Since 2014 HBO's Silicon Valley has dazzled denizens and fanboys alike with it's biting depictions of startup culture, from egocentric venture capitalists to socially awkward but earnest developers. It pokes fun at the excess - such as renting an elephant for a boardroom meeting (which is possible) - to the ridiculousness of CEO chairs and Uber pitches, and addresses some real world problems such as COPPA fines and the paranoia about founder hounders.
But it's taken Bill Gates till November 2018 to give the show his full seal of approval. "If you really want to understand how Silicon Valley works today, you should watch the HBO series Silicon Valley," he writes in a blog post. It seems that the Bay Area's poor air quality of the last week has seen the Microsoft mogul resort to some good old fashioned binge watching, hence his observations about the brilliance of the HBo show,
"Most of the different personality types you see in the show feel very familiar to me. The programmers are smart, super-competitive even with their friends, and a bit clueless when it comes to social cues," Gates said. "Personally, I identify most with Richard, the founder of Pied Piper, who is a great programmer but has to learn some hard lessons about managing people."
Gates said that he's currently watched every episode through season four and is working his way through season five. "I have friends in Silicon Valley who refuse to watch the show because they think it’s just making fun of them," he wrote. "I always tell them: “You really should watch it, because they don’t make any more fun of us than we deserve.”
From this comment, it sounds like Gates may be rewatching some earlier episodes the show -- who can blame him, as episodes like 'Team Building exercise' in Season four, when Jared's called 'Frankenstein's bulimic daughter' (some great writing by Megan Pleticha) deserve a second go round.
Gates has consulted with the shows producers on season four -- the show famously takes input from the real glitterati of Silicon Valley in order to craft the most accurate parody possible. And when reality includes Tesla ecstasy pills, butt fountains and fight clubs, who can blame them?
Gates had just one issue. "Although I’m obviously biased, my experience is that small companies can be just as inept, and the big ones have the resources to invest in deep research and take a long-term point of view that smaller ones can’t afford," he said, referring to how underdog Pied Piper is pitted against Hooli. "(But) it's more fun to root for the underdog."
That won't stop him from hitting play however. "I’ll keep watching as long as they keep making this hilarious show," Gates said. We agree. CEO's, they're just like us...
Read the rest of his blog here.
