Hacker News Reader

Comment by Grustaf | Hacker News Reader

I don't know what Neo or FSociety are, but almost all the programmer protagonists of Silicon Valley were more or less awkward. Young Steve Jobs was pretty awkward too, and Elon Musk is positively painful to watch. So I'm not sure these shows and people attract the average person.

I do think most people enter programming because of a genuine interest, hence the abundance of awkward introverts in the business. My point was just that in places like the US were there is such a strong focus on making money, there are probably more people getting in to IT for money, and hence more non-awkward people.

View on HN

I do not feel convinced that there is a strong relationship between people’s interests and their level of social awkwardness or their position on the ASD. I understand that your attitude is that people interested in computers are more likely to be socially awkward. I wanted to challenge that position, and bring my own antidotal point of view into the discussion.

The protagonists of Silicon Valley were displayed in incredibly high positive light. They received fame, fortune, drugs and sex. They were portrayed as a modern personification of American Independence, living life on their own terms and bashing heads against authority. They showed very strong social connections. Even scenes where Richard experiences social anxiety are shown in a highly relatable way.

I don’t really understand what your point is. In some sense I guess they are portrayed positively, but they are still incredibly awkward. Richard can’t talk normally, Gilfoyle is incredibly weird, Dinesh is more normal but still needy and friendless, Jared is gloriously awkward and beta, Gavin is a sociopath, Peter and Laurie are cartoonishly autistic.

I don’t think any normal, social person watches Silicon Valley and walks away wanting to be like these.

The only normal people in the show are Dinesh’ cousin and Monica.

Matrix the movie (first one, the good one) and Mr Robot the TV show! If you are not familiar with either, they are strongly recommended!

Ah, well i enjoyed Matrix back in the day but there’s little connection with programming isn’t there?

Mr Robot was fun too until it became too much of a Fight Club rip off, but I remember the protagonist as extremely awkward and weird, not someone that a mainstream person would aspire to be like.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com