
Trailer for Bravo's Start-Ups: Silicon Valley - finisterre
http://www.bravotv.com/start-ups-silicon-valley/season-1
======
jhuckestein
This show had some potential but instead it's just another reality tv junk
show--except this time it's about "us". Now I know what people in Jersey feel
like.

IMO one of the larges inhibitors of entrepreneurship is a lack of confidence
that is instilled by the education system. A thoughtful show about Silicon
Valley could show how people from all different walks of life come here to
build their dreams. It could inspire kids interested in technology to learn,
it could show them that all you really need is an internet connection. Instead
it shows that the typical tech entrepreneur is white(-ish), good-looking,
outgoing and a party animal.

~~~
michaelochurch
_IMO one of the larges inhibitors of entrepreneurship is a lack of confidence
that is instilled by the education system._

No, I think it's that most people can't afford to work for free for months at
a time, and very few people are born into the kind of VC connections that make
that a positive-expectancy move.

For people who don't have EIR gigs to go back into, startup failure is really
unpleasant and can take a long time to recover (career and savings-wise) from.

~~~
tptacek
None of these people have real-seeming connections either (check out the sfist
story on the cast and look at their previous "startups").

 _Moments later edit_

And who are these people with the "EIR" backup plans that you're thinking of?
The "EIR's" I've met have all been former successful founders who are simply
being effectively pre-funded. That's not some class privilege; it's an
additional perk of having won in the past, and it's not one of the bigger
perks.

~~~
michaelochurch
True. I'm guessing they value their time less than we do. They don't strike me
as "real" anything. Just overprivileged wankers playing around.

~~~
tptacek
Wondering how much these people value their time is like wondering how much
the Jersey Shore cast values the soil quality in New Jersey. It's a reality TV
show.

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untog
Fantastic: everything I hate about TV, combined with everything I hate about
the industry I work in.

I've met one of the people in the show and I think it's fair to say that this
is about the tech industry in the same way that a show featuring publishing PR
agents is a show about writing books- which is to say, not at all.

Should the situation arise, I will actively avoid working with anyone
'starring' in this show.

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tptacek
A model, an up-and-coming film impresario, 4 social media marketers, and (I
think) this guy:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dw5ight>

One assumes he's the one shouting "Negative cycles? Bellmans algorithm or
Dyson's?!"

Dwight cofounded Carsabi, which acqui-failed into Facebook presumably after
getting zorched with C&Ds from Craigslist. So you have Craigslist to blame for
this show too; if Carsabi hadn't taken off, who'd be writing the code on this
show? DAMN YOU AGAIN, CRAIG NEWMARK!!!1!1!

~~~
jhuckestein
To Dwight's (I've met him a few times, too. He actually seems like a clever
guy) credit, it sounds like he said Dijkstra ;) Just goes to show how little
the producers of the show care about the "techy stuff".

~~~
GuiA
Well if you're going to have negatively weighted vertices, Dijkstra's
algorithm is out of the picture from the start :)

~~~
jhuckestein
Depending on your use-case, you can often just add the value of the largest
negative edge weight (pair of vertices, not a vertex) to all weights and use a
simple algorithm like Dijkstra

~~~
GuiA
Interesting- thanks! In what cases can't we do that? (ie. why did Ford and
Bellman bother at all?)

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confluence
Relevant: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6IQ_FOCE6I>,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh3U7C0xLW4>,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exmwSxv7XJI>

More seriously I wonder why random signals that appear to be noise but if
noticed are actually quite pertinent to predicting trends have such a great
effect on people.

Example follows:

Kennedy later claimed he knew the rampant stock speculation of the late 1920s
would lead to a crash. It is said that he knew it was time to get out of the
market when he received stock tips from a shoe-shine boy

Source: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._Kennedy,_Sr>.

For example if my mom came to me with an investment decision my response would
be a big fat no - might even go out and look at it for a short. If my
hairdresser recommended a stock to me - I'd feel immediately like selling.
These are by definition low signal events that should be classified as pure
noise - but they seem to be a rather useful thought model.

So party like it's 1997 - get in and get out.

------
barclay
I was squatting in the office hermine and her crew were in while some of this
was filming, and it was absolutely fascinating to peer over the shoulder of
the director and P/A's, and see just how much of this was scripted and the
various re-takes and whatnot.

You always have this feeling about "reality TV" that it's fake, but it was
rather eye opening to see it firsthand.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Yeah, they pretty much all have some degree of scripting. The best shows sort
of create the situations they want and then make the show in the editing room.
The worst just write the whole thing out.

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austenallred
I fully plan on avoiding this until it goes away. Considering the fact that
they'll completely miss both the uneducated reality TV audience (too much
nerdiness) and the nerd audience (no need for explanation), I don't plan on
that taking too long.

~~~
larrys
"uneducated reality TV audience "

Why do you feel that the audience for reality TV is "uneducated"?

I know of people who went to Ivy League schools, have medical degrees, are
professors, teachers, professionals who watch and enjoy reality tv.

What about people who watch sports? Do you want to lump the beer drinking
tailgaters (who may be educated actually) with others who may enjoy watching
sports? Is there anything intellectual about that? Is there anything
intellectual about watching anything that is purely entertainment on TV?

~~~
waterlesscloud
A lot of people who deny watching this stuff watch it.

Big Brother US just finished its 14th season. Jersey Shore is in season 6.
Real Housewives Of Orange County going into season 7. Somebody's out there
watching it.

Having said that, this does look particularly light weight. The appeal of
Silicon Valley in the tv sense is the money, but these will be people without
money. The promo makes it look like a show about wannabes on the party
circuit. I guess that might work, but if I were doing that kinda show I'd aim
at Hollywood or maybe NY.

~~~
Evbn
You can have no viewers with IQ over 100, and still have 100 million people in
your addressable market.

------
zensavona
I think I threw up in my mouth a little.

------
Mistone
duh - every character is white. fail. one of the women is slightly Indian
looking but still.

~~~
andrewljohnson
It's not TV, it's Silicon Valley in truth.

Discrimination by start-ups is enshrined in law. If you are a racist, you
don't like old people, or you don't like Jews - no problem until you have 15
employees.

Fire your pregnant employees at will, crack down on sodomy - the start-up
world is your discriminatory oyster:
<http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/coverage_private.cfm>

California does have a law that tightens things up a bit, called FEHA. You
only need 5 employees in California before you need to start treating people
as you should: <http://mccabeconsultants.com/forms/ADA%20Chart.pdf>

I kid a bit in this post, but the limits on these laws are a two-edged sword.
I think small companies can be crippled by pregnancies, and having the threat
of a lawsuit about age discrimination can mess with your mind on hiring the
right people. You can also imagine that a Hacedic markets should be run by
Hacedic Jews. But there is certainly some amount of bad consequences from the
limits on these laws, and a few too many white people running start-ups.

~~~
Evbn
What's a Haced?

~~~
krakensden
He means Hasid and Hasidic Judaism. They're a more conservative branch, and
are known for their traditional clothing.

~~~
larrys
It's 2012 not 1970, I'm always amazed when people won't google something
before asking a question.

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zalew
> While trying to find balance amidst their complicated social network they
> discover that in the fast paced world of Silicon Valley success and failure
> can come and go with just a simple keystroke.

oh the drama

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sutterbomb
> There's the bloggers, the engineers, then the investors. None of it would
> work if there wasn't each part.

One of these things is not like the others.

~~~
sounders
I'm confused by that statement in the video. From my experience bloggers don't
have the same level of importance as investors and engineers do.

Can anyone explain how bloggers are so necessary that "none of it would work
if there wasn't each part?"

~~~
dpiers
Sometimes people say things on television that are not true.

~~~
zensavona
mind=blown

------
seanconaty
This show is the air that inflates tech bubbles.

~~~
moocow01
Or the pin that pops it.

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the_cat_kittles
I hate this trailer too, but I bet some of that is because it makes my
illusion of individuality shrink.

------
RileyJames
Video overloaded? or region locked? "This content is currently unavailable" -
Australia

------
tzm
Punch me in the mother fucking face.

