Which is why, I think, I can enjoy the HBO show thoroughly while still lamenting about "where did all the hackers go"
There's also things that the hacker can learn from the hustler, like how to take something early or minimal and make it self-supporting. In a sense the hustler is a kind of hacker. The problem is that hustlers are often just hustle... not enough substance. But when you have substance and hustle, that's powerful.
I do get turned off by all the self-congratulation coming out of the Valley. It's important to listen to criticism. Sometimes the critics have a point. In particular, a lot of the optimism out of the valley sounds dangerously close to "let them eat cake!" to the rest of America. (News flash! Most of America is more or less in a long shallow depression right now.)
And from what I understand, use it to hide the beach from poor folks, too.
I would say that it's more of today's entrepreneur genuinely believe that they're doing good, but are just terribly misguided.
Of course, that's just how it feels to me.
As for his mention of the WWW, I don't credit the valley for all that and wonder if Vint Cerf has emoted about his mentality when coding TCP/IP.
> cultural norms
Not sure about that, unless you consider it a very recent 'value.' There was quite a bit of flaunting during the dot-com era.
I was in NYC over the weekend and Los Angeles - for my first time - back in April. Both large cities with large populations. Both trips were for mostly pleasure. In NYC I stayed in Williamsburg; in LA I stayed in Silver Lake. LA had a very laid back feel to it. Maybe it has to do with all the space. NYC is pure congestion. Wherever you are, a few hundred people around you are trying to pass through that same space. It keeps you moving, hustling to keep from being run over or an obstacle. I loved both cities, but they have very different "feels".
I'm not sure it's truly accurate, but the east coast, DC and NYC in particular, feel like a dog-eat-dog, I'll do anything to get ahead, kind of place while the bay area feels like a much more friendly competitive environment.
Whatever the cause, there is a very real difference in attitude between the two coasts.
I got the impression that the underlying motivation for writing the post, and tactic you used for justifying your positions was largely in response to what I would consider the overly myopic hacker news user base. That is, disproportionately white, male, curmudgeoney programmers. I sympathize with your frustration, but urge you not to let their world-view cloud yours, or cause you to search for complicated answers to simple questions.
An example of what I mean:
> I believe the current skepticism around Silicon Valley's "Make The World a Better Place" mentality is deeply rooted in historical anxiety about institutional capitalism.
On this point, I urge you to consider a much simpler explanation: that people are skeptical because there is much to be skeptical of. People like Musk are a rare breed in Silicon Valley. Today's tech "entrepreneur" rarely looks like Elon Musk, someone who genuinely seems to want to do good things for the world. The skeptisism exists because there are a lot of startups doing plain silly things, masked in global do-goodery marketing narrative.
Startups are the new gold rush, today's investment banking. But the west coast has much different cultural norms towards opulent wealth than does the east coast. Put simply, we like to hide it out here, they like to flaunt it out there. Thus, "we're making the world a better place" instead of something like The Wolf of Wall Street.
Still, I enjoyed your post and your choice of using macro-economic theory as a lens through which to view this. Thanks for writing.