Protective Incompetence
Being bad at something you don't like to do, so you don't have to do it.
> I think the reason I made such a mystery of business was that I was disgusted by the idea of doing it. I wanted to work in the pure, intellectual world of software, not deal with customers' mundane problems. People who don't want to get dragged into some kind of work often develop a protective incompetence at it. Paul Erdos was particularly good at this. By seeming unable even to cut a grapefruit in half (let alone go to the store and buy one), he forced other people to do such things for him, leaving all his time free for math. Erdos was an extreme case, but most husbands use the same trick to some degree.
adamzerner over 9 years agoWeb Developer / Programmer
The distinction between a web developer/programmer and software engineer is that a software engineer generally has a theoretical CS education and is knowledgable in the areas of algorithms, data structures and architecture whereas a web developer/programmer simply knows how to program. At this point the line is pretty blurry but some engineers like the distinction so they can feel better about themselves.
Tim: Look at that idiot over there. He doesn't know anything about algorithms and he didn't even go to college.
David: Sure but isn't what he does day to day exactly what you do.
Tim: Yes but I went to MIT
zazpowered over 9 years agoFamily Layway Weekend
When an entrepreneur spends a weekend with his family mostly because they haven't seen from him or her in weeks. The entrepreneur spends 85% of this time checking his or her phone for updates.
Ken decided to go on a family layaway weekend because his Mom's birthday was coming up. He told him mom happy birthday and sat in the corner the rest of the time checking his phone. His family was just happy to see him.
yungsnuggie over 9 years agoThe Silicon Valley Shake
A choreographed dance entrepreneurs do in their favorite online video game after reaching major milestones in their company. Doing a dance in real life is many instances is far too awkward.
After being acquired by Twitter, Jack along with the founding team simultaneously logged onto League of Legends, typed in the /dance command together, and broadcasted it on Twitch.
yungsnuggie over 9 years agoHack
Traditionally this term has meant gaining unauthorized access to computer system but in Silicon Valley it has expanded to any be any clever solution to a problem.
You converted that cardboard box into a chair? Nice hack!
zazpowered over 9 years ago@skamansam interesting. thanks for sharing
Man Jose
Man Jose refers to the city of San Jose, located within Silicon Valley, which contains a large number of male Software Engineers.
Sam: Why can't I find a nice girl to go out with?
Mark: What did you expect? You live in Man Jose.
xmangoslushie over 9 years agoX for Y
A way entrepreneurs use to describe their startup to customers and investors so they can quickly grasp how their product works. It is done by comparing your startup to another successful company that likely pioneered its business model.
My startup is Airbnb for cars = people can borrow your car when you are not using it
My startup is Uber for food = food will be delivered to you on demand
My startup is Urban Dictionary for Silicon Valley = svdictionary.com
zazpowered over 9 years agoLow Engagement Shame
The shame that people of the internet generation feel after they add a piece of content to a social network and there is little or no engagement. This can be likes and comments on Facebook/Instagram or favorites and retweets on Twitter.
David: I uploaded a selfie 10 minutes ago and nobody has liked it yet. Did I use a bad filter? What is going on? I need to delete this right away
zazpowered over 9 years agoOn-demand Worker
An on-demand worker is someone employed by an on-demand company such as Uber, Lyft, Instacart or Postmates although many on-demand workers work for a few of these companies concurrently. They are usually 1099 workers or independent contractors and do not get the same company benefits such as healthcare and PTO that full time employees enjoy. Companies hire on-demand workers for flexibility, to save money and to have less liability.
Tim: Although being an on-demand worker affords me fewer benefits I kinda like it because I can set my own hours and learn how to code on the side.
zazpowered over 9 years agoIntrapreneur
A product manager within a company who promotes innovative product development and marketing. He or she tends to question whether they could do everything they are doing now independent of the company they are working for, but are often too afraid to work on anything outside the confines of the company.
Jared was a leading intrapaneur at Hooli for 10 years building designing innovative features that made the company millions of dollars. He was always happy with his safe salary and never tried to do anything on his own.
yungsnuggie over 9 years agoSam Altman
The current president of Y Combinator and successor to SV investor and essayist, Paul Graham.
In his own words Paul Graham says that "Sam is one of the smartest people I know, and understands startups better than perhaps anyone I know, including myself. He's the one I go to when I want a second opinion about a hard problem."
Today he spends his time moving YC forward, dealing with the waves of entrepreneurs trying to impress him in superficial ways in an attempt to garner entry into the incubator (I once hacked a non-computer system by [insert something borderline illegal here or morally questionable, albeit pretty smart]. He tweets declarative statements about his idea of the perfect founder, similar to how a teenager would describe his or her perfect boyfriend or girlfriend (not to his own fault, it's his job), as well as tweets about how well YC is doing in general.
Sam Altman says that the best founders live in the same apartment as their co-founders so we've decided to move in together! We're even going to sleep on the same king sized bed and mention it on our app, so we'll probably get an interview for sure.
covfefelord over 9 years agoShadow Ban
A term used to refer to an account on Reddit where anything associated with the account is not visible to other users but to the owner of the account nothing has changed. When the account is shadow-banned, no other users can see your posts or even your profile.
I've posted a ton of links but I am not getting any upvotes or comments. Have I been shadow banned for breaking Reddit's rules?
svhunt over 9 years ago4 Year Vesting
You get a percentage of a total amount of stock allocation that cashes in yearly intervals until your 4th year.
Also another way of saying "I know it's tempting to leave, but we want you to stay while you're still young."
Zeeshan: You should start your own company. You're smart enough and have know enough people to recruit a strong founding team.
Kunal: Definitely! We should! I just need to wait until I'm 30 and my shares at Pied Piper vest!
Zeeshan: That's how they get you.
yungsnuggie over 9 years agoVoting Ring
A voting ring is when you get people you know to upvote things for you on popular websites that use upvotes such as Hacker News and Reddit rather than waiting for organic upvotes. This is done to game the ranking algorithms of these websites and make your content appear at the top so others are able to see it.
Wow. I got shadow banned from Reddit when I got caught in a voting ring as a result of asking everyone I know on Facebook to upvote my post.
svhunt over 9 years agoThe Five Dollar Footlong Lean Startup Diet
When a startup founder lives off of five dollar foot long sandwiches to save money for his or her early stage venture. They buy a single five dollar foot long subway sandwich, eat half of it in the afternoon and the other half at dinner.
Since Julius is on the five dollar day long diet, he only eats footlong subway sandwiches everyday to conserve his companies startup money. It's kind of sad.
yungsnuggie over 9 years agoHow do you come up with this stuff?
BART
BART which stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit is a rapid transit system that services the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the most popular ways to get around the area as they operate 44 stations that cover a large portion of SF Bay. While safe and convenient for the most part, BART is also home to some of the most interesting characters you will find.
Tim: Why does it smell so bad in here? Did that dude just pee on the ground? Why is he taking his pants off now?
zazpowered over 9 years agothat guy is really flexible
@orien comments are saying why is nobody stopping him but I wouldn't want to fuck with somebody that athletic. especially when they are on drugs
The Founder Industrial Complex
Describes the institution of increasing the number of founders (and new companies) in a given area to increase spending on early stage services that venture capitalists already fund.
In order to take advantage of this founder industrial complex, we're using our VC money to create a web-tool that instantly sets up a splash page for 10$ a month to capitalize on the increase of incorporated startups in this area.
yungsnuggie over 9 years agoI want advice
What startup founders will tell VCs when they really want funding but don't want to ask directly because they think they will be shot down right away.
John: Hey Marc Andreessen. We have this new app that's like Vine except the videos are 10 seconds long because we think that's more optimal. I would like some advice.
Marc: Do you really want advice or are you just here for funding? I prefer when people are direct.
John: Sorry we really just wanted funding.
Marc: No
pygmyknight over 9 years agoBacklink
A backlink is an inbound link to a webpage. Search engine rankings are heavily based on the number of quality backlinks a webpage has because it is a signal of popularity and importance. Anchor text is the descriptive label of a backlink and determines how relevant the link is to a web page.
This is a backlink to Google with anchor text "Google"
zazpowered over 9 years agoIn the wild
Seeing a new technology out in the real world, not just at launches and demos.
Have you spotted the new Google car in the wild yet?
spectrumed over 9 years ago
This is actually the other way around. See the Jargon File for a much older definition: 1. n. Originally, a quick job that produces what is needed, but not well.