Idealism Versus Pragmatism: The Inner War of Silicon Valley

ROI versus just building something for the sake of building. Investing versus extracting. Doing stuff for money versus doing stuff for free. 

The world we want to build versus what we can build with what we have. 

What makes Silicon Valley work is the fine balance between the two. These are generalizations of course but east coast scenes tend to be a bit more extractive and transactional. 

It feels like the frame of “what’s in it for me” is always present. 

The west coast aka Silicon Valley tends to be more of the give before you get, but this can go too far. You end up spending a lot of time with people who take advantage of this and who end up sucking up your time, with little to no benefit to yourself. 

We value building but then we also end up with a whole bunch of over-funded money bleeding startups (hello 2021 & the AI Bubble in 2023 to now) with no business model or ability to monetize at all. Chasing the ideal or the cool. 

A big part of Silicon Valley ethos is being helpful (really helpful unlike when VCs say this). It’s about giving the benefit of the doubt. And helping others realize their dreams. This is what makes the place special. 

But we could use a dose of hard edged capitalism sometimes as practiced on Wall Street. It’s a fine line to take but could be the difference in the tough business of building the future.