Silicon Valley (HBO comedy)

I'm enjoying the show, but I don't see where the hyperbole is.

 

Most of what Erlich Bachman does is hyperbole and how the various company heads behave, though significantly rooted in reality, is often taken a notch beyond, for comedic effect.

 

Can someone who is conversant with the tech industry explain to me if I have the right idea of what an "incubator" like Ehrlich does? My impression is that he gives (or rents?) them space to live and work and develop their company, in exchange for shares in it, but then when the company gets launched he's not an employee of it?

 

That's pretty much right. A business incubator company helps new and startup companies to develop by providing services such as management training or office space. Only a relatively small proportion of incubators will take equity from their clients. The bigger share of revenue comes from rents and/or client fees. Other possible revenue streams include service contracts and cash operating subsidies .

 

But is it common for them to live in a house with their clients and have comedic banter with them?

 

Not fully caught up yet but agreed, the ones we have seen have been off-the-charts funny. As a "tech guy" who has to deliver what sales promises and I often work closely with them, I found their portrayal of those folks to be exceptionally critical yet realistic. When the new CEO is talking about how the best sales people in the world have to have the easiest product to sell, I was laughing and crying at the same time.

/no offense to any sales people, but I don't work with any of you either, I hope.

 

Yes, it's a statutory requirement.

 

Yes. And smoke excessive amounts of pot. And typically the least worthy member of the startup will get hired away by the likes of Google and made head of a division just to piss them off. This is all typical.

 

Mike Judge knocks it out of the park again. I love this show. The cast is so good! The guy who plays Dinesh is so funny.

 

He was fantastic in Franklin & Bash as well

 

And on Portlandia.

Chad

 

Do you live in the SFBA, by chance? I've been displaced/priced out for the last several years, but I am pretty sure I grew up with a few Erlichs and some company heads - not exaggerations.

I made a remark about how dead on some of that was when I was watching the show with my wife a few days ago, and she ended up telling me how sorry she was that my work life was like that in any way.

She always talks about how she loves the show but sometimes it gets so painful/uncomfortable (by design), and I have to explain that this is the life of a Computer Professional. I think I take the dysfunction of tech for granted thanks to having been around it all my life in some way or another.

 

Fantastic new ep (6) - so very funny! I'm not sure if people outside of IT will fully appreciate the central joke of this ep - the TABs vs Spaces war, but it's 100% a thing. It can be very divisive especially when groups of coders with differing preferences have to collaborate on a project. It really tickled my funnybone. However, Richard was wrong - everyone knows that Spaces are superior to TABs!

 

Are you a programmer, Deesky?

 

Yep, used to be, as well as other aspects of IT.

 

I remembered today that Zach Woods did a great interview with Marc Maron on Maron's pod cast. He is definitely an actor who is not like his roles. I've included a link but it's probably not safe for work.



Chad

 

For those of you fans of the show...if you are also in the industry...and especially if you are over 40, I really recommend this book from one of the show writers:

https://www.amazon.com/Disrupted-My...dp/0316306088?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Like the show, it's hilarious but at the same you end up cringing a lot because you can relate to so many of the incidents.

 

Pied Piper has officially launched, and seem to have taken it to Gavin and Hooli in the process. And it looks as though Erlich has sold his share in the company to cover all of the accrued debts from his mismanagement of Big Head's nut. His greed and narcissism have once again gotten the best of him, and it looks to be really bad this time. It's a shame too because it looked as though he was turning a corner when he brought the boys back into his home and helped code during the livestream. It was cool to see him genuinely helping the team.

It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out in the coming episodes. Every time I start to feel good about the characters, something horrible happens. I imagine something awful will occur during the launch to bring everyone back down. This show is such an emotional roller coaster.

 

One of the better shows that ran a breakneck speed and had some teeth in it. Did not get the deal in the garage where Erlich was shutting down the servers, or wherever.

 

NPR's Fresh Air ran a piece on Silicon Valley yesterday, interviewing Mike Judge, Thomas Middledistch and co-showrunner Alec Berg.

In HBO's 'Silicon Valley,' The Comedy Is Inspired By Real-Life Tech Culture

 

That was the joke regarding the 'friends' competition. Gilfoyle's real friends are the servers.

 

My guess is that Monica was sort of right about this one, and that regular users (those who aren't engineers or computer nerds) aren't into it. And have to make a big push for branding and marketing. That may explain why Erelich was in a photoshoot. The conflict now is that Hooli has a chance to release a version that may be inferior but is intuitive and flashy in some way for mass appeal. Since they already have a huge built-in user base, it's a serious concern. Just my guess, but the show rarely goes where you think it does. Can't wait!

 

Dan Lyons, who wrote that book, is a very funny guy who spent years as "Fake Steve Jobs," sending out messages under Jobs' name that seemed just as arrogant and bizarre as the real guy. I thought it was hilarious, but a few people were offended. He did stop once Jobs got very ill and soon after passed away.

I think that's the thing of good drama: the audience begins to worry about what will go wrong next, even when good things are happening at the moment.

Judge had said initially that he thought it would be fun to explore what would happen if all the main characters were suddenly worth millions of dollars, but it's clear now he's going to postpone this as long as possible. And from a show point of view, it might be more interesting watching them struggle than it would be to see them wallow in wealth.

BTW, if you want a laugh, go to PiedPiper.com. It's a real website, and there's some strange in-jokes there.

 

Love, love, love that interface.

 

Gilfoyle's bio is amazing.