There's one particular scene in the movie “The Social Network†that was slightly made up. It's about halfway through the film, when the character of Mark Zuckerberg and his clan of nerdy programmer roommates sit down to build Facebook. The challenge for the movie's directors: how do you make a not-very-sexy 20-something, sitting, wearing a hoodie at a computer while he writes code, look sexy?
The answer: You make stuff up.
“Let the hacking begin,†says the character of Mr. Zuckerberg, as he wiggles his fingers in the air like an animated .gif. Then, a fast-paced sequence of programming is interwoven with scenes of pretty girls partying and a computer screen filled with code. The entire montage lasts about 1 minute and 30 seconds.
So when Bravo sat down to make “Start-Ups: Silicon Valley,†a new show, you can be sure the network had to make up a lot of stuff to fill several hours of television.
Anyone who has spent time in Silicon Valley and visited just a handful of start-ups knows that these companies are pretty boring. Predominantly male (to a fault) programmers and designers sit at their desks, monotonously moving their fingers up and down on a keyboard. Their jokes, well, are esoteric and frankly a bit sad. “You should Instagram that Instagram!†would be followed by abstruse laughter.
This is, after all, the same place where people refer to girls who are programmers as “unicorns,†because they are so far and few between.
Even the parties, which I have written about, aren't that exciting. Mostly, they involve those same programmers and designers sitting around talking about the code they have written that day. “So, I wrote this mean Python script earlier!â€
Silicon Valley is really quite a boring place. The story of start-ups should be a documentary on PBS, not a weekly reality show on Bravo. The creators of “Start-Ups†managed to manufacture something that doesn't r eally exist here: drama.
It might seem like watching the new show will be like gawking as a car crash happens in slow motion. But in reality - not the reality that Bravo is trying mass-produce - “Start-Ups†will be more akin to watching car crash tests at an automotive testing facility. You will know exactly when and how the car is going to crash. No one will get hurt.
Will we in Silicon Valley watch? Of course we will. Who doesn't like to see metal crunch into itself as it slams against a wall at 60 miles an hour. And, who doesn't want to watch a group of young wannabe entrepreneurs try to sneak to the front of the I Want to Be Rich and Famous line by prancing around a reality show and saying things like, “People have been intimidated, because this package generally doesn't come with a brain.â€
Yes. We'll all watch the car thump the wall with the show's six crash test dummies sitting inside. And then, we'll all go back to our desks and sit, monot onously moving our fingers up and down on our keyboards.
