Why I Don't Want My Daughter to Work in Silicon Valley

[steve2470]

Last edited Tue Mar 18, 2014, 12:55 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2455042,00.asp

BY SASCHA SEGAN MARCH 17, 2014 01:03PM EST

Do we want a tech world defined by compassionless jerks?

I've written before about the toxicity of the Silicon Valley/San Francisco cult of "disruption," which has no empathy for the disrupted, and little place for any empathy at all. But my hackles were raised again by a BusinessWeek review of venture capitalist Ben Horowitz's new book, which confirmed that Silicon Valley's power brokers are passionately devoted to creating a society at war with itself.

The issue came up again with the departure of Julie Ann Horvath from Github, just the latest Silicon Valley bullying saga. Remember that Github is the place that had a minor scandal over code full of racial slurs before one of its code leaders decided to take a "brave stand" against using non-gendered pronouns in code, presumably because the chicks should just get over it.

This isn't about gender, not really. Horowitz makes clear that he welcomes women willing to really get into the 24/7 fight, "Sultans of Swat" who play "motherf**kin' chess." It's a co-ed game of f**k you and grab-ass out there, where the kick in the balls doesn't pay attention to whether your reproductive organs are internal or external.

[NYC_SKP]

1. I don't think the author understands the term "disruption" in the creative sense.

But 23AndMe, apparently, just hasn't bothered. Petty government regulators just get in the way of disruption, right? Shouldn't the free market be able to determine the difference between real medicine and snake oil? I really hope that's not a world you want to live in - or if it is, you're the one who ends up consuming the snake oil.

23AndMe is acting humble enough right now, saying that the company is "committed to fully engaging with [the FDA.]" Well, of course; the FDA has the power to shut them down. This couldn't have occurred to them in the past five years?

The bold innovators of Silicon Valley clearly aim to innovate and drag the rest of society behind them into a glorious future, making money along the way. But an attitude that entitled is obviously going to raise some hackles. Technologists need to remember that they aren't above society - they're part of it.

The author seems to be misapplying the term. Disruptive activity, disruption as a point of departure, has to do with challenging convention and looking at things differently, about getting out of ruts and finding new ways.

Bill Ayers is disruptive, Dale Dougherty is disruptive. Neither gentleman is against government regulation and oversight, neither are supportive of bigotry and misogynism.

[vi5]

2. Yeah, but I think what he's saying...

Is that too many in Sillicon Valley equate "disruption" with the kind of behavior that Github is being accussed of and that other companies out there have been accussed of. There may be some as you said who use the approach reasonably and creatively and without abuse. But like many policies and approaches others abuse and use to their own convenient ends to validate their own bad behavior.

At least that's how I read it. I could be wrong.

[randome]

5. Then there's discruption such as Microsoft changing menus or locations and calling it 'technology'.

Change for the sake of change is too often accepted and we pay a price for that. Look at their new Office subscription model. Why would any company want to pay for change without knowing the benefit?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[NYC_SKP]

7. That makes me crazy. Apple has done that too with iOS updates.

My experience with the term "disruptive technology" has been in the realm of education.

Thus, use of smart phones in class is disruptive of the textbook paradigm and counter to the teacher-centered model.

Allowing students to use them is often off-putting to establishment types.

Of course there are many other applications of the term, some of which are malicious and represent change for the sake of change and not for any legitimate improvement to the experience.

Why did Apple, for example, remove the feature that allowed for sorting iPhone photos geographically, with a world map?

I will never know.

[randome]

11. Why did they make iTunes so difficult to navigate?

I can't figure stuff like that out, except as a panic attack because there hadn't been enough buzz about them lately.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[NYC_SKP]

16. Only some of iTunes makes sense to me, most of it does not.

Protection of copyright material made sense, the purchasing model made sense, but that files are hidden and that the interface is anything but transparent makes me crazy, too.

It required learning a whole new language to use, and it didn't have to be that way.

Same thing now for iPhone photos, it's sorted in "moments" and years and just makes me crazy because there isn't an option to return to "classic" and there's no way to uninstall the update.

One literally has to buy a different phone.

[Berlum]

3. There you have it: Scientific Materialism infesting the workplace...

"...compassion and empathy are seen as negatives - values to be selected against, not for."

[alp227]

9. Take that term to Free Republic already.

Geez. It's not a zero-sum game between understanding the scientific method and understanding the rest of the humanities.

[Berlum]

14. Science is wonderful. No argument.

Scientific Materialism is a dead end. No need to go to FR, since DU is infested.

[alp227]

17. "Scientific materialism" is a snarl word is it not?

I think you have a broad brush strawman premise regarding people with scientific POV. Are you asserting that tech nerds lack the properties of a "whole person"? That's a common charge against people in high-intellectual type of sectors.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. I see this on a daily basis --

The building I work in has been infested with Tuppies -- they are some of the most entitled, inconsiderate, self-absorbed, obnoxious people I have ever had the misfortune to run across. Their "culture" is toxic.

My nephew works for Apple, spending huge amounts of time over in the Apple Chinese manufacturing cities, and I once overhead him lament about how lazy and spoiled American workers were. Chinese workers would "bust their asses" for him, do whatever or however long it took to get a job done without complaining. I couldn't fathom what allowed him to even attempt to make the comparison, given the circumstances under which Chinese Apple workers labor.

[steve2470]

6. tuppies = tech urban professional ?

I'll have to remember that one.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. Yes --

My coinage. Having lived through the San Francisco invasion of the Yuppies from NYC and Boston back in the 80s, this new Tech invasion reminded me greatly of that.

[KamaAina]

10. Not to mention the neighborhood you live in

[Hell Hath No Fury]

12. My work place is in the --

red hot "Dogpatch" area of SF -- I've been here 20 years and can't even recognize the neighborhood anymore. And I live in the Portola -- which has held off gentrification because it is completely un-hip. I noticed we have our first Tuppie house on the block -- four white, young men with the requisite eye wear and facial hair to identify them renting a house together. They have only been here less than a month but have successfully "disrupted" the neighborhood with conga drum (?!) parties.

[steve2470]

13. any comments on the work environment for women ? nt

[taught_me_patience]

15. You've got to compete against the best to be the best

Yeah, it's a tough environment because the best techies, engineers, and entrepreneurs are up in Silicon Valley. My advice to my daughter would be to go up there (if that were her passion) and compete. It's aggressive, but if you make it, you'll be rewarded.