Hacker News Reader

Comment by zizzles | Hacker News Reader

Silicon Valley is in NEED of a crash.

It is touted as a hub of "innovation" but I do not see it. There are exceptions that exist, scientific and medical companies perhaps, but the majority of tech-startups are not that at all, they are a fucking FUGAZI. They are speculative companies that are all about hype and getting an "exit" someday. Steve Jobs (as an example) is regarded as a "deity", a god of Silicon Valley. Because of wealth? Because the iPhone / iPod / iWhatever had a simple design? Step outside, the iPhone is used as a vessel for narcissism. Facebook and Instagram, two billion dollar companies in the valley, those two are the TEXTBOOK narcissism vessels of HUMAN HISTORY. These tech-startups are an absolute pathetic coping mechanism for humanity, they are not innovative or special.

View on HN

Hold on a second. Are you trying to say that a ride-sharing app for cats is of zero or negative value to mankind? That professional bullshit artists and narcissists calling themselves "founders" and "hackers" don't measure up to the old guard who built real innovations such as microprocessors? Blasphemy.

I agree that Silicon Valley is in NEED of a crash.

But NOT because there is no innovation. But because there is a lot of innovation and that real innovation is getting squished by get rich schemes (I have no other descriptions for some startups). This is like with all bubbles: fundamentals will start it but then speculators will take over causing the bubble.

You and I have different ideas of innovation. You are likely thinking in a capitalistic sense of a view (disclaimer before I get thrashed on: I am not thinking capitalistically) perhaps you can name me a few particular up and coming companies YOU think are doing imperative, highly-important and highly-beneficial things for us humans? Companies that, 10 years from now, will be so imperative to our survival and well-being that they will fit directly into the Maslow Heirarchy of Needs?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Ma...

I scroll through Tech Crunch regularly. My honest observation: 95% of tech-startups are, as I said earlier, F-U-G-A-Z-I-S. Companies that fuel narcissism. Companies that are spin-offs of companies that fuel narcissism. Companies that perform services for other FUGAZI companies. Ad companies. Companies that provide streaming, so millions of Americans can watch Kim Kardashian on their Mac. I don't want to be a philosophical hippy, I am not one of those, but nobody here can deny that all of this is a pathetic coping mechanism.

Why are we coping? We are coping because we are a too primitive and unevolved monkey species to take anything to the next parallel. Even something such as space exploration is science-fiction, meeting a different species of life? Science fiction. Some sort of child pipe-dream we've learned from Hollywood (another FUGAZI)

How about something to help us find a slight meaning to existence. Isn't this the root-goal, at it's core? I look out with clear focus on the surroundings, but I do not understand. Then I go back to FUGAZI-land. It's imperative I figure out myself, but society is an obstacle (despite it's perks)

To sum it up: 95% of Silicon Valley is a primitive coping mechanism.

It's hard to take you seriously when you are being so antagonistic. You can make the argument that Silicon Valley is lacking in innovation, but you don't need to poison that argument right out the door by pushing a worldview that these companies all exist to fuel narcissism, thereby implicitly insulting everyone who likes these products.

I don't use things like SnapChat and Facebook myself, but I also don't act as though these companies aren't innovating, and i don't shame their users. Perfectly reasonable, intelligent, kind and well-adjusted enjoy browsing Facebook every day, and there is nothing wrong with that. And have you seen what's coming out of (for example) Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research labs recently? Is legitimate progress not innovation because it supports capitalist processes that you disagree with?

In short, you're being judgemental and instead of coming across as passionate and self-aware, you're coming across as puerile and angry.

>Companies that, 10 years from now, will be so imperative to our survival and well-being that they will fit directly into the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs?

Can you name any?

no company invented sexual intimacy, or family, or achievement, or hunger.

cars arent on maslows hierarchy, does that mean the invention of the car wasnt innovative?

I dont see flight either, agriculture isnt there, drought resistant crops, eyeglasses, dental care, surgical advancements, pharmaceutical advancements, improvements in the safety and availability of water, accessibility of information, the personal computer, etc.

Before you make some argument about how pharmaceutical advancements would count as 'Health' under the 'Safety' section, then you need to show how facebook and instagram dont fall under friendship, self-esteem, confidence, respect of others, creativity, etc.

how is tinder not related to sexual intimacy? how is linked in not related to security of employment?

Apple, FB and Instagram are capitalist-based companies that wish to maximize profit.

People are narcissists and generate demand for narcissistic products, and are willing to pay and/or invest time on them.

From a tech point of view, you can argue that a lot of these companies innovated in being able to scale their solutions to supply the "narcissistic demand" of billions of people in real-time.

From a product point of view, you can argue that a lot of these companies managed to figure out the most comfortable and intuitive ways for people to express their narcissism.

From an all market point of view, you can also argue that lots of non-tech companies also exist based on narcissism, e.g. cosmetics, fashion.

If silicon valley's next bubble does burst, it will probably have nothing to do with narcissism, and more to do will investment speculators not learning their lesson the first time.

(Unrelated, but I thought you were referring to the band Fugazi, and not the original meaning of the word: fake.)

It is the perfect word, is it not?

In a literal sense the Valley is very real. It exists. We cannot deny this.

On the other hand, the image of a godly unparalleled innovative land full of tech-genius-gods who "create amazing technology" that benefits society is the actual fugaziness of it all (barring a few particular inventors and organizations, but I am not the all-decider who gets to choose which)

Well hang on.

If the iPhone is a vessel for self-love (I think psychiatric jargon is overused) wasn't the television a vessel for equally unattractive qualities? But you wouldn't dismiss television engineering - a fantastic body of work, from the rudimentary spinning disks to the latest codecs, just because the content is adapted to the low minds of the masses.

I think the internet gave us an unrealistic reference point, because for a few happy and accidental years it was a network of the intelligent.

Perhaps most technologies are more like television or smartphones.

Except the iPhone is the result of decades of Apple employees researching stuff and doing random skunkworks projects on tablets and PDAs that mostly didn't see the light of day.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com