

The Real Silicon Valley - chrysb
http://takeaswig.com/the-real-silicon-valley

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physcab
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
> 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).

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pbharrin
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.

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

~~~
oinksoft
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.

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

~~~
ChuckMcM
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.

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

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rprasad
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....

