How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance
When I first saw that initial article of them mentioning their startup which was titled:
“
Two Ex-Googlers Want To Make Bodegas And Mom-And-Pop Corner Stores Obsolete
“
I already knew it was doomed.
I mean an upper middle class Caucasian guy and an upper middle class South Asian guy who previously worked at Google make this startup with the idea of “making mom and pop corner stores obsolete”
And they name the startup “Bodega” whose name has Latino roots....<p>How can these two be so tone deaf and insensitive to how people will react to this?<p>This sounds cruel and bad just from the phrasing of the headline. It’s like they didn’t use any common sense and have no heart for local businesses.<p>I just don’t understand why a decent amount of these Silicon Valley techies are so time deaf? Did they grow up with silver spoons in their mouths?<p>How can you be so smart technically yet so culturally tone deaf at the same time? I would have thought sharp critical thinking and common sense would apply to more than just technical problems...<p>You can complain about how people are overreacting and perhaps you have a point but that doesn’t change the fact that people will overreact.<p>Why are so many upper middle class and rich people so disconnected from the poor and middle class?<p>I’m fairly well off now but I still remember what it was like when my family was poor when my parents first immigrated from Malaysia (we were racial and religious minorities and Malaysia’s government discriminates against racial&#x2F;religious minorities so my parents left) back in the mid 90s...<p>and we had to go to food banks in Michigan to get some food when my dad’s two menial jobs didn’t make enough.<p>And I also remember when my family was middle class (about 60K) back in Idaho. The middle class  life was much better than when we were poor (no food security issues and we had a nice house) and we got a smartphone back when I was in high school. (Only one smartphone for the family, more than one was too expensive, they let me have it because I was the oldest).<p>So even though I’m upper middle class now here in Silicon Valley, I still remember those harder times.<p>And I want Silicon Valley to make startups to help those poor and middle class people, instead of trying to displace or hurt those people.<p>All the machine learning they use in Bodega they could have instead sold that as a service to local Bodegas to empower their businesses by giving the local Bodegas a way to know what to stock up on.<p>And I believe that would have still been profitable but also community conscious.<p>Ugh the level of liberal snobby-ness and elitism that you see on Silicon Valley<p>Makes me super bummed sometimes when I think about Silicon Valley<p>When I see the immense income inequality which I didn’t see as much back in Idaho.<p>Now I’m partially a hypocrite since I love my upper middle class tech job here at a top company which I would not have found in Idaho.<p>I won’t kid. This is the best standard of living and quality of life I’ve ever experienced so far. I’m very grateful for that.<p>But the income inequality here reminds me somewhat of what I saw in India when I visited there for the first time last year.<p>Like it looked like 1&#x2F;3 of the population has a gesta upper middle class or rich life with great stuff.<p>But 2&#x2F;3 in like abject poverty.<p>Now California isn’t as bad as that but out of all the States I’ve lived in or visited,<p>It’s the closest to that and perhaps that’s partly due to the fact that our education system doesn’t prepare Americans for these well paying tech jobs....<p>But if that’s the case then we need to fix that or we’ll turn into India if we don’t change or fix our current problems here in the US.<p>I didn’t vote for Trump but I understood why many of my friends back in Idaho did because hey feel hopeless in this new changing economy and their education system didn’t prepare them for it.<p>Anyway I refuse to believe that it’s impossible to come up with profitable startup ideas that also empower local communities and businesses.<p>Sorry I don’t mean to put anyone here down btw this was just a general rant on Silicon Valley.<p>I’m really sorry if I came off as rude.<p>I normally don’t comment on hacker news this is my second comment ever.<p>Pardon my typos I typed all this on my smartphone.