Comment by Karrot_Kream

FWIW as someone in silicon valley, this really isn't the silicon valley mindset. HN represents a sort of messy combination of many different tech tribes, but I will say its depiction of silicon valley is largely that of someone who reads too much tabloid coverage of it. It's very much the feeling one gets about silicon valley by reading Techcrunch articles without actually being here.

I actually think it's a bit dangerous to try and understand SV from HN comments, in the same way that trying to learn about an event by watching a fictional adaptation of it can often confuse more than educate. The goal of the comments here aren't for SV to chat anymore and it hasn't been for a very long time, for better or for worse.

Twitter is closer to what you'll get among founder and hype circles in silicon valley, but even that isn't a good pulse of what engineers here actually think. The public web is just too adversarial a place for most folks to want to hang out anymore and silicon valley has been so deeply politicized in the news that a lot of people just don't want to air their opinions in public anymore. My suggestion is to save up some money and just come here and visit for a week or two, go to events, rant to a few graybeards, that kind of thing. You'll get a much more authentic look.