The next thing Silicon Valley needs to disrupt: its own culture

http://qz.com/225782/the-next-thing-silicon-valley-needs-to-disrupt-big-time-its-own-culture/#/h/80671,2,3/

by Maascamp • 12 years ago

1 1 12 years ago

Better yet let us disrupt what I think of as lazy leftism. Lazy leftism is a caricature of left wing ideology dressed up as sophistication by people who have honestly never RTFM because they are constitutionally incapable of doing it. They are literate only by osmosis.

Diversity has become a mantra like nationalism or democracy. Nobody really knows why it is good, it is good in of itself independent of causation. Diversity is a GOOD word. It makes as much sense as HODOR.

I don't hear anybody bitching that there aren't enough conservatives in Silicon Valley. HODOR!

Or that there aren't enough men in nursing. Or that there aren't enough female mechanics or garbage disposal truck girls. HODOR!

Nor is it this strange coincidence that there are so incredibly few African Americans in SV startups when the people who compose startups require a high degree of literacy, numeracy and computer skills that take many years to develop and none of which is encouraged by black culture.

Most can't get into the military to be forked off to foreign wars let alone an aggressively meritocratic culture like SV. I don't see many people in SV from Appalachia either but let's not talk about that. HODOR HODOR!

The only reasonable egalitarian attack on SV is ageism, that older people aren't as appreciated. There is some truth to this although it is also a story relating to demographics and lifestyle.

A lot of young people are hungry and a lot of older workers get fat and lazy. This finding generalizes across all fields but is especially obvious in places where seniority doesn't compile to a better result. At the same time it is clear actual experience and wisdom are in short supply in SV.

Everybody talks about those things but it's probably because it's, like I said, in short supply and SV can be very superficial about this.

Lazy leftism sees that computer programming is high status and generally pays well and it wants in. SV is the only part of the economy that is growing and everywhere else got wrecked.

It wants in for its special interests such as women, racial minorities. I don't care if you find the plight of these groups in society especially convincing. We can see other groups that are marginal in SV too [Appalachians, Conservatives].

I emphasize the fact that women and African Americans really are Special Interests (tm). The sole reason Lazy Leftism is interested in them is because they represent a voting block that persistently favors themselves. There is nothing morally upstanding about any of this.

Drawing a fucking signpost to a problem you believe you see in society is not the same thing as addressing the underlying causes of it.

In the end the Complier tells the truth. Lazy leftism does not compute. Jobs like computer programming are one of the few areas you simply cannot continually bullshit your way through to a paycheck your entire life.

The real question that leftism of any kind should be tackling is: What Ate All the Jobs and Money?

The basic answer is that Silicon Valley and China Ate All The Jobs. This is half true.

This however wouldn't be such a problem (and historically was a net positive) except that Government and Wars Ate All The Money as well.

See we live in a world where you require capital to complete the transition from destruction of old jobs to the creation of new ones. We managed the first and are failing the last.

This is a crisis of a lack of capital caused by redistribution and wars. Capitalism requires capital and we don't have any to work with. That is why we have the affects of a world war without actually having one.

Not only have past generations not planted trees to provide shade for future generations, they have burnt the tree to a cinder and sowed the surrounding soil with salt.

Democracy is finished and good riddance. People who write articles like this will probably wind up eating each other or getting blown up by robots.

The next thing Silicon Valley needs to disrupt: its own culture

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