The Real Silicon Valley

24 points by chrysb 13 years ago | 11 comments

physcab 13 years ago |

Silicon Valley is not a place. Its a figment of your imagination. San Francisco, San Mateo, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Santa Clara, San Jose are places. But no one wants to read articles and watch crappy TV shows called "The Real San Jose". To me, what people do in "Silicon Valley", they can do anywhere else. Start-ups, Self-employment, Big Companies exist in many other parts of the world. All it is is regular people making a living. And for some of these people, work defines who they are. For others though, work supports the life they live outside the office and nothing more.

general_failure 13 years ago | |

> To me, what people do in "Silicon Valley", they can do anywhere else.

While this is true, you are missing the point of the valley. It's a place where like minded people accumulate. People who think they can change the world by creating the next big think. All these people could all be delusional and totally wrong for all we know, but the point is they all think that way.

It's like a party. Can you just jack up the radio and dance away in the solitude of your room? Sure, you can. But it's better to go to a real discotheque and dance away with others. The chances you meet someone interesting are higher, the chances that your amazing disco steps get noticed are higher etc etc.

Continuing the stupid analogy, in the valley there are these page 3 reporters (techcrunch, cough) reporting all sorts of things. These things make you famous and get you $$. See, how things are different when you are hacking away in your room in cape town? Want more developers? There are tons of people who will code for you. "Passionately". It's all in one place!

Do not underestimate the "energy" of the valley. Having like minded people in one place makes all the difference (just like anything else).

pbharrin 13 years ago |

I love this sentence: "Normal people, who have normal jobs working for other people, can no longer relate to you, and you can’t relate to them." I wish I knew how to better deal with situations where I have to interact with people working normal jobs, it's very awkward.

jperkelens 13 years ago |

Oddly enough, this post has the same air of self-importance most people on the show exhibit.

oinksoft 13 years ago | |

I keep seeing these blogs that have two things in common: They look identical and the content tends to positively reek of the stereotyped self-important Valley attitude.

Out of curiosity, I clicked the "SVBTLE" link at the bottom of this one:

  Svbtle is an invite-only network of people who strive to
  produce great content.

Ah ha! Granted, this could only speak to the intersection of this website's users' interests and those blogs' topics.

andyl 13 years ago | |

I agree - too much drama. I've been doing startups in Silicon Valley for awhile. Silicon Valley has its ups and down, with much in common to the 'normal' world. If you're contemplating suicide, or losing yourself in the glory of your work, you're doing it wrong.

stupandaus 13 years ago |

I am utterly baffled by people expecting a show on television to be even close to reflecting reality.

ChuckMcM 13 years ago | |

I share your feeling, but having talked with folks who are emotional about how "bad" this show is, I realized that there are people that wish a show would come along and explain to their non-techie or non-Bay Area friends what the place is about. That desire seems to emanate from a need for acceptance (well understood) and compassion.

I have found it is similar to trying to explain what being in love is like to someone who has never been in love. You can say "There is this other person who you would walk on glass, barefoot, to get to and help." And they say "What? You don't have time to put on a pair of shoes? Seriously, how much longer could that take?" Not having experienced the emotion they can't imagine how much of your 'self' you are willing to put aside without question.

So your midwest relatives just end up thinking you are 'weird' and you have to be ok with that.

So I speculate that that is where a bunch of the angst comes from, people in the startup community would love to be understood by people outside the startup community but can't communicate that difference. So they are sad that Bravo tried and missed completely. But as you said, it wasn't Bravo's goal.

prostoalex 13 years ago | |

Also a Bravo show. Bravo maintains their own niche in reality television production by casting seemingly normal characters (that keeps their production cost low, as opposed to dropping the character in desert or on a crab fishing boat) and pitching them one against the other in highly emotional setting with artificial drama.

Source: http://www.bravotv.com/shows

ojbyrne 13 years ago |

That was completely content-free. It made me want to watch the Bravo reality show.

rprasad 13 years ago |

The show is awesome, if you approach it as a documentary-style sitcom like the Office or Parks and Rec rather than as a reality show.

As a sitcom, the show is pure genious. Especially the last 10 minutes of the second episode, in which the blonde ditz is on a "date" with some nerdy model....