{"id":7498,"date":"2015-06-08T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T07:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=7498"},"modified":"2015-06-06T09:41:53","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T16:41:53","slug":"silicon-valley-and-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=7498","title":{"rendered":"Silicon Valley<\/em> and “Apps”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I’ve been watching the HBO series Silicon Valley<\/em>. I find it enjoyable on many levels.
\n
\nBeing a nerd back in the old days, I instantly recognize the archetypes in Silicon Valley<\/em>. I believe the entire Aspergers spectrum is sufficiently represented. So to me, the characters are like old friends I once knew.<\/p>\n

Back in the 1980s, my nerd friends and I would get together and socialize. We would have the same pointless discussions, debates, and heated arguments I now see on the show. Of course, the time frame has changed. The Internet was just a baby back then and no one knew its potential.<\/p>\n

The focus for nerds back in the 1980s was on coding utilities. I believe just about every programmer I knew was working on some clever tool that did something useful — something we probably wouldn’t consider worthy today, such as formatting a list of files or writing a text editor that runs “in only 4K of RAM.”<\/p>\n

Today, the nerds are all about apps.<\/p>\n

In Silicon Valley<\/em>, the big deal is pitching some new app. In fact, it’s a running gag. They pitch mobile apps on Silicon Valley<\/em> to break the flow and add humor. If you watched the TV series House<\/em>, then the app pitches on Silicon Valley<\/em> are similar to those moments when Dr. House would work the clinic; it’s just for the yucks.<\/p>\n

The apps pitched on the show are hilariously pointless. In some cases, the characters point out the silliness. For example, a programmer who quit and now works at a Staples-like office supply store has an app that helps you find your car in a parking lot. The way it works is just like a notepad app. The main character mentions this fact, but the programmer doesn’t understand how his app is meaningless.<\/p>\n

Apps are pitched that help you borrow a dog, but not just any dog, but a dog with a Christian owner. Or the app that actually gets funded that simply sends the text “Bro” to someone else with the same app. This is based on a real app called “Yo” that does the same thing.<\/p>\n

I believe this app pitching is more than parody: It’s a sad commentary on a culture that tries desperately to make big money in app development. I’m sure I’d find just as many pointless, useless, hopeless apps available at the Google Play Store — if I had the time to waste searching for them.<\/p>\n

Then again, you never know which app will hit it big and make someone a billion dollars. So in a way, the parody of pitching apps in Silicon Valley<\/em> is funny, disappointing, and sad all at the same time. All we can do is watch the show and laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You should catch this clever TV show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7498"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7510,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498\/revisions\/7510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}