Silicon Valley's tech industry appears increasingly out of touch with reality, the latest example being Facebook's response to recent scandals, as IQ trumps EQ
that's what makes SV SV. I think the difference is the scale of impact has grown considerably: http://500ish.com/... M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler : Since no one seemed to pick up on the punny aspect of my headline, I'll just note that I don't think this is actually the peak of all this, possibly quite the opposite, as noted in the last line... http://500ish.com/... Tracy Chou / @triketora : The nerds have taken over the world. Now they're showing signs of being drunk on such power. And speaking accordingly—offering up cringe-worthy statements that only showcase a complete and utter lack of self-awareness. https://500ish.com/... Matt Rosoff / @mattrosoff : Sure wish I knew what set MG off. http://500ish.com/... Leo Polovets / @lpolovets : Many negative effects of the tech industry are explained by a famous Upton Sinclair quote: “It's difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” Same is true for everyone: politicians, doctors, etc. http://500ish.com/... Ashley Mayer / @ashleymayer : Yup. Self awareness is a scarce resource in this little town of ours. https://500ish.com/... Drew Olanoff / @yoda : nailed it, @mgsiegler “I fear IQ has won at the expense of EQ.” https://500ish.com/... Martin Bryant / @martinsfp : Good from @mgsiegler on the vacuous arrogance of parts of Silicon Valley (imagine if he'd have given specific examples though!) https://500ish.com/... Joe Schmitt / @josephschmitt : Pretty much why I jumped at the chance to leave Silicon Valley, even though I miss SF and California immensely https://500ish.com/... Samir Kaji / @samirkaji : Good article by @mgsiegler https://500ish.com/... Unfortunate byproduct of many things (bull market, high IQ/ego/wealth). Sad we need to do this, but reminding ourselves of that just being human/vulnerable is a strength, not weakness.
Context & Ripple Effects
The critique is itself cyclical: back in 2015, Square's head of communications was already describing the repeating cycle of media coverage of tech companies, and this piece lands squarely in another turn of it. What M.G. Siegler adds is a diagnosis — 'IQ trumps EQ' — and an argument that what makes Silicon Valley Silicon Valley hasn't changed, only the scale of its impact has.
First-order effects
- Facebook's handling of its recent scandals becomes the case study for tone-deafness, putting the company's leadership and communications posture directly under scrutiny rather than just its products.
- Tech figures like Tracy Chou publicly frame the problem as power without self-awareness, sharpening the split between industry insiders and the journalists covering them.
Second-order effects
- The insider-versus-press friction hardens into open conflict, foreshadowing the [[a:966269|online battle between prominent tech figures such as a16z partners and Balaji Srinivasan and the journalists who report on them]].
- Each scandal-driven credibility hit raises the reputational cost of the industry's next misstep, making later political alignments — like the tech leaders embracing Trump for short-term gain Wired flags — riskier for the companies involved.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Silicon Valley's culture problem persists across eras: even as the industry shifts from Web 2.0 into the hard-tech, AI-dominated era with fewer perks and a more serious mood, the gap between technical capability and social judgment remains the recurring failure mode.
- Sustained criticism of the Valley's self-awareness feeds the longer narrative questioning its idealistic roots — the same skepticism Adrian Daub probes about naive recruits and 'useless' VC Twitter — pressuring how the industry presents itself to regulators and the public.
The trend: Silicon Valley's empathy deficit is a recurring feature of each hype cycle, with the consequences scaling up as the industry's platforms and political footprint grow.