Woz recently said that this scene has nothing to do with how things actually were.

I was looking forward to this being a smart movie like "The Social Network," but this clip makes it looks like it won't be as good as the old Pirates of Silicon Valley movie with Noah Wyle portraying jobs.

The Woz actor captures nothing about Woz. The only reason we can guess he's supposed to be Woz is he's heavy and has a beard.

@rebuilder

There's very good data showing test scores correlate with all socially valued outcomes.

That includes professional development, health outcomes (managing our personal health in the 21st century is complicated), lower divorce rates, lower rates of out-of-wedlock births, lower crime rates, etc.

I agree, however, that school is mostly useless. I encourage young people to get their highschool equivalency at age 12-16. Get a 4 year degree if you absolutely must, but do it as fast as possible. Aim to move to a tech hub like Silicon Valley or Austin, Texas to become a programmer, designer, marketer, bizdev guy etc.

1. I live in Silicon Valley, which is one of the most intense clusters of ambitious and brilliant people in the world. It's easy to move here from the other side of the world and build a network of 1,000 friends in a year just by going to a lot of events and being a smart and nice person.

2. I've watched most of my high school friends do nothing with their lives and become uninteresting people. The only path to massive personal growth and intellectual growth is through building an awesome career that pushes you extremely hard and surrounds you with other awesome people. People who think they're getting a good deal by devoting their life to pleasure and trivialities instead of productivity are sabotaging their human potential.

3. The economy is probably going to decline for the next few or several decades for a number of reasons, so try harder at everything. Build your life. A lot of people are going to experience worsening fortunes in the future and there will be no solution.

>> ^Lolthien:

>> ^chilaxe:
@Yogi
Ha. Well I don't know about tax cuts for the rich.
But the only highly effective solution I've seen for closing academic achievement gaps is to take the kids out of destructive environments and put them in highly academic schools where they're in school doing schoolwork 12 hours a day.
So vouchers might not be a bad idea, instead of forcing kids to attend schools with destructive cultures.
And building an awesome career that contributes a lot to society and makes us rich takes 12 hours a day also, so starting when we're kids seems like a good path out of poverty.

Making kids slog away for 12 hours a day may close the 'academic achievement gap' (or as I like to call it, the 'being good at schoolwork gap'), but how exactly does academic achievement really translate into fulfilling and/or successful careers? Obviously going to an ivy league school is going to get you a better job.. but I'm of the opinion that is mostly due to the contacts you make in school.
And of course, learning to work hard to achieve is a valuable lesson, but would that be any different than having kids learn to whittle trees for 12 hours a day. Teaching critical thinking is a benefit of an education, but would 12 hours of class really help keep a person's mind sharp? Education is important, but forcing kids to sit down for half the day and study seems like the medicine might be worse than the disease...

>> ^RFlagg:

This. I would love to move from the Canton/Massillon, Ohio area, but being poor makes it very hard. The place I live now costs $460 a month. That is for a nice 2 bedroom town house with a generous communal back yard in a nice child friendly neighborhood with some of the best schools in the state. How many places in the country (heck the state) can you find housing in such a nice area so cheap? Even in areas that pay more it usually doesn't overcome the higher housing costs when you are stuck in minimum to a couple bucks above minimum pay range... ($12k to $18k locally a year)
None of the places I would like to relocate to can get in those price ranges and still be out of the slums... heck most of the places I've considered can't even get into slums for those prices (Austin, Silicon Valley area, Arcata, Portland, Seattle, Fort Collins, Denver are the main US ones). And moving out of the country to New Zealand, Iceland, the UK, Netherlands and even Canada, is impossible since an overly expensive Associates degree means you don't have the skills any of those places would give you immigration.
Add to the housing expense the high price of actually moving...
>> ^Lann:
There are sometimes situations that makes fucking moving impossible.



Move somewhere else in Ohio. Cleveland, Cincinnati, or Columbus are going to be vastly better than Canton, and while they will be a little more expensive it won't be anything like going to California. There will be far more job opportunities, too. Then you can make another step up to something better.

$460 a week wouldn't guarantee you to get out of the slums in most of the overseas locations you mentioned (don't know about Canada). Pay rates are higher to compensate, but it does sound like you've got a reasonably good set-up!
In reply to this comment by RFlagg:
This. I would love to move from the Canton/Massillon, Ohio area, but being poor makes it very hard. The place I live now costs $460 a month. That is for a nice 2 bedroom town house with a generous communal back yard in a nice child friendly neighborhood with some of the best schools in the state. How many places in the country (heck the state) can you find housing in such a nice area so cheap? Even in areas that pay more it usually doesn't overcome the higher housing costs when you are stuck in minimum to a couple bucks above minimum pay range... ($12k to $18k locally a year)
None of the places I would like to relocate to can get in those price ranges and still be out of the slums... heck most of the places I've considered can't even get into slums for those prices (Austin, Silicon Valley area, Arcata, Portland, Seattle, Fort Collins, Denver are the main US ones). And moving out of the country to New Zealand, Iceland, the UK, Netherlands and even Canada, is impossible since an overly expensive Associates degree means you don't have the skills any of those places would give you immigration.
Add to the housing expense the high price of actually moving...

>> ^Lann:
There are sometimes situations that makes fucking moving impossible.

This. I would love to move from the Canton/Massillon, Ohio area, but being poor makes it very hard. The place I live now costs $460 a month. That is for a nice 2 bedroom town house with a generous communal back yard in a nice child friendly neighborhood with some of the best schools in the state. How many places in the country (heck the state) can you find housing in such a nice area so cheap? Even in areas that pay more it usually doesn't overcome the higher housing costs when you are stuck in minimum to a couple bucks above minimum pay range... ($12k to $18k locally a year)
None of the places I would like to relocate to can get in those price ranges and still be out of the slums... heck most of the places I've considered can't even get into slums for those prices (Austin, Silicon Valley area, Arcata, Portland, Seattle, Fort Collins, Denver are the main US ones). And moving out of the country to New Zealand, Iceland, the UK, Netherlands and even Canada, is impossible since an overly expensive Associates degree means you don't have the skills any of those places would give you immigration.
Add to the housing expense the high price of actually moving...

>> ^Lann:
There are sometimes situations that makes fucking moving impossible.

@GenjiKilpatrick

So you're a racist. My condolences. Silicon Valley is one of the most diverse places on Earth.

Feel free to leave an intellectual comment any time.

@chilaxe

Wtf are you talking about man.

How is "Public transit's very developed here. It looks like this." followed by a picture of Mad Max's post-apocalyptic wasteland in any way a "reasonable hypothesis" or intellectual argument for the negative consequences of the talking points blanket term: "socialism"?

Secondly, if you're allowed to show extreme prejudice toward your assumed stereotypes of all blacks and hispanics.. why can't I?

By your very own logic, it would be inconceivable to assume you're a successful non-white living in the lap of luxury and high society in the middle of Silicon Valley.

Seeing as you constantly stereotype all non-white [excluding asians] as lazy moochers feeding off the tit of NObama's Socialist Welfare State.

Fer shit sake, you even used the term "societal decay". Which I've already revealed as another talking point for bigots who subscribe to the ideology of forums like Parapundit.com i.e. YOU.

Not that it would matter if you're part of a non-white ethnic group. Every comment you make on the sift about society and races is utterly hateful and presumptuous about scenarios [being a low income single black mother living in Oakland] you have NO CLUE about.

At the very least you're hypocritical and ignorant by choice.

Either way, you're a troll.

@chilaxe

So what you're saying is.. you're a cowardly white privileged bigot who's too afraid to leave the safety of his software & champagne fortress and confront the real problems of the world?

Cause we all know that Silicon Valley has nothing to do with "societal decay".

I mean, sure companies like Apple deny hard-working Americans high-paying jobs/careers in the Technology Sector by exploiting cheap labor in Socialist countries like China. But that's just want any good cold and calculating capitalist would do.

OH OH! I got the perfect bumper sticker for you "I Hate Socialism.. but I Loove my Ipad. Vote Yes on Apples for Americans"

Then you could pass around a petition demanding that Apple build a new factory in Oakland.

You know, to stop all the societal decay and give those dirty niggers and spics something to do with their lives.


In reply to this comment by chilaxe:
>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

Why don't you fuckin' move then.
Oh wait, then you couldn't complain about how shitty your life is under this oppressive Marxist regime.


I live in Silicon Valley, so I'm insulated from the societal decay.

I hardly ever interact with people who aren't techies, so the only way I know that California's been turned into the dumbest state in the country is from the news.

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

@chilaxe
Why don't you fuckin' move then.
Oh wait, then you couldn't complain about how shitty your life is under this oppressive Marxist regime.


I live in Silicon Valley, so I'm insulated from the societal decay.

I hardly ever interact with people who aren't techies, so the only way I know that California's been turned into the dumbest state in the country is from the news.

@oritteropo

I work in Silicon Valley. My social network does include dyslexic techies (not a big deal) and also non-professionals who are never going to do anything with their lives, but I've never known anyone who would write anything this badly after highschool:

Man I'm doing a report on how to cut a fade but when I said this cats fade I was like, Imma get an F if this is a fade! and By the way You plugged my man at the front of the fade. I mean I still see it. jus sayin.

what amazes me is how many techies, artists and engineers - creative minds from all over the world (and especially silicon valley, sf, portland) converge on this place. the ideas that flow from this event are incredible, life changing, and benefit humanity.
so many people, while they are cursing the hippies and typing on their Macbooks, should really get a clue.

the only thing burning man org really does is create a place for creative expression. creative possibilities. then it just goes. and goes and goes.
imho, more countries should do this.

we are of course, dangerous to the establishment.

>> ^chilaxe:

@longde
I don't think there are any viable solutions. Homo sapien evolution left 99% of the species with great difficulty with abstract thought. There was no reason to evolve temperaments that would be useful in civilization, because civilization hadn't emerged yet, thus all the behaviors we see around us.
So there isn't going to suddenly be a cultural shift toward valuing productivity, innovation, and intellectualism. There are a few hubs around the world like Silicon Valley, but that's it.
My only recommendation is people devote themselves to their careers and insulate themselves from the under-performing culture around them. Reprogenetics (re-programming genetics) will likely fix all of it before the end of the century.


Are you kidding? If everyone valued "productivity, innovation, and intellectualism," who would be our janitors? Our garbagemen? Our fry cooks? We need doofuses around -- and a lot of them at that -- to do the stupid menial jobs that we'd never want to do.

And I thought I was cynical.>> ^chilaxe:

@longde
I don't think there are any viable solutions. Homo sapien evolution left 99% of the species with great difficulty with abstract thought. There was no reason to evolve temperaments that would be useful in civilization, because civilization hadn't emerged yet, thus all the behaviors we see around us.
So there isn't going to suddenly be a cultural shift toward valuing productivity, innovation, and intellectualism. There are a few hubs around the world like Silicon Valley, but that's it.
My only recommendation is people devote themselves to their careers and insulate themselves from the under-performing culture around them. Reprogenetics (re-programming genetics) will likely fix all of it before the end of the century.

@longde

I don't think there are any viable solutions. Homo sapien evolution left 99% of the species with great difficulty with abstract thought. There was no reason to evolve temperaments that would be useful in civilization, because civilization hadn't emerged yet, thus all the behaviors we see around us.

So there isn't going to suddenly be a cultural shift toward valuing productivity, innovation, and intellectualism. There are a few hubs around the world like Silicon Valley, but that's it.

My only recommendation is people devote themselves to their careers and insulate themselves from the under-performing culture around them. Reprogenetics (re-programming genetics) will likely fix all of it before the end of the century.