An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs? | Hacker News Reader

An Open Letter To Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?

pandodaily.com

73 pointsgeofflewis30 comments

Who is voting this to the HN front page and what the hell is wrong with you? I would rather see links to 30 more DCPU-16 simulators than read this tripe. Stop it.

I think this plays more to those who come to Hacker News because of Y Combinator, HN isn't just a site for developers it is also a site for entrepreneurs (majority of which are based in Silicon Valley at this stage).

Actually the most shameful thing about the Bravo show is that it refers to Randi Zuckerberg as an "internet entrepreneur."

Compared to the parade of brogrammers that will inevitably populate the show, she probably is.

Then again, she's in a position where she doesn't have to care how it appears. She's not selling out, she's just another exploiter. Think Trump, not Mayer.

The Wikipedia page on Randi Zuckerberg also refers to her as an "internet entrepreneur."

Is this really the correct way to label her (i.e. What significant thing has she done in tech that earns her that title?)

Someone should probably edit that wiki page. But again, I wouldn't really know what to call her either — other than something like, internet marketer?

Most likely description would be "entourage member of somebody famous". Or even better "privacy advocate" and "defender of freedom of speech" - as the only thing I know from is for having made the notorious statement I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away.

>made the notorious statement I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away.

That would make her more of a "privacy opponent" than "privacy advocate", but that is just really a part of her job as Marketing Director at Facebook.

It’s a Bravo Reality show. Of course they’re going to sex it up. Does anyone really think the “Real Housewives” resemble real housewives? If they taped real developers in their natural habitat, it would just be a timelapse of someone sitting in front of a monitor.

Exactly. The main export of Hollywood has always been escapism. I don't worry about the opinion of anyone who takes the bile Hollywood spits out as their main source of information on what the world is like.

One of her points, stated towards the end, says,

How on earth can Randi Zuckerberg — who knows how one frame of film will be taken as gospel over a thousand books, blog posts, or real interviews — sleep at night?

People are stupid. They are going to assume the Bravo portrayal is an accurate depiction of Silicon Valley, much like how they assumed The Social Network was an accurate depiction of the beginnings of Facebook. She doesn't believe it should be excused because "It's a Bravo reality show."

Most likely somebody needs to compensate for being the "underachiever" in the family.

"How on earth can Randi Zuckerberg — who saw the angst over that movie by the people it affected most — sell herself out to Hollywood’s desire to make Silicon Valley look like, as the pilot says, “high school”?"

Angst?

LIFE is like high school. Popularity matters. Schmoozing and getting along with people matters. Achievement matters, but less so than social skills. College is arguably somewhat more a meritocracy, but 'real life' reverts back to being more like high school than college.

I don't say that as a bad thing, but I had to do some mental adjustment once I had that realization.

Hyperbole much? She is an entertainment content producer. She is producing entertainment. She is not making a documentary. And only idiots and people looking for a cheap joke really think jersey shore is an actual representation of new jersey... It's more a characterization of long island!

Or a representation of Long Island Ice Tea's perhaps! On a serious note, I just wanted to highlight your comment for it's accuracy and become others in this thread seem to be missing the point (That 'She is producing entertainment').

I think you mean Staten Island, which is where 3 are from. None are from Long Island. Long Island is where NYC professionals with families live.

What's next? How about: Get 5-10 early-stage startups with decent ideas, put them in a huge house (or office building with several offices) and film them all as they make progress on their product. YC, but being filmed all the time. Judges consist of Silicon Valley bigwigs (PG, some VCs, etc.). The "winners" get funded at the end. The show's title: Series A.

No shirtless club dancing. No dumbasses.

I'm not saying this would paint a more accurate picture for viewers, but I'd definitely be interested in watching it. Call me crazy?

I think filming hour after hour of programmers working would make for some terrible television.

Well it's not like any of these shows are portrayed in real-time. Sheesh.

How about just following the ups and downs of startups, without any manufactured "house", or cut in a certain way that overplays tension and underplays what they are actually doing. Please no prizes, eliminations, challenges and generally everything else they put into "reality" TV.

Of course what appeals to people here would never likely get made because it will just cause a wider audience to gloss over. I mean do people want to see a segment with the founders talking about their servers, framework choices etc or with them having a tense stand off with investors, clients or each other.

Bloomberg did a decent miniseries based on TechStars New York http://www.bloomberg.com/video/75400336/

It was a lot more serious than this Bravos show will be but they still probably manufactured some conflict to keep things engaging.

It's been claimed they did - http://melanie.io/2011/09/30/techstars-lies-videotape/

HN discussion @ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3132954

Because people are people.

Because we are potentially petty, petulant, persistent.

Because fame and money motivates us differently.

So that puts us at this awkward impasse.

Either you, Sarah Lacy, have no clue and can't read people well or know the real story behind all this but decided this is an opportunity to sell yourself.

Or Randi Zuckerberg is a sellout as you said.

Sarah Lacy got her start at Techcrunch, IIRC. QED if IARC.

reposting my comment from that post

I find the show distasteful but it is as accurate a portrayal of Silicon Valley as Jersey Shore is of that particular geo/demographic. In a way, this shows you how mainstream Silicon Valley now is - instead of just being portrayed as nerds and VCs, this shows that there exists many, many flavors of people/lifestyle here in the Bay Area.

Let's be clear - this is a Bravo show, not a Ken Burns documentary. A realistic portrayal of this place would have a bunch of people staring in front of their text editors all day. Or attending meetings and whiteboarding things. Not exactly riveting television.

If anything it's going to draw more attention to things in SV, wouldn't you think? A number of people I know had only heard of the actual Jersey Shore location before the show got big, but largely have ignored the stereotype the show provides while learning a decent amount about the area on their own.

Perhaps my experience isn't an accurate depiction of the public's perception of the New Jersey coastline, but I agree that this show is an argument for how established SV has become.

Manufactured controversy is a popular marketing tactic, no? If I actually had a problem with something a friend of mine was doing the last thing I'd be doing is writing an open letter about it based on a couple of 30 second promos. Unless, of course, that friend asked you to.

Pendantic, but if it were an “open letter,” shouldn’t it be written in the second person? The body content contains two instances of the word “you,” both directed to the reader; references to RZ are in the third person.

It is interesting that one of the cast members is Dwight Crow, a founder of the YC company carsabi. I imagine being on a show like this could lead to quite a bit of publicity but I wonder if it is worth the distraction and likely unrealistic portrayal.

http://sfist.com/2012/04/05/meet_the_cast_of_bravos_new_new_...

Am I missing something, or did the author of that screed omit telling us the name of the show that she is complaining about?

Yes, I realize (after a little research) that the show is called "Silicon Valley" and that the phrase "Silicon Valley" does occur several times in the article, but unless I missed one, those are all references to the actual Valley, not to the name of the show.

If you want a semi-realistic startup reality tv show to watch right now, try TechStars on Bloomberg Tv: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/75400336/ or Start-Up Junkies: http://www.hulu.com/start-up-junkies

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