An Anonymous Satire of Silicon Valley Now Has a Publisher | Hacker News Reader

An Anonymous Satire of Silicon Valley Now Has a Publisher

nytimes.com

71 pointstucif38 comments

I am most amazed that the technocrats who were sent copies of this book anonymously all decry that it's probably some kind of marketing. Alexis Madrigal: “It’s so weird in this day and age to just do an art project.”

Seriously!? People are doing pure art projects every minute -- they're call artists! I feel like this would make Mark Twain smile, like writing satire about a dimwitted socialite, who then reads it and thinks the book is great because it's obviously about someone else.

Literally the only reality that makes that quote not incredibly depressing is the one where Alexis is the author of the book and his response is also a part of the larger satirical project.

Well that takes the Principle of Charity to a new level.

Hah. Dude, this was an unbelievably labor intensive project. I have an editorial team to run, a 2-year-old, and another baby on the way. There is no fucking way I could have executed this thing, even if I wanted to.

Well then with all due respect, I'm back to just being really sad that someone could say that.

See my comments further down: I was summarizing the way other people reacted to the book. That context was lost. I found the attitude depressing, too, then got it attributed to me in the New York Times. :shruggie:

So your quote is incredibly depressing then. At least that's cleared up. You do know that there are still artists in the world right? And some of them have even heard of Silicon Valley and startups?

Alexis is right though. Nowadays most art projects are actually a hook for a Kickstarter or something.

What makes you think so?

Out of all of the art that is done I am pretty sure only a portion are a hook for a Kickstarter or marketing material.

Careful of the huge confirmation bias inherent in the art you see vs. the art that's being created. Your spheres (not you specifically -- all of HN) likely tend toward exposing you to those kinds of projects.

This one definitely isn't..

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/feb/05/petr-pav...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/09/russian-artist-...

Most worthwhile art is done by people who look at life as a different type of quantity. Whether valued higher or lower, the different outlook is really what makes for interesting art.

... Or even, dare I say it, look at life as quality not quantity, as something unquantifiable?

(You could have chosen a less contentious example of a meritorious practicing artist :-)

I'd say just the concept of Russian Roulette is art in itself. Thereby the artist I referenced above is not very contentious. He is risking his life for a message - that gamble with life is art.

On the same note, what may be more contentious is the art of crime. The art of murder. The art of Sherlock Holmes deciphering the creative tendencies behind the craftiest of criminals. Murderers. Thieves.

Are terrorists also artists? That my friend, is contentious.

he's not even close to right.

I'd be surprised if 0.001% of art projects are related to Kickstarter in any way, or even if 0.001% of artists have even heard of Kickstarter. Maybe in SV it's different.

It must have been taken out of context, because it is a ridiculous quote as it stands. Common occurrence for these quickie interviews.

Maybe we should respond to this by finding interesting art projects and posting them to HN. A few get posted already, but we could use more.

“It’s so weird in this day and age to just do an art project.”

Like I needed more reasons to be super fucking happy I haven't moved to the bay, but anyways. Here's one more.

Yeah, reading that just made me sad. That's some next level everything-that-can-be-done-in-life-has-to-have-some-monetary-ROI-on-it, kind of bullshit.

Particularly knife-in-the-gut to those of us who adored trips to SF in our youth specifically because of the seemingly endless number of artists and musicians that populated the city.

Precisely my sentiment as well. It's possible that the articles on this site give a narrow view of what's happening there, but I doubt it. I can't help but feel as if I forever missed the opportunity to live as an adult in that vibrant and thinking city I once knew in my youth.

It breaks my heart every single day to be here, having spent my entire childhood wanting to live in a city that disappeared by the time I was finally able to move here, and now I spend an incredible amount of time and energy trying to figure out where to go from here.

You did. For now, and the foreseeable future. It's still an awesome city on a bunch of levels... but in my twenties I'd go up there to play in bands and see friends and I remember really tripping out on the diversity of social groups. There was clearly massive socio-economic variance in small area but a general consciousness that those weren't the lines at which to draw social boundaries along. Lots of gaggles of friends at bars or coffee-shops with wildly different backgrounds, jobs, and outlooks.

Now it's a sea of fucking bearded hipster macbook pro startup dev nerds. To be clear: I'm a bearded hipster macbook pro startup dev nerd. I don't get credit for not being that. I DO get credit for not piling on by joining the cultural dog pile.

Personally I consider it close to a cultural and professional imperative to avoid living in the bay as a developer, for a whole host of reasons.

People totally still make art projects in SF. It's just that they're all burning man sculptures in the shape of mythical creatures that shoot fire and play bad EDM.

Glad that you're here to tell us about how their art is bad.

I didn't say their art was bad, but i'm glad you're here to misinterpret snarky HN comments. (The EDM is pretty bad, though.)

Where do you live and work, instead?

I live in north San Diego county, and I work (remotely) for a company based in SF.

I mean: just to be clear, as the giver of the quote, the context for it is that I was summarizing the feeing of other people who saw the book. I was a super strong supporter of the idea that this was too well-done to be a marketing stunt.

That said, it was just incredibly labor intensive for something with no commercial or even reputational return.

It's possible -- and I know this is a stretch -- but it's possible that good people can occasionally do something good for all of us, something that's good for society and feeds back, at best, only indirectly to the self. Maybe if it's just a statement, like this one, that forces some iota of reflection, that will be enough for the author.

> it was just incredibly labor intensive for something with no commercial or even reputational return.

Yah, but I still declare that a pretty insane and incredibly myopic outlook on making something beautiful. You and I both have two year olds... How much commercial or reputational return are you counting on for yours?

Mine seems pretty smart, and plausibly in the height percentile to be headed to WNBA... but not really counting on returns, and she's the most labor intensive experience in my life so far :)

   “V.C.s have become San Francisco’s de facto philosopher kings, doling out financial, political and spiritual advice while amassing enormous cultural sway”

What an incredibly sad state of affairs for such a historically great city, and what a fittingly excellent project. Hats off to whoever is responsible.

Anyone know the author? I have the @koonscrooks twitter handle and want them to have it; they deserve such a delicatessen. Tweeted to verify: http://twitter.com/koonscrooks

Wow what an amazing art project that isn't viral marketing. And For Just $5 You Can Have Your Very Own Copy of This Fantastic Phenomenon. We are so lucky that Sarah, no doubt after a lot of effort, managed to convince these authors to publish it.

Keep the playful SF "not everything has to turn a profit" spirit alive, Buy Now!

EDIT: On second thought, it seems a little bit too transparent. If it is actually a reverse psychology ad for a certain animated TV series, then color me impressed.

Putting this on my wishlist for Christmas. It's an interesting project, illustrating a very particular insular type of culture

This is such a fantastic project.

What impresses you about it? I read through it last night, and came away unimpressed. Is there some hidden layer of meaning?

Awesome. Now we need a satire of e NYT that doesn't involve Hayden Christensen.

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