3 ms·
I really think this just comes from the fact that most startups are either: 1) from California and/or 2) have founders that worked in California and/or 3) ra
by onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
I really think this just comes from the fact that most startups are either:
1) from California
and/or 2) have founders that worked in California
and/or 3) raised money from VCs in California
I'm all on-board with it being better to be an optimist than a pessimist, and also on-board that destructive criticism doesn't really "serve" anyone.
But there's just this rampant over-optimism like nowhere I've experienced.
The culture of "we are awesome" to me - is culture of California.
I prefer California culture over doom and gloom and pessimism - but a little more reality, I think, is welcome.
The thing that rubbed off on me about California that I'm really grateful for is to always start with the positive. I'm definitely a happier person from getting absorbed into that culture.
But I think when you get to the point where you just completely ignore or don't speak about the negatives, it's not really helpful anymore. It's just delusion.
- georgeecollins 4y agoInteresting point, but the example here is HQ'd in Ohio. I think some of what you talk about in California is true but you could say that about New York, or once upon a time Hong Kong. Places where ambitious people come to breed a certain mindset. California is a big state and very rural parts California arre like Idaho (I'm not talking exurbs).
- aledalgrande 4y agoNah the Vancouver scene is the same. Maybe it's a West coast thing?
- drstewart 4y agoI like how you mention California 6 times but somehow fail to realize this company was founded and based in Sweden
- Apocryphon 4y agoWonder how similar Sweden is to the North American west coast, culturally speaking. It is the center of Scandinavia's tech scene, after all, and has birthed many companies.
- avarun 4y agoNot at all similar.
- morelisp 4y agoIt's a Swedish company but it's definitely one of the most hardcore California Ideological companies in Europe.
- CRConrad 4y agoSweden is even more "everyone gets gold medals just for participating" than California.
- Animats 4y agoA comment from when I knew theater and film people in SF: "In New York, they tell you when you suck. In Hollywood, they don't call you back when you suck. In San Francisco, they don't tell you that you suck. So you can suck forever." (Yes, SF once had a film scene. Mostly because there was cheap warehouse space South of Market usable for production.)