Revenge of the Angry Nerds: A More Competitive & Even More Ruthless Time in Silicon Valley
It’s hard not to see the zeitgeist shift in Silicon Valley in 2023 as observed by the Vox magazine article by Zoe Bernard: https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/12/27/24011198/bezos-zuckerberg-musk-buff-mma-masculine. It’s worth a read but not for the reason that you think.
There is a specific section I want to call attention to:
“This renewed sense of masculine dominance hit a fever pitch in 2023. The softer, soulful leaders of Silicon Valley’s previous decades have vacated. Gone is the delicate, ascetic presence of Jack Dorsey and the laissez-faire leadership of Sheryl Sandberg. Gone are the girl bosses. In their absence, the richest, most powerful men in tech are leading Silicon Valley toward a more macho future, one in which strength can be measured in muscles, women are absent from the boardroom, and ruthlessness is a virtue.
All of Silicon Valley reminds me of the first Top Gun movie: the abundance of testosterone, like 1970s, 1980s all over again,” said Manu Cornet, a cartoonist and software engineer who formerly worked at Twitter, now X. “It’s not even sarcastic or second degree.
“It’s a very jacked up movement,” said Glenn Kelman, the CEO of Redfin. “The people I know are thinking about testosterone and eating 500 grams of protein a day. They are ravenous, carnivorous, and totally yoked.”
But more recently, these same Silicon Valley companies have begun to look like the conventionally bloated behemoths at the pinnacle of corporate culture. Their leaders, too, have adopted a performance of masculinity that’s strikingly conventional and includes angry rhetoric, muscular physiques, and a newfound interest in physical combat.
The men responsible for building the products that touch the daily lives of billions of people display an increasing preoccupation with flaunting masculine bravado. It’s not just for show, either. The way these powerful men run their companies is impacting who is considered welcome in Silicon Valley.”
But like most leftist & woke writers, the article portrays this trend as a negative. I strongly disagree. It’s a counter-reaction to the ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Phenomenon)-driven weakness that ripped through the ecosystem in the 2010s. And I think this turn was inevitable. The other side of the cycle.
The crazy amount of VC money is gone, most startups and big tech companies are fat and bloated and underperforming. Let’s look at the example of Twitter, Elon fired over 75% of the staff and Twitter still works. Think of the wastage at Google or Facebook or any of the big tech giants. Most tech workers are spoiled, entitled and lazy. Focused on the wrong things or working on non-core initiatives.
But the feast is over and now we are stuck with the famine. There will be very many more layoffs coming. Companies are waking up, losing their delusion and getting fit. If you thought 2023 was tough, 2024 is gonna be much harder. The easy money is gone. That is why we need a more severe mindset and attitude change in Silicon Valley. Frugality, focus and maybe most important, humility. Something we have not seen for a while.
We are back to basics. Founders, employees and investors need to fight for survival. It is war time now. Lean and mean is in vogue. Hard core work ethic of 996 (9 to 9, 6 days a week) will be required. It will be brutal and only the strong will survive like it always has been. But out of this reset, I expect to see another inevitable massive wave of growth and opportunity…..eventually.