27 ms·

Ok, so I get that tech hasn't been very good at recruiting older workers. But this? Seriously? > In Silicon Valley's youth-obsessed culture, 40-year-olds get p

by j_baker 12y ago

Ok, so I get that tech hasn't been very good at recruiting older workers. But this? Seriously? > In Silicon Valley's youth-obsessed culture, 40-year-olds get plastic surgery to fit in. This is unsubstantiated. Has anyone met a 40 year-old in Silicon Valley that's gotten plastic surgery?

jobu 12y ago
> This is unsubstantiated. Has anyone met a 40 year-old in Silicon Valley that's gotten plastic surgery? How many would admit it if they had? It's probably overblown, but last year there were a number of news reports about a boom in cosmetic surgery in the tech sector. It was even on the Colbert Report: http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/1ypxfz/silicon-valley-s-cosmetic-surgery-boom http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/1ypxfz/silicon-valley-...
s3r3nity 12y ago
Yes - I used to work as a product manager in an un-named large tech company (think FB/Google/Apples of the world) that had 2 engineers on my team get surgery. On my team alone! And they only told me during a team outing where alcohol was involved and their barrier to personal discussion was low. I can't imagine others who are embarrassed at the idea that they needed to get plastic surgery to do a job that they love that should be focused on mental processing / problem solving, not looks.
danso 12y ago
Well...this New Republic article from a year back profiles a plastic surgeon who claims to have seen booming business among SV men: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117088/silicons-valleys-brutal-ageism http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117088/silicons-valleys-b... > In talking to dozens of people around Silicon Valley over the past eight months—engineers, entrepreneurs, moneymen, uncomfortably inquisitive cosmetic surgeons—I got the distinct sense that it’s better to be perceived as naïve and immature than to have voted in the 1980s.1 And so it has fallen to Matarasso to make older workers look like they still belong at the office. “It’s really morphed into, ‘Hey, I’m forty years old and I have to get in front of a board of fresh-faced kids. I can’t look like I have a wife and two-point-five kids and a mortgage,’ ” he told me. > Unsurprisingly, Matarasso has drawn several conclusions from this sociological experiment in miniature. First, the age at which people seek him out is dropping—Matarasso routinely turns away tech workers in their twenties. A few months ago, a 26-year-old came in seeking hair transplants to ward off his looming baldness. “I told him I wouldn’t let him. His hair pattern isn’t even established,” Matarasso said. The techies also place a premium on subtlety. “They’re not walking into their office in front of thirteen-year-old co-workers looking swollen and deformed. They’d rather go slow, do it gradually,” he told me. This helps explain why Fridays are his busiest days for tech-industry patients: They can recover over the weekend and show up Monday morning looking like an ever-so-slightly more youthful version of themselves, as though they’d resorted to nothing more invasive than a Napa getaway. > Matarasso told me that, in ascending order of popularity, the male techies favor laser treatments to clear up broken blood vessels and skin splotches. Next is a treatment called ultherapy—essentially an ultrasound that tightens the skin. “I’ve had it done of course. I was back at work the next day. There’s zero downtime.” But, as yet, there is no technology that trumps good old-fashioned toxins, the most common treatment for the men of tech. They will go in for a little Botox between the eyes and around the mouth. Like most overachievers, they are preoccupied with the jugular. “Men really like the neck,” Matarasso said, pointing out the spot in my own platysma muscle where he would inject some toxin to firm things up.
- Stratoscope 12y ago
  Noam interviewed me for that TNR article, but didn't use me directly in it. I suppose I was "background." :-) Don't get me wrong, he seems like a really good guy, we had a great conversation, and I hope any minor insights of mine were helpful to him. But of course in the end it's an author's call to write the article they want to write. See, I don't fit the narrative of that article at all. I just turned 63 and have been actively working as a software developer since my teens. [1] And no, I've never had surgery to look younger. Never even occurred to me! If somebody thinks I'm too old, no worries, it's their loss. There are plenty of other companies out there who care more about what I can do for them than how I look. There are even companies who think that some degree of wisdom may come with experience. What a concept! :-) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8999420 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8999420
RyJones 12y ago
I've worked with people that have made this claim (to have had surgery). Why would they lie? As another commenter adds, this was disclosed in spirited discussion off hours, when barriers are down.
lbotos 12y ago
http://images.boomsbeat.com/data/images/full/4273/paypal-jpg.jpg http://images.boomsbeat.com/data/images/full/4273/paypal-jpg... https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gPksSnaAJ2k/Tv6BAsInYbI/AAAAAAAABcc/zeneRTMZ2HM/s698-no/empic.jpg https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gPksSnaAJ2k/Tv6BAsInYbI/A...
crag 12y ago
Yes, plenty. There is a really thick age barrier in the tech industry. Which is a shame, with age comes wisdom.

by j_baker 12y ago

jobu 12y ago

> This is unsubstantiated. Has anyone met a 40 year-old in Silicon Valley that's gotten plastic surgery? How many would admit it if they had? It's probably overblown, but last year there were a number of news reports about a boom in cosmetic surgery in the tech sector. It was even on the Colbert Report: http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/1ypxfz/silicon-valley-s-cosmetic-surgery-boom http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/1ypxfz/silicon-valley-...

s3r3nity 12y ago

Yes - I used to work as a product manager in an un-named large tech company (think FB/Google/Apples of the world) that had 2 engineers on my team get surgery. On my team alone! And they only told me during a team outing where alcohol was involved and their barrier to personal discussion was low. I can't imagine others who are embarrassed at the idea that they needed to get plastic surgery to do a job that they love that should be focused on mental processing / problem solving, not looks.

danso 12y ago

Well...this New Republic article from a year back profiles a plastic surgeon who claims to have seen booming business among SV men: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117088/silicons-valleys-brutal-ageism http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117088/silicons-valleys-b... > In talking to dozens of people around Silicon Valley over the past eight months—engineers, entrepreneurs, moneymen, uncomfortably inquisitive cosmetic surgeons—I got the distinct sense that it’s better to be perceived as naïve and immature than to have voted in the 1980s.1 And so it has fallen to Matarasso to make older workers look like they still belong at the office. “It’s really morphed into, ‘Hey, I’m forty years old and I have to get in front of a board of fresh-faced kids. I can’t look like I have a wife and two-point-five kids and a mortgage,’ ” he told me. > Unsurprisingly, Matarasso has drawn several conclusions from this sociological experiment in miniature. First, the age at which people seek him out is dropping—Matarasso routinely turns away tech workers in their twenties. A few months ago, a 26-year-old came in seeking hair transplants to ward off his looming baldness. “I told him I wouldn’t let him. His hair pattern isn’t even established,” Matarasso said. The techies also place a premium on subtlety. “They’re not walking into their office in front of thirteen-year-old co-workers looking swollen and deformed. They’d rather go slow, do it gradually,” he told me. This helps explain why Fridays are his busiest days for tech-industry patients: They can recover over the weekend and show up Monday morning looking like an ever-so-slightly more youthful version of themselves, as though they’d resorted to nothing more invasive than a Napa getaway. > Matarasso told me that, in ascending order of popularity, the male techies favor laser treatments to clear up broken blood vessels and skin splotches. Next is a treatment called ultherapy—essentially an ultrasound that tightens the skin. “I’ve had it done of course. I was back at work the next day. There’s zero downtime.” But, as yet, there is no technology that trumps good old-fashioned toxins, the most common treatment for the men of tech. They will go in for a little Botox between the eyes and around the mouth. Like most overachievers, they are preoccupied with the jugular. “Men really like the neck,” Matarasso said, pointing out the spot in my own platysma muscle where he would inject some toxin to firm things up.

Stratoscope 12y ago
Noam interviewed me for that TNR article, but didn't use me directly in it. I suppose I was "background." :-) Don't get me wrong, he seems like a really good guy, we had a great conversation, and I hope any minor insights of mine were helpful to him. But of course in the end it's an author's call to write the article they want to write. See, I don't fit the narrative of that article at all. I just turned 63 and have been actively working as a software developer since my teens. [1] And no, I've never had surgery to look younger. Never even occurred to me! If somebody thinks I'm too old, no worries, it's their loss. There are plenty of other companies out there who care more about what I can do for them than how I look. There are even companies who think that some degree of wisdom may come with experience. What a concept! :-) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8999420 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8999420

RyJones 12y ago

I've worked with people that have made this claim (to have had surgery). Why would they lie? As another commenter adds, this was disclosed in spirited discussion off hours, when barriers are down.

lbotos 12y ago

http://images.boomsbeat.com/data/images/full/4273/paypal-jpg.jpg http://images.boomsbeat.com/data/images/full/4273/paypal-jpg... https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gPksSnaAJ2k/Tv6BAsInYbI/AAAAAAAABcc/zeneRTMZ2HM/s698-no/empic.jpg https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gPksSnaAJ2k/Tv6BAsInYbI/A...

crag 12y ago

Yes, plenty. There is a really thick age barrier in the tech industry. Which is a shame, with age comes wisdom.