I can't say I see a lot of green Range Rovers in other cities, but I assure you this one is universal across places and industries.
I have friends who go to Burning Man and don't post anything on their social media or bring it up in conversation because they don't want to be one of those people. Others go once and it becomes 50% of their personality for the next year.
What part is unfathomable, the Range Rover part or the green part?
I ask because Range Rovers are strongly associated being quite well-off everywhere, but maybe there's something with SF and the green paint choice.
> They also, for reasons I simply cannot fathom, go out and buy a green Range Rover.
In my opinion, there are two types of people that buy Range Rovers.
1. Morons that don’t realize they are unreliable and expensive to maintain
2. Morons that attempt to signal their status by flaunting that they can afford to drive something unreliable and expensive to maintain
Except what she didn't have was an actual functional product (oh, and nevermind that teensy detail that the product as envisioned is actually physically impossible).
If I had one but of advice for my younger self, it would be to get very good at sniffing out who is the real deal vs. who is cosplaying. And to be fair to myself, all I really had to do was trust my instincts - in the few instances where I got taken in by bullshit I definitely sensed some red flags in the beginning, but I ignored them because I thought "well, hey, look at all these bigwigs who think this is such a great idea". Bullshit is actually really easy to spot (usually), it's just that for social reasons we're often conditioned to nod and smile in the face of obvious bullshit.
The Bay Area is a weird place. There are countless companies staffed by smart people doing amazing things. There are also countless people cosplaying as smart people and founders who are going through all of the motions, but producing little value.
In my experience (which is as limited as any other one person's experience) the environments at the companies doing the amazing things are on the boring side. Nobody wants to hear about those because it's uninteresting. So instead all of the public stories are about crazy parties, quick wins, huge exits, and the glamorous stuff.
People go there seeking it out. Some get lucky with some early wins, like Jim from this story. But when the time comes to do work, they flounder and get pushed out, also like Jim. It's a big place, though, and there's always some connection willing to hook you up with another referral if you press hard enough. That's the step where the performative, partying people start getting grouped up with other performative, partying people, and it snowballs from there.
Meanwhile the real companies are off quietly doing boring work and getting things done, pushing the Jims out if they accidentally get hired or acquired into the fold. It's a weird place.