Silicon valley personality types
Fictional Character MBTI — Silicon Valley MBTI
7 years ago
Richard
INTP [The Engineer]
Likes ISTPs, INTPs depend on Introverted Thinking, a form of reasoning that operates on the basis of immediate perceptual information. They, too, are able to grasp, all at once, the structural logic of a system or process. However, INTPs relate to the outer world with Extraverted Intuition, so their need for direct experience is not as clears as the ISTPs Extraverted Sensation. INTPs are interested in the logical possibilities of a structure: the way form and context interact with and exert change on each other. Thus, they are more at home than ISTPs with theoretical reasoning. INTPs do, however, require visual and tactile contact with a system in order to reason properly. Their primary method of exploring structural possibility is almost always a form of design or model making.
Because their focus of attention is on possibility, INTPs are likely to be more interested in the idea that animates a system and its impact on reality than they are with the system’s objective utility. Galvanized by Intuition, INTPs will strive for theoretical systems that include all possible variables, but such theories can fall short of application in the real world. Accordingly, these types can be frustrated by the need to defend their ideas in terms of Extraverted logic which beings and ends with material application. [Lenore Thomson]
Erlich
ENFP [The Advocate]
ENFPs are the most optimistic of all types–not because they’re determined to see the positive, but because they focus on hopeful possibilities. They grasp patterns very quickly but their interest is decidedly personal. They see people’s potential for loving, for learning, for making a difference, and they look for ways to nurture and encourage it. ENFPs have a warm, empathetic approach to others, and they establish immediate affective connections. They have implicit faith in their ability to identify with people. ENFPs are so alert to circumstantial potential that they can adapt themselves to almost any job that interests them.
However, ENFPs have little patience for administrative details. They prefer to think on their feet, as a situation is happening. Moreover, they have a hard time sacrificing their options to an organized routine.
If they have to make a decision, they want feedback from as broad a range of people as possible. Although ENFPs can seem hesitant in this regard, unwilling to act until they’ve tested public opinion, it should not be supposed that they’re yielding to popular consensus. As dominant Intuitives, these types are looking to the future. They see how a change of circumstances will make life better for people, but they’re not sure yet the means to realize their vision. ENFPs use their secondary function, Introverted Feeling, to make choices and to determine their agenda. [Lenore Thomson]
Gilfoyle
ISTP [The Craftsman]
ISTPs relate to the world by way of Introverted Thinking, a form of logic that’s tied to their direct perceptual experience.
It works in the background of awareness, guiding their actions, facilitated by visual and tactile cures in an unfolding situation. Because Introverted Thinking works like this, as a means of negotiating immediate experience, ISTPs have to be active in order to use it. They need hands-on involvement so they can feel a situation’s impact and gauge the effects of their behavior on it. Unless they experience this kind of contact, they’re likely to be bored or restless. They can’t get enough perceptual feedback to sustain their attention. Even their language may reflect their hands-on preferences–in phrases such as, “I get it,” “Can you handle that?” “Stop pushing me around,” “This is really hot!” “Cool!” and so forth.
Their skill is to find a reasoned balance between structure and freedom. ISTPs live for that kind of balance–in everything they do. It makes every situation one of a kind. The point of lives for ISTPs is to be fully present to it, so that their direction becomes clear in the process of living it.
These types are not the sorts who opt for a fast track career and the American dream. They prefer to remain independent, to get paid for their time and skills, and not for their loyalty to a particular institution. [Lenore Thomson]
Dinesh
ISTJ [The Inspector]
Although ISTJs are indeed careful, and concerned to preserve what has been proven to be worthwhile, these characteristics are only a part of the type’s approach to the world–the part that most people see. ISTJs are fundamentally Introverted Sensates, with a highly subjective, original turn of mind. As Introverted Sensates, ISTJs are unparalleled realists. However, they don’t concern themselves with external reality as such. They relate to facts about external reality, and largely by way of the mental constructs determined by Extraverted Thinking: words, numbers, schemes, diagrams, hierarchies, methods, and codes of conduct. Moreover, outward predictability is important to them only insofar as events and experiences involve their primary interests and emotional investments.
ISTJs are usually observing the world with a kind of detached irony. Their inner expectations are frequently contradicted by their outer reality, and the incongruity would be exasperating if they took it too seriously. Made aloud, their observations are both pointed and funny, but they are also unexpected and sometimes have an “out in left field” quality. Most ISTJs don’t share their private considerations with others unless they feel at home and among friends. Experience usually teaches them that their reactions to situations are not necessarily the ones that others are having. [Lenore Thomson]
Jared
ISFJ [The Defender]
Like ISTJs, ISFJs are comfortable with facts and information about concrete reality. However, ISFJs relate to the outer world in a decidedly personal way, with Extraverted Feeling. ISFJs are highly alert to behaviors and gestures that suggest another’s emotional attitude, needs, and expectations, and they generally acquire knowledge that allows them to be of service–preferably to one person at a time [*cough* to Richard *cough*].
Like all Introverted Sensates, ISFJs are good at following procedures, and they may have a flair for research and statistics. Thus, they are sometimes attracted to more technical fact-based occupations. Even in these cases, ISFJs tend to personalize what they do, using their skills on behalf of an employer, an administrator, or a customer: someone who needs their assistance and expertise.
ISFJs are so focused on others’ goals and expectations that they can seem literally selfless, without a full personality of their own. For this reason it may be difficult to appreciate the Extraverted Feeling nature of an ISFJ’s expectations. Like Extraverted FJs, ISFJs need to feel needed. They have a hard time saying no, even when they’ve taken on more obligations than they can readily handle. ISFJs are more subjective in their motivations than Extraverted FJs though. Their behavior is not dictated by a social role, but by their self-experience as a helper, a rescuer, or nurturer. [Lenore Thomson]
Monica
ENFJ [The Coach]
ENFJs enjoy face-to-face communication, and they’re usually good with an audience.
Indeed, their charismatic interaction with a group, and their focus on systematic improvement, can put one in mind of ENFPs. It should be emphasize, however, that ENFJs don’t inspire world-changing visions so much as life-changing decisions. Like INFJs, these types are interested in the way people see things, and the possibility of seeing things from another, better perspective. ENFJs genuinely believe that, deep down, people want to contribute to the system that supports them, and they’re certain that communication, understanding, and identification will ultimately bring anyone under the judgment of collective values.
The danger of the ENFJ can be their ability to see the positive aspects of anyone’s position which can make them feel indecisive, as though they had no firm position of their own, or inadequate, because their standards for themselves are so high. Believing that they should be able to handle anything that arises with reason and understanding, they may have a particular problem with displays of anger.
[Lenore Thomson]
Gavin Belson
ENTJ [The Commander]
ENTJs are natural born leaders. They live in a world of possibilities where they see all sorts challenges to be surmounted, and they want to be the ones responsible for surmounting them. They have a drive for leadership, which is well-served by their quickness to grasp complexities, their ability to absorb a large amount of impersonal information, and their quick and decisive judgments. They are “take charge” people.
ENTJs are very career-focused, and fit into the corporate world quite naturally. They are constantly scanning their environment for potential problems which they can turn into solutions. They generally see things from a long-range perspective, and are usually successful at identifying plans to turn problems around - especially problems of a corporate nature. ENTJs are usually successful in the business world, because they are so driven to leadership. They’re tireless in their efforts on the job, and driven to visualize where an organization is headed.
For these reasons, they are natural corporate leaders. [PersonalityPage]
Big Head
ISFP [The Artist]
ISFPs tend to be quiet and reserved, and difficult to get to know well. They hold back their ideas and opinions except from those who they are closest to. They are likely to be kind, gentle and sensitive in their dealings with others. They are interested in contributing to people’s sense of well-being and happiness, and will put a great deal of effort and energy into tasks which they believe in. ISFPs have no desire to lead or control others, just as they have no desire to be led or controlled by others.
They need space and time alone to evaluate the circumstances of their life against their value system, and are likely to respect other people’s needs for the same.The ISFP is likely to not give themselves enough credit for the things which they do extremely well. Their strong value systems can lead them to be intensely perfectionist, and cause them to judge themselves with unnecessary harshness.
ISFPs are action-oriented individuals. They are “doers”, and are usually uncomfortable with theorizing concepts and ideas, unless they see a practical application. They learn best in a “hands-on” environment, and consequently may become easily bored with the traditional teaching methods, which emphasize abstract thinking. They do not like impersonal analysis, and are uncomfortable with the idea of making decisions based strictly on logic. [PersonalityPage]
Russ Hanneman
ESTP [The Doer]
ESTPs are outgoing, straight-shooting types. Enthusiastic and excitable, ESTPs are “doers” who live in the world of action. Blunt, straight-forward risk-takers, they are willing to plunge right into things and get their hands dirty. They live in the here-and-now, and place little importance on introspection or theory. The look at the facts of a situation, quickly decide what should be done, execute the action, and move on to the next thing.
ESTPs have a strong flair for drama and style.
They’re fast-moving, fast-talking people who have an appreciation for the finer things in life. They may be gamblers or spendthrifts. They’re usually very good at story telling and improvising. They typically makes things up as they go along, rather than following a plan. They love to have fun, and are fun people to be around. They can sometimes be hurtful to others without being aware of it, as they generally do not know and may not care about the effect their words have on others. It’s not that they don’t care about people, it’s that their decision-making process does not involve taking people’s feelings into account. They make decisions based on facts and logic. [PersonalityPage]
Ron LaFlamme
ENTP [The Originator]
The ENTP personality type is sometimes referred to the “Lawyer” type. The ENTP “lawyer” quickly and accurately understands a situation, and objectively and logically acts upon the situation. Their Thinking side makes their actions and decisions based on an objective list of rules or laws.
If the ENTP was defending someone who had actually committed a crime, they are likely to take advantage of quirks in the law that will get their client off the hook. If they were to actually win the case, they would see their actions as completely fair and proper to the situation, because their actions were lawful.
The guilt or innocence of their client would not be as relevant. If this type of reasoning goes completely unchecked by the ENTP, it could result in a character that is perceived by others as unethical or even dishonest. The ENTP, who does not naturally consider the more personal or human element in decision making, should take care to notice the subjective, personal side of situations. This is a potential problem are for ENTPs. Although their logical abilities lend strength and purpose to the ENTP, they may also isolate them from their feelings and from other people. [PersonalityPage]
Peter Gregory
INTJ [The Scientist]
With Introverted Intuition dominating their personality, INTJs focus their energy on observing the world, and generating ideas and possibilities.
Their mind constantly gathers information and makes associations about it. They are tremendously insightful and usually are very quick to understand new ideas. However, their primary interest is not understanding a concept, but rather applying that concept in a useful way. Unlike the INTP, they do not follow an idea as far as they possibly can, seeking only to understand it fully. INTJs are driven to come to conclusions about ideas. Their need for closure and organization usually requires that they take some action.
INTJ’s tremendous value and need for systems and organization, combined with their natural insightfulness, makes them excellent scientists. An INTJ scientist gives a gift to society by putting their ideas into a useful form for others to follow. It is not easy for the INTJ to express their internal images, insights, and abstractions. The internal form of the INTJ’s thoughts and concepts is highly individualized, and is not readily translatable into a form that others will understand.
However, the INTJ is driven to translate their ideas into a plan or system that is usually readily explainable, rather than to do a direct translation of their thoughts. They usually don’t see the value of a direct transaction, and will also have difficulty expressing their ideas, which are non-linear. However, their extreme respect of knowledge and intelligence will motivate them to explain themselves to another person who they feel is deserving of the effort. [PersonalityPage]
Laurie Bream
ESTJ [The Guardian]
ESTJs live in a world of facts and concrete needs. They live in the present, with their eye constantly scanning their personal environment to make sure that everything is running smoothly and systematically. They honor traditions and laws, and have a clear set of standards and beliefs. They expect the same of others, and have no patience or understanding of individuals who do not value these systems. They value competence and efficiency, and like to see quick results for their efforts.
ESTJs are take-charge people. They have such a clear vision of the way that things should be, that they naturally step into leadership roles. They are self-confident and aggressive. They are extremely talented at devising systems and plans for action, and at being able to see what steps need to be taken to complete a specific task. They can sometimes be very demanding and critical, because they have such strongly held beliefs, and are likely to express themselves without reserve if they feel someone isn’t meeting their standards. But at least their expressions can be taken at face-value, because the ESTJ is extremely straight-forward and honest. [PersonalityPage]
Which Silicon Valley Character Are You?
The HBO comedy series Silicon Valley centers around a startup company called Pied Piper. While the goals of the company change throughout the show, it’s been seen as a great example of not only a pivoting business but also some of the culture around startups and technology in the Valley.
The show may have ended, but it shows us how different DISC styles coming together can strengthen a team. (It also shows us how people in the same industry can have different styles and still succeed.)
Richard Hendricks – Dominant (Visionary, Goal-Driven)
Richard Hendricks may start off the show seeming like a stereotypical software designer with severe social anxiety, but his big-picture thinking for a new compression application (and later, new Internet) is what drives the show and his fellow characters. Throughout the show we watch him making lists, questioning the status quo, and pull a lot of all-nighters trying to work out a coding bug or algorithm change. He will seemingly stop at nothing to reach his goal. Richard is driven by results and goals that he sets himself, but he is able to use his vision and drive to inspire his company to the same level of achievement as well.
Dinesh Chugtai – Inspiring (Influencer, Need to please)
Dinesh is definitely someone that you would call a people-pleaser.
He’s constantly doing something to influence how someone else sees him whether that’s bragging to his cousin about the app he’s working on or even buying a Tesla to seem cooler around the office. In fact, Dinesh seems to be driven to do something more than the task itself because of the people involved in the situation. We see this a lot in the show with his interactions with Gilfoyle (Dinesh’s style opposite). He doesn’t always focus on completing a task just to complete the task but he wants to either seem better than Gilfoyle or to be noticed by Gilfoyle. He’s also one of the most expressive and animated characters on the show. That being said, he’s also sometimes the one to tell Richard to do something a little bigger, bolder, and to take more risk, which helps Richard come out of his comfort zone and achieve something bigger than he could’ve imagined.
Donald “Jared” Dunn – Supportive (Works in the background, problem solver)
When we first meet Jared, he’s the right-hand executive for the head of a large tech company, Hooli.
But after learning about Richard’s vision for Pied Piper, he quits his job to work for him. Everything that Jared does is to help Richard achieve his vision. He essentially focuses on helping Richard so Richard can focus on tasks. While Jared does let us into tiny glimpses of his past through some pretty hilarious one-liners, he can be seen as pretty shy and quiet around the office. He’s a bit more soft spoken and is a very caring and sensitive person. And because he wants a harmonious office environment, he’s always working in the background to do whatever he can to solve a problem before it starts or minimize any sort of conflict. That being said, Jared does get loud and assertive when the situation calls for it, but for the most part he keeps to himself.
Bertram Gilfoyle – Cautious (Logical, voice of reason)
Known as just Gilfoyle on the show, he is the polar opposite of Dinesh (who is seen as his counter-part). As a senior security architect for Pied Piper, a lot of what he says involves trying to figure out a problem, asking a question, or answering something in a highly-logical fashion.
For many situations, he is the voice of reason because he has already thought of the implications for a particular outcome. He rarely does anything haphazardly and frequently talks about wanting his code to be efficient and correct. Gilfoyle usually speaks in an even, almost monotone, voice that doesn’t show a lot of expression. He’s also quick to research possible solutions (or remember a small detail that was easily forgotten) when a problem arises among the team.
As you can see, all four of these men are vital to the team because they all work to complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Dinesh inspires the group to do something bold. Richard gives them something to strive for and a plan of action for how to achieve it. Gilfoyle focuses on the tiny details and does a lot of problem-solving to make sure that everything works the way it’s intended. And Jared makes sure that the team is happy, supported, and thriving so they can get everything done.
Each of us has our own unique communication style, our natural preference for how we prefer to communicate.
This phenomenon is expressed through the DISC model. In this series of posts, we take characters from popular culture (television, movies, history, etc.) and analyze where we think they fall on the DISC spectrum. We hope these posts will help you better understand the DISC model.
But don’t just take our word for it. Feel free to share and comment on our social media channels with your own interpretations as well as suggestions for other pop culture icons we can look at through the DISC lens.
Who's Who in Silicon Valley
Anyone familiar with the tech world will attest that Silicon Valley is eerily true, even considering (or mostly because) the fictional characters embody the worst qualities of programmers , entrepreneurs and sociopathic venture investors. "Silicon Valley" is, as the head of Snapchat put it, "virtually a documentary."
The Box co-founder, whose sayings would do honor to any fictional character, sees straight to the root:
The good news and the bad news about HBO's Silicon Valley:
— Aaron Levie (@levie) April 7, 2014
Good news: It's accurate.
Bad news: It's accurate.
Aaron Levy: "Good and bad news about HBO's Silicon Valley:
Good news: the series is very similar to the truth.
Bad news: the series is very similar to the truth.
Even the Valley's most famous investors seem to be so taken aback by the show's hyper-realism that they begin to confuse fiction with reality:
I'm still kicking myself for missing out on Hooli. Luckily we managed to get a little money into Aviato.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) April 7, 2014
Marc Andreessen: “It's a pity we lost sight of Hooli. Fortunately, we managed to invest a little in Aviato.”
I binged ahead on screeners of #SiliconValley, a show that crushes it by getting all the small things right.
— david carr (@carr2n) April 7, 2014Smart and fun as hell.
David Carr: "Hooked on Silicon Valley." This show is perfect even in small things. Really smart and funny."
"Silicon Valley" is good in terms of plot, but really realism goes beyond the usual limits in the development of characters. They do not just naturally embody the features of real people. Often the characters are actually real people. The characters of the series Nelson Bighetti and Erlich have personal pages on Crunchbase and LinkedIn. And on platforms like Quora, questions such as "Is Richard Hendricks a good CEO?"
Of course, it is impossible to sort out this hodgepodge of fiction and reality without outside help. Introducing the Official Guide to the Silicon Valley Cinematic Universe:
Our protagonist, Richard Hendricks, is one of the few characters in the series whose prototype was not a specific person, but an entire social group - the same youth from the Valley , which makes its way to wealth and greatness with the help of program code.
(You know these people—the humorless, puny geeks who would write a debunking article about the "inaccuracies" of this material on Hacker News without a shadow of a doubt.) These hoodie-wearing guys have taken many traits from tech icons like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. .
This season's main storyline, in which Richard steps down as CEO to a more experienced executive, could lead your detective musings on the wrong trail to Steve Jobs, who also once left Apple. But, as Hendrix's character put it in the first episode, "Jobs was a show-off. He didn't write a single line of code." But here there is a resemblance to Steve Wozniak.
You can see even more of Richard's similarities with a more modern example of a triumphant comeback: Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, left the CEO position in 2008 and reclaimed the position last year. In yet another tangle of truth and fiction, Dorsey's rival for the CEO seat, Dick Costolo, has landed a new job as a consultant to the writers of Silicon Valley.
All of this is already highly unusual, but another fact overshadows the rest: (real) Firefox founder Blake Ross wrote a script for an episode of "Silicon Valley" where (fictional) Hendrix tries to get (real?) Jack Dorsey to run Pied Piper .
Key Quote: “I dropped out of college. Maybe try again and quit? And my money."
Belson does not let us forget that a commercial approach to business is a must for the Evil Genius of Silicon Valley, and also opens up another condition for us: to hire a personal spiritual guru from Asia. Larry Ellison (co-founder of Oracle Corporation - ed. note), Marc Benioff (founder of Saleforce - ed. note) and Steve Jobs were adherents of Eastern philosophy.
Larry Ellison, like Belson, has a reputation for getting into litigation all the time (Oracle v. SAP, Oracle v. Google, Oracle v. HP, etc.) and would definitely have Hooli sue Pied Piper .
However, the largest sector of the chart goes to Salesforce CEO and meditation aficionado Marc Benioff, most notably for a commercial in which Belson talks about his vision for Hooli under a photo slideshow of him saving African children:
Rounding out the picture is, of course, the uncompromising duo of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, with Sergey earning a bonus point for his toe shoes.
(Note: One important scene involving Belson is taken from the biography of venture capital legend Tom Perkins. The KPCB co-founder actually wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal comparing people's attitudes towards tech billionaires and Jews in Nazi Germany. In the series, Gavin Belson almost exactly repeats the phrases from the article, adding only: “You could even say that billionaires are treated even worse, and we didn’t do anything wrong”).
Key Quote: "I don't want to live in a world that someone else 'does better' better than we do."
The people of the Valley like to wonder, "Is Peter Gregory more like Peter Thiel or Paul Graham?" Or, if we translate this into pseudo-pseudocode:
( Peter Gregory == Peter Thiel) || ( P eter G regory == P aul G raham)
There is very little evidence in favor of the second theory. To begin with, unlike Thiel, Graham believes in education and is not a member of the Three Points Club. In addition, Peter Gregory was an angel investor, and Graham founded a startup incubator. However, Graham still gets the π² sector of the diagram for playing the role of a prudent philosopher, but sometimes making unwise economic decisions.
Peter Gregory and Gavin Belson's rivalry on the show is a classic tech industry showdown that reminds us of countless high-profile conflicts. So let's give π² points to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, not only for his striking resemblance to his confrontation with longtime nemesis Bill Gates, but also for another strange real-world coincidence: the actor who played Peter Gregory died of cancer, and Paul Allen managed to overcome lymphoma fourth degree. While Allen thought he was going to die, he wrote a book in which he severely criticized Gates, that is, he committed a mean act worthy of Peter Gregory.
But, of course, behind the mask of this character is actually the eccentric billionaire libertarian Peter Thiel. The real Peter Thiel founded the Seasteading Institute, and the fictional Peter Gregory similarly created the island of Arallon in the ocean. And Gregory's TED talk announcing the creation of his scholarship only seems so plausible because there is a real Thiel Scholarship that gives college dropouts $100,000.
Peter Thiel. Photo: Peter Thiel
In recent episodes of the series, a new storyline has emerged about how Gavin Belson removes negative articles in the search engine results and threatens to sue Coderag (a site that is a cross between Valleywag and Recode). This is very similar to the history of the legal debate between Gawker Media and Peter Thiel, who supported the Hulk Hogan lawsuit.
Key Quote: “College has become a cruel and costly mockery of the poor and the middle class. All the cream goes to truants.”
Raviga Capital managing partner Laurie Brim on stage with a 200-slide presentation might remind the pedantic VC investor Mary Meeker, the famous KPCB fund partner who publishes her amazingly detailed trend reports online every year.
Brim's personality was influenced by another KPCB partner, Ellen Pao.
The first season of Silicon Valley was heavily criticized for its unequal representation of the genders, and the event coincided with Pao's gender discrimination lawsuit by her employer. Although Pao doesn't resemble Raviga's fictional partner in appearance or speech, Pao's conflict with the KPCB has surprisingly been reflected in the series.
However, most of the points go to Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, a similarly detached voice who makes ruthless HR decisions based on statistics and has difficulty maintaining eye contact with employees. Thus, in her honor, more than half of the chart is colored #780099 (Yahoo's signature purple color).
Key Quote: "Conversation is over, thank you."
After leaving Twitter as CEO, Dick Costolo became a writing consultant for the TV series Silicon Valley. But then he made it so that his departure from Twitter became the basis for the storyline in the current season of the series.
But we haven't even gotten close to the most incredible part yet: Costolo's doppelgänger on the show is an intellectual villain!
Without a doubt, Jack Barker has become the epitome of all the sinister managers who come to the leadership position instead of the founder - he has something of John Scully, a top manager of Pepsi who came to Apple in the place of Steve Jobs, and a lot of Steve Ballmer , a former Microsoft executive who became the perfect epitome of a salesperson who doesn't understand his product. Barker is selling The Box, while Ballmer has scoffed at the idea of the iPhone and bet on corporate sales.
Key Quote: “I paid $150,000 for the sperm that this horse is about to ejaculate. And I really want to be there.”
Erlich Bachmann is 0% of Steve Jobs, although he is desperately trying to be 100% Jobs.
Bachman founded an incubator called Hacker Hostel, probably a replica of real-life hostels for programmers.
The character's fondness for smoking weed is reminiscent of party-goer Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster and former president of Facebook, who invested heavily in marijuana legalization.
It's also possible that the character was also based on Dave McClure, who (actually) owns a startup incubator called 500 Startups and (actually) starred in the reality startup show Bazillion Dollar Club, and Alexis Ohanian, a business an angel who works with the Y Combinator incubator and has invested in the creation of the Hipmunk ticket booking site, which strongly resembles Bachmann's Aviato.
Key Quote: "If you don't be a mo***, there will be a vacuum among the mo***s that other mo**ks will fill."
Monica Hall, Raviga Capital's youngest associate partner, closely resembles real-life venture capitalist Megan Quinn, who has worked with KPCB and Spark Capital. The similarity between the two girls was noted by many:
So far three people have said there's a character on HBO's Silicon Valley that's a lot like me.
— megan quinn (@msquinn) April 7, 2014I'm a snowflake, people. Unique in every way
Megan Quinn: “Three people have already told me that there is a character in Silicon Valley that looks like me. People, I'm like a snowflake. Unique and inimitable."
One more person can be paralleled: Jessica Verrilli, who leads corporate development at Twitter and works for Google Ventures. The girl herself "can't help but agree" that there is a resemblance:
@mikeindustries @inajna Lol. I can't disagree.
— Jessica Verrilli (@jess) May 26, 2016
Jessica Verrilli: “@mikeindustries @inajna Lol. I can't help but agree."
Key Quote: “People will try to steal your idea and sue. Isn't it wonderful?"
At this point in reality, it shouldn't surprise anyone that (real) Google hints at (fictitious) Hooli in their Alphabet founding release, and (real) Wired has a profile of (fictitious) Baska after he was promoted to head of the Hooli XYZ laboratory.
Before getting promoted, Baska "relaxed and threw money around," much like Google and the secret staff of managers who are brought in when needed.
Key Quote: “There are nine bedrooms in this house. Can you imagine how scary it is here at night?
Cover photo: Unsplash
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Correspondent BBC Capital decided to find out how things are in Silicon Valley with religion and spirituality, and was surprised.
Among the hundreds of unremarkable concrete buildings in Silicon Valley - the leading innovation cluster in the United States, where some of the largest high-tech companies are headquartered - one can find a surprising number of houses of worship.
Their parishioners are successful and wealthy residents of the technological capital of the world.
And this is surprising, since the population of Silicon Valley is known for its agnosticism, not religiosity.
"This place attracts Type A personalities (a psychological term for active, competitive people - Rev. )," says Vincent "Skip" Vacarello, author of Finding God in Silicon Valley) "Very few people in this category regularly attend Sunday church services. Their gods are money, new technologies, success and the like."
According to a recent study, San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose are among the US cities with the lowest number of believers belonging to traditional faiths.
This image of a religiously indifferent population misrepresents the reality: new houses of worship springing up here and there throughout Silicon Valley and the wider San Francisco Bay Area are not lacking in zealous parishioners.
Apparently, work and home are not a substitute for spirituality for everyone.
(More BBC Capital articles in Russian)
Churches, temples, other places of worship open in business parks, warehouses and community centers.
"A lot of people come here - they've realized that you can have an amazing career, make a lot of money, but it's still not enough for real peace of mind," says 25-year-old Austin Walterman, who works in the computer games industry.
The term "Silicon Valley" appeared in the 1970s. He describes a high-tech density area south of San Francisco that includes cities like Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and San Jose.
Silicon Valley is the locomotive of the American economy; its GDP is comparable to that of some of the most economically advanced countries in the world, and its gateway is San Francisco, a major financial center in its own right.
"Hungry for Religion"
As the technology sector of the American economy grew, downtown San Francisco - the city where the hippie counterculture was born in the late 1960s - began to be associated more with the desire to get rich than with the search for spiritual experience.
But in our time, on one of the peripheral streets of the city, the church of a new branch of evangelical Christianity, the Epic Church, has taken shelter.
This church is unlike, say, the much more traditional Cathedral of God's Grace in Nob Hill. But she attracted the restless souls of the city, as well as the office workers of Silicon Valley.
Photo copyright, Peter Bowes
Photo caption,Epic Church members on the rise
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The End of History Podcast
Founded in 2011 by Pastor Ben Pilgreen, Epic Church sits behind the glass doors of a modern office building just north of Union Square.
From the street, nothing betrays her presence - except for a modest sign on the sidewalk.
Parishioners wear jeans, shorts and flip flops. Some update their location status on mobile devices, while others head to the spacious conference room behind a glass partition to chat with acquaintances. In the main hall, the musical ensemble warms up before the service.
About 500 parishioners have already gathered for the service, and new ones are constantly arriving. They are all full of enthusiasm.
"It means people are hungry for religion," says Pilgreen. something more."
Although Walterman, in his own words, is busy with his dream job, he began attending church because he felt that something was missing in his life.
"Church has given me leadership qualities," he says.
In the most unexpected places
Inconspicuous from the outside, churches, temples and houses of worship in Silicon Valley, representing a wide range of beliefs and denominations, sometimes appear in the most unexpected places.
Just as the high-tech industry was once born in garages converted into primitive workshops, services are held in unoccupied warehouses.
Photo copyright Peter Bowes
Image captionChurches in Silicon Valley spring up in the most unexpected places
"It's not about traditional temples with domes or minarets," says Professor Philip Boo Riley, who teaches religious studies at the University of Santa Claus. Clara since the late 1970s.
He continues, "Across the street from the Western School's Taiwanese Buddhist center, a new Hindu center has just opened. Hindus seem to be having a building boom. Down the street is a Korean Presbyterian church. But all these places are not conspicuous - they look like nothing remarkable office space.
Much of the money for building new churches or expanding existing ones comes in the form of donations from successful business people. The wealth of the inhabitants of Silicon Valley has allowed Hindu temples, which used to barely make ends meet, to become the central objects of the local Indian diaspora.
"In the 30 years that I've lived here, the number of religions represented in the area has certainly grown," says Riley.
The Indian community is closely associated with many of the innovations that have made Silicon Valley famous. A study conducted by the University of California at Berkeley shows that between 2006 and 2012. 32% of all new companies founded by immigrants in this region were Indian entrepreneurs. And the most gifted members of the community have become billionaires.
The Sunnyvale Hindu Temple recently opened after a $2.4 million renovation. It now has a huge prayer hall adorned with dozens of marble statues of gods and goddesses.
“Moving here tens of thousands of kilometers from India, we brought our culture with us,” says Annapurna Devi Pandey, professor of anthropology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. “Knowing that our children will also live here when they grow up, we want to create a corner of India for them.
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Non-religious church?
In the city of Palo Alto, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, there is another unusual church - the Christian City Church or C3 Church. She invites potential parishioners with this slogan: "Are you not religious? We are too."
Every Sunday, colorful flags are hung on the wall of the Jewish community center where the church rents a room.
The atmosphere in the lecture hall is more like a nightclub than a place of worship. Christian City is the brainchild of Australian pastor Adam Smallcomb, who moved to Silicon Valley for the sole purpose of founding a church here.
Image copyright Peter Bowes
Image captionNon-religious church? More like a nightclub...
"We wanted to give people the opportunity to belong to our church regardless of their beliefs," says Smallcomb.
According to him, the events held by the Christian City are not of a religious nature, so the church does not fall "under the official definition of a religious organization.
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On the contrary, he says, "our basic postulate is that in certain cases it is necessary to put the community first, and not Christ."
Vadim Lavrusik, a product manager at Facebook, comes to church meetings with his family. According to him, Christian City is a reflection of the entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley, which encourages out-of-the-box thinking.
"Here, independent thinking and the desire to understand things are encouraged," he says.
Local congregants of all faiths, regardless of their degree of religiosity, seem to be able to reconcile their spiritual quest with the "win at all costs" culture that permeates Silicon Valley.
Spiritual searches in this high-tech agglomeration are now easier - you no longer need to worry that your agnostic colleagues will stigmatize you.
Silicon Valley is a highly insular world whose inhabitants can become dependent on the constant race to develop new technologies and start new companies, Vacarello says.
