the realities of living in silicon valley

I’m sharing two articles with you today:

1. “You Need Equity to Live in Silicon Valley” — Wealthfront blog

2. “What’s the Dark Side of Silicon Valley?” — a Quora Q&A

The first article (it comes with spreadsheets!) pretty much raised a red flag for me to start paying more attention to the future of our finances. My initial gut reaction was to log into our Mint.com account and start obsessively tracking our spending, which was then followed by the panicky thought, Should I prioritize equity above all else in my career trajectory? It’s sounding like it might be the best chance one’s got at surviving in SV…and even then, note the word “chance,” because there’s no guarantee that taking a career move with potential for an ownership stake will actually pan out. There’s no such thing as a silver bullet.

So it all goes back to the question, What do Hubby and I want for our future? If it’s not kids, a house with a yard, and a decent retirement, then we’re probably on an OK path. Otherwise, we might need to do some more math…

should you care who your customers are?

As a marketer, there’s a key principle that I live by: Know your customer. You have to really understand your customers in order to serve them well, with products that benefit them, and through messages that resonate. Customer empathy makes good sense and good business.

But what if you knew your customer used your products/services to run an illegitimate business? Should you care, and would you do business differently (would you do business with this customer at all)?

I came across an interesting CNN Money report, linking the rise of prostitution in Silicon Valley to certain technologies that have made payments in the industry much easier and more convenient. One example mentioned was the Square card reader, which is apparently used by sex workers in the Valley to accept credit card payments for their “consultative” services.

So, if you’re Square, do you care that your card reader potentially plays a prominent role in sex trade payments? What if you can’t actually identify the sex trade customers apart from your other non-sex trade customers (all you see is “Jane Doe” or “Joe Smith” with occupation “Consultant”)? Is it really your problem? Is it your responsibility?

I have to admit that I know very little about tech companies’ policies regarding these types of matters. I don’t even know what business or trade laws apply, or what precedents exist. What do firearms dealers do when their guns are used for crime? Or knife manufacturers? Or chemical labs (think Breaking Bad and Walter White’s Blue Sky business)? If it’s at the discretion of the producer/seller of the product/service, then I wonder how often producers and sellers think about their customers and whether or not their products and services are being used for bad or good.

Thoughts? Do enlighten!

to lean in or not to lean in?

I have yet to read Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In,” but it’s hard not to develop opinions about it just from reading what other people, who’ve read the book, have said. (Excuse my poor sentence structure.) Among the responses I’ve come across include the TIME article and this Daily Beast critique. On the one hand, I think that Sandberg has a point when it comes to women “leaning out” from the workplace prematurely because they’re anticipating life changes that either will or won’t happen in the imminent future. It’s important not to “check out” early because something might happen. We should always try to set ourselves up for success in all situations.

But I also believe that sometimes it just makes sense, or it’s necessary, to anticipate and prepare in advance for life changes. (I believe Sandberg is quoted to have said that it’s critical for women to start saving for child care early on in life.) We can’t always have it all (can we ever?), and so taking one thing most often than not means giving up another thing. There are opportunity costs to everything, and each woman has to decide for herself what’s worth taking on. (Do I really want to save up now and create nanny/daycare/preschool funds, or do I want to blow my bonus on a trip to the Caribbean?) Women who have career ambition, who equate happiness with promotions and power, should absolutely lean in whenever the opportunity arises and even create these opportunities themselves. But for women who have ambitions elsewhere, well, climbing the corporate ladder would just be inefficient. Of course, let’s encourage women to succeed in the workforce, to build confidence and dispel unwarranted inhibitions—to be leaders. But only the women who really want all this will lean in to achieve it.

There’s a simple truth: not all women want to be leaders. And that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Not all people want to be leaders. Some people just have endless fire in their bellies, and some don’t.

But I suppose the argument Sandberg would have would be that maybe women have been groomed to not want to be leaders, or conditioned to think that being a leader is too hard or too far out of reach—and that really, we should break through that barrier that we’ve let stand in our way, because sometimes the barrier is merely an illusion, and it’s our bad that we’ve disillusioned ourselves. So taking this into account, there should be that many more women who want to be in leadership positions or who want to achieve the pinnacle of career success. Which is also fair.

Again, I haven’t read the book, and I intend to, 100%. So forgive me if I’m expressing my thoughts prematurely. (Most likely there will be a follow-up post to this once I’ve officially digested Sandberg’s manifesto.) I just figured I’d lean into all the hullabaloo too.

the meaning of happiness

This article has been swirling on LinkedIn the past few days – basically it challenges people to make trade-offs to achieve happiness. For the most part, I agree with this, but I also believe that it’s human nature to always want everything. To quote Hannah from Girls, “I want all the things” (see specific episode recap here).

As logical and economical as it would be for us humans to clearly define what happiness means to us (say, financial stability for the rest of one’s life) and then pursue just that, it is unrealistic to then only do whatever it takes to achieve it (say, work 80 hours a week until one turns 80). Maybe it’s possible for some, but I don’t think that most people are so one-track minded. I, for one, like to maintain balance in my life, because having a little bit of everything makes me feel the most sane—and that usually keeps me happy. But I also don’t want to compromise every aspect of my life just to achieve balance. It’s a constant struggle, dialing up one thing only to dial down something else, and then so on and so forth, every day.

Additionally, I think each person’s definition of happiness changes all the time, and is super dependent upon what one has vs. what one wants. Unless you’re easily complacent, you’ll most likely itch for something new or something more as soon as you’ve attained happiness as you’ve currently defined it. For example, very ambitious career-minded people may derive success and happiness from constantly climbing the corporate ladder or paving their own entrepreneurial path. But at some point, when they feel like they’ve conquered what they had set out to conquer, their priorities shift, and suddenly life can’t be complete without philanthropy, love, family, or legacy. At that point, their idea of happiness has changed, and they need to pivot.

Perhaps what’s most important is that you make time to do a gut check every now and then, just to reflect on what you’re doing and whether or not it aligns with your version of happiness at that phase in your life. And as long as you feel that your actions are consistent with what you want or where you want to be, then you can feel rest assured that any struggling or balancing you’re doing is not all for naught. I’m a strong believer of the saying, “Happiness is not a destination—it’s a direction.” If you feel like you’re going down the path that’s right with you, then go on. It doesn’t mean there won’t be bumps along the way. The gut check we all have to make lies in deciding whether the bumps are worth overcoming or if they’re there to purposefully derail us so that we can find the right path.

the computer history musem

I did not realize that the Computer History Museum even existed until about two years ago. What’s so stupid about that is the fact that I work and live within a couple miles of the place, and I had no clue it had been there since 1996 (two years before Google came into being and swallowed up all the real estate around there, and then all of Mountain View basically). Anyway, even after I had discovered the museum, I still have not set foot in the establishment—shame on me. But tomorrow, that will change, because I’m attending an Intel-hosted special event that’s taking place at the museum. Attendees will get a sneak peek at the documentary, Girl Rising, which is about girls and young women around the world whose dreams hopefully will no longer be deferred because they are empowered by education, confidence and hope.

Still, I don’t think I’ll have much of a chance to really explore the museum itself during this event. Which is why I also purchased this Groupon—admission for two to the museum 🙂

ps4

Just one word – excitement! (And maybe that this could be the revival of Sony and AMD.)

Also, not related to the PS4 but still very much in the realm of gaming: Metal Gear Rising – Revengeance (WordPress wouldn’t allow me to embed the IGN video for some reason.)

the most innovative companies

Fast Company recently released its list of most innovative companies in the world – the top 10 are as follows:

1. Nike
2. Amazon
3. Square
4. Splunk
5. Fab
6. Uber
7. Sproxil
8. Pinterest
9. Safaricom
10. Target

I’m impacted on a daily basis by about half of these companies, and I’ve only not heard of two (Sproxil and Safaricom, which are based outside the US; this makes me feel like a totally ignorant American). Notice that 4 of these companies are based in Silicon Valley. Last year’s list had 5, and the list from 2011 had 7. I think it’s interesting that the bulk of these companies are still known for innovations on the web, but you see that a few really made their mark because of physical products, or their ability to innovate on how physical products are discovered, sold and delivered to the end user (Nike, Amazon, Fab, Target).

So often, because of where I live, I lose sight of all the cool stuff going on in industries other than web. Reading up on all the neat inventions and improvements that are happening in all places, around the globe, has reminded me not to think, and be, so small. Oh and have you seen what 3D printing can do these days?? Amaze-balls.

why being a workaholic is counterproductive

Working in tech in Silicon Valley is fast-paced. Depending on your work environment and company culture, work can oftentimes be stressful, hectic, and overwhelming. And we like to think that in order to stay caught up, to stay on the ball, we have to always be “on.” From my own experience, this mentality tends to just make things worse overall—not only because I usually end up crazy sleep-deprived, but also because I start feeling like all the effort in the world will never be enough. There’s always more to do, and more to do better. Think this too often and feelings of defeat and inadequacy will soon set in. And as economics has taught me, the law of diminishing returns is very real, and sooner or later, checking email at midnight will induce more anxiety than accomplishment.

I’ve fallen into this trap time and time again, and it takes a lot of will and “letting go” to effect positive change for myself. Recently Entrepreneur magazine published an article about the workaholic mindset and proposed some approaches for countering it while still maintaining (sometimes increasing) productivity.

At a software company rife with chronic night and weekend overtime, she realized that engineers were pulling all-nighters because they were being interrupted frequently and couldn’t concentrate during normal work hours. Her intervention, “Quiet Time,” divided the day into periods in which everyone agreed not to interrupt each other. With the space to think, formerly harried engineers were able to pull off the first on-time launch in their division’s history.

While I’m not an engineer, nor at this particular software company (well I don’t know that for sure, do I?), it’s true that the main reason why I find myself working into the night is because I don’t get enough work done during my time in the office. My days are so jam-packed with meetings that I don’t have actual “work time.” I often do real work during the lunch hour (which I now refer to as “eating al desco”), or I get in earlier (or stay later) than usual to catch up on emails when fewer folks are around. Typically this just means that I have to catch up with these folks at a later point in time, when they’ve caught up on their emails at their convenience (some other time of day). So I’m not the only one! Now you can see how all of the inefficiencies (yielded by all of the efficiency we think we’re producing) can add up and create churn that results in unnecessary meetings, unexpected delays, and undue stress on all parties involved.

PTO—both predictable time off and paid time off—I’m all for it!

Super Bowl ads

This is probably a non-topic by now, but here were my favorite commercials from this past Sunday’s Super Bowl—I have to say, the ones that struck an emotional chord were my winners (in no particular order):

So God Made a Farmer – Ram Trucks

Brotherhood – Budweiser Clydesdales

Bravery – Audi

Space Babies – Kia

Joe Montana Stain – Tide

PS – I’m nowhere near the Valley right now, but seeing Jeremy Lin all over the sports channels here in Taipei sort of makes me feel like I am.

Microsoft is targeting people like me

You may have already seen this – but please, watch it again. As a marketer, I love how targeted this particular campaign is (talk about emotional benefits)! And as someone who lived most of my childhood in the 90’s, I resonate with it completely. And it’s Internet Explorer for Microsoft. Blows my mind.