[the_af]

Out of curiosity, did anyone ever believe the "rainforest" metaphor for Silicon Valley, that entrepreneurs and investors were more interested in global/"community" success than their own individual wins, and that they wouldn't react egotistically when real money was at stake?

Stratechery asserts this was "probably true" in 2012 but not longer true, and that Uber was one of the first cases where short term/individual wins became more important, even if they destroyed trust.

I find it hard to believe this "let's all of us win together" was ever true.

[gen220]

As somebody who grew up in SV, I think this mythos was incubated around the period between the Yahoo/Ebay IPOs ('96/'98) and the Google IPO ('08). The concept reached its peak (although it was already rotting from the inside) around the time of FB's IPO ('12).

It didn't exist much before, and it's (IMO) fully gone now.

[coldtea]

You'd be surprised how many naive people exist, when it comes to such empty promises...

It's why all SV companies say their mission is "to change the world" and such BS