I like the piece. It exposes a melancholic beauty to the ticky-tacky hedge rows and webcam uniformity of the Western existence. Peering past the facades and in to the lives of American suburbanites we see a million people separated by their screens yet united in their droll simplicity.
There's more to life than just the exuberance, progress, and extraordinary creations that we obsess over here in the Bay Area. For every amazing success story there's a thousand people shuffling their feet and walking in circles just to be our customers. On the other side of almost every IP packet is a person sitting alone in a room. It's important for us to realize the implications of our creations. It is important for us to realize what's real and what's just an idealized vision of the future. It'll keep us thinking about a path forward that includes everyone. It'll keep us from thinking that we're special and different and more entitled to life's pleasures. When we turn our heads most of us see the same pale white walls.
Well Frisco's a mighty rich town, now that ain't no lie
Why they got some buildings that reach a mile into the sky
Yet no one can even afford the time just to tell me why
Here's a world filled with people and so many people alone
"There's more to life than just the exuberance, progress, and extraordinary creations that we obsess over here in the Bay Area. For every amazing success story there's a thousand people shuffling their feet and walking in circles just to be our customers. On the other side of almost every IP packet is a person sitting alone in a room. It's important for us to realize the implications of our creations. It is important for us to realize what's real and what's just an idealized vision of the future. It'll keep us thinking about a path forward that includes everyone. It'll keep us from thinking that we're special and different and more entitled to life's pleasures. When we turn our heads most of us see the same pale white walls."
OMG! The self-importance in that paragraph is hilarious!
It happens to be the same self-importance that I see driving almost every entrepreneur in the tech sector. Everyone speaks of "changing the world" and the importance of individual innovation. Very rarely do people in Silicon Valley take the time to think about the effects of their creations. Getting rich is also the process of extracting wealth from others and people seem to forget that. The blind faith that a "rising tide lifts all boats" is an ideology that deserves heavy scrutiny.
My question for you is, would it have been a better talking point if I made it very clear that I'm somehow different and "better" than the tech culture I see around me? Or would the finger-pointing be less successful than a message that inculpates myself in to the tragedy?
Wow, you must be brilliant, somehow "better" than the rest of the people in Silicon Valley, to be able to know their very thoughts, and what deep, important things that they "very rarely... take the time to think about."
It truly is a "tragedy" that they're not thinking about all of us foot-shufflers out here in the larger world who are "walking in circles just to be their customers." I don't know if I'll be able to bear the grief...
Comments
I like the piece. It exposes a melancholic beauty to the ticky-tacky hedge rows and webcam uniformity of the Western existence. Peering past the facades and in to the lives of American suburbanites we see a million people separated by their screens yet united in their droll simplicity.
There's more to life than just the exuberance, progress, and extraordinary creations that we obsess over here in the Bay Area. For every amazing success story there's a thousand people shuffling their feet and walking in circles just to be our customers. On the other side of almost every IP packet is a person sitting alone in a room. It's important for us to realize the implications of our creations. It is important for us to realize what's real and what's just an idealized vision of the future. It'll keep us thinking about a path forward that includes everyone. It'll keep us from thinking that we're special and different and more entitled to life's pleasures. When we turn our heads most of us see the same pale white walls.
Well Frisco's a mighty rich town, now that ain't no lie
Why they got some buildings that reach a mile into the sky
Yet no one can even afford the time just to tell me why
Here's a world filled with people and so many people alone
- Frisco Depot by Mickey Newbury
Well I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma so I'm very aware of what not being in the Bay Area is like. Not everyone on HN lives in the bay area startup bubble ;P
I also think you added a lot more in your commentary than was laid out in the article.
Art is as much what you bring to it as what you get from it.
"There's more to life than just the exuberance, progress, and extraordinary creations that we obsess over here in the Bay Area. For every amazing success story there's a thousand people shuffling their feet and walking in circles just to be our customers. On the other side of almost every IP packet is a person sitting alone in a room. It's important for us to realize the implications of our creations. It is important for us to realize what's real and what's just an idealized vision of the future. It'll keep us thinking about a path forward that includes everyone. It'll keep us from thinking that we're special and different and more entitled to life's pleasures. When we turn our heads most of us see the same pale white walls."
OMG! The self-importance in that paragraph is hilarious!
It happens to be the same self-importance that I see driving almost every entrepreneur in the tech sector. Everyone speaks of "changing the world" and the importance of individual innovation. Very rarely do people in Silicon Valley take the time to think about the effects of their creations. Getting rich is also the process of extracting wealth from others and people seem to forget that. The blind faith that a "rising tide lifts all boats" is an ideology that deserves heavy scrutiny.
My question for you is, would it have been a better talking point if I made it very clear that I'm somehow different and "better" than the tech culture I see around me? Or would the finger-pointing be less successful than a message that inculpates myself in to the tragedy?
Wow, you must be brilliant, somehow "better" than the rest of the people in Silicon Valley, to be able to know their very thoughts, and what deep, important things that they "very rarely... take the time to think about."
It truly is a "tragedy" that they're not thinking about all of us foot-shufflers out here in the larger world who are "walking in circles just to be their customers." I don't know if I'll be able to bear the grief...