostasy 4y ago
> Well, now we have Web 3.0. It's the same type of people, creating new devices of gambling, cleaning out the laymen. So what are the tech and "BigTech" equivalents of broad market index funds like VTSAX held for the long-term starting in one's teens and dollar cost averaging out into bonds in latter decades?
- papito 4y ago
  There aren't. I am not comparing the web to the market, I am pointing out that in the past the tech sector did not attract such a large number of frauds and conmen. It was just this thing the nerds did.

puranjay 4y ago

Been hanging out on a lot of personal finance related communities. For people outside the tech bubble, this has been brutal. Rents have increased 20-50% in many cases and wages haven't kept pace. People making otherwise decent income are being forced to shack up with roommates in their 30s just to pay rent. Worst of all, it has debased work. Idiots threw random dollar amounts on crypto memecoins and came out with hundreds of thousands. Degens gambled on memestocks and made millions. Anyone who did the "stable" thing of saving and investing wisely got left behind. The worker shortage isn't just because people suddenly became lazier. They've absolutely debased money. And in the process, debased work. Why work hard when gambling and speculation and straight up lying ("hustling") are rewarded way, way more? Anyone who thinks this is sustainable is delusional. And insensitive.

whimsicalism 4y ago
> Rents have increased 20-50% in many cases Maybe in some cases. Not on average [0]. Here is SF [1] > Anyone who did the "stable" thing of saving and investing wisely got left behind. Gambling has always been a thing. Lots of people lost big on crypto. > Why work hard when gambling and speculation and straight up lying ("hustling") are rewarded way, way more? If you actually think that, go ahead and make your millions. Efficient markets are not that easy. If you knew you could make more ahead of time, it would already be priced in. I suggest spending less time hanging in communities and hearing people spitball and more time looking at the facts. [0]: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SEHA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SEHA [1]: https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/san-francisco-ca https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/san-francisco-ca
- MisterMower 4y ago
  Yeah, last year’s rent was up 10%. Now do the past decade. Home prices in my middle of nowhere Nebraska town are up 50% over the past decade. Rents too. I don’t trust statistics saying “we’re not debasing the currency” from the very people who are currently debasing the currency.
  - 4y ago