[beaconstudios]

I'm glad this "made by humans" thing is starting to go the way of "made with &heart; in California", background videos of macbooks & coffee, and the burrito emojis. Though I'm looking forward to the next cringeworthy cali startup meme.

[jsmthrowaway]

> Though I'm looking forward to the next cringeworthy cali startup meme.

Like half a cringeworthy Cali startup’s engineers spending their morning at Sightglass discussing an article about a password manager software being bought and lamenting whatever that future holds for Windows support, you mean? While their white male founder is parading around saying he’s making the world a better place with his singular vision about a grand Kubernetes mumble mumble, but entertaining a slow progression of M&A offers to cash out and just dump the entire company on Red Hat or Google to sort out because “serial entrepreneur” is a better title than ever hitting one nail or dropping one load of fries? Meanwhile, deadlines keep missing because the engineers are busy commenting on this article as noted, and arguing about JavaScript frameworks, and “WFH” every Tuesday and Thursday because commuting like everyone else for $175,000 cash is just too hard for precious snowflake engineers (seriously, have you smelled BART?), and God help anyone who schedules a 10am meeting. Remember, machine learning is this cycle’s password to get a YC check, and start your own journey to enriching your wealth and throwing a bunch of starry-eyed people who mystifyingly trusted you into whatever horrible business unit of whatever horrible corporation writes you the check you’ve earned on account of your complete lack of professional experience, biological fortunes, and who you’ve done cocaine and/or Bitcoin with most recently. Oh, and you were so busy making money, you didn’t stop to notice you’ve literally handed every nation state in the world citizenry command and control capabilities they only could have dreamed of before this stupid industry found a whiteboard and daringly ventured, “what if we put millions of dollars into letting Justin Bieber type 140 characters to fans, because that could never go wrong?”

Did you mean that kind of meme? If not, I may have some bad news.

You added an unnecessary level of indirection. The startups don’t have memes. They are the meme.

[ljm]

You could make that same comment without throwing 'white male' in the mix and it wouldn't have lost any substance.

I'll take 'my humans and I' style cringe over laboriously pointing out somebody's skin colour and gender as defining characteristics any day. There's nothing intelligent about it.

[jsmthrowaway]

Actually, it’s a well-founded specific criticism (all of them are; no accidents there) of an underlying problem which contributes to the very concept I’m laboriously explaining. I note you didn’t refute my point at all, choosing instead to somewhat ironically call it unintelligent, and that you’re vaguely upset about it without a clear path to proving me wrong should speak more to what I’m trying to tell you.

[beaconstudios]

I don't really see how most founders being white is a criticism - sure most of them are in a position of privilege, but that's because they're born into the upper classes and went to universities whose degrees cost more than most people's houses. The race factor comes from the fact that the disproportionate majority of wealthy families in the US are white. I mean, you don't see a proportional share of black or hispanic founders in Cali but you also don't see a proportional share of working-class white founders from the heartland either. We have the same thing in the UK.

[rdiddly]

I for one am having a hard time discerning your point, white males or no white males. The point between the lines seems to be that you wish you were getting rich.

[beaconstudios]

I agree with most of the other criticisms except the identity stuff, because I'm disappointed by our industry. We were going to open up the world and make it a better place but it seems to have gone off the rails and become much more like the finance industry or other grim husks. The pretense remains but the reality is pretty cancerous. The platforms that are supposed to bring us together gave us depression, massive political division and put us under constant surveillance. The innovative ideas gave way to chasing fads for that sweet vc cash. The decentralised experimental currency is now penny stocks on steroids (although you could argue that was inevitable). I guess you could say the utopian vision died a sad death and not everyone wanted to see it go.

[jsmthrowaway]

Utopian hubris, perhaps. Subtle distinction.

[jsmthrowaway]

That is the interpretation I’d expect from someone bought in, to only see people and their perspectives along an axis of wealth generation impetus. I’m sorry to disappoint, but also realize I’m probably incapable of explaining it to you, since my perspective is an imaginary component way off of your real number axis.

I’m boxed in a corner. If I explain it one way, you’ll interpret a Luddite sentiment. If I explain it another, you’ll interpret an affinity toward socialism. Yet another, and you’ll conclude I’m mentally challenged. I’m still working on vocalizing my detest for the valley and this audience in a form which is productive as opposed to punitive, so you’ll have to check back with me when I’ve matured that.