The Tesla Motors founder claims the new show's characters are not like real programmers, saying, 'Software engineers are more helpful, thoughtful, and smarter.'
- Apr 4, 2014
AceShowbiz - As it was predicted, HBO's new show "Silicon Valley" would likely draw criticisms from real-life tech's power players. While some young programmers said they saw themselves in the show, Tesla founder Elon Musk was not into the comedy from Mike Judge.
Met at the series premiere event in San Fransisco, the business magnate described the show as "stranger than the fiction." He added, "Most startups are a soap opera, but not that kind of soap opera."
Complaining about the characters, he said, "None of those characters were software engineers. Software engineers are more helpful, thoughtful, and smarter. They're weird, but not in the same way." He continued, "I was just having a meeting with my information security team, and they're great but they're pretty f**king weird - one used to be a dude, one's super small, one's hyper-smart - that's actually what it is."
Musk went on pointing out what made the show not even close to the reality. "I really feel like Mike Judge has never been to Burning Man, which is Silicon Valley," he said. "If you haven't been, you just don't get it. You could take the craziest L.A. party and multiply it by a thousand, and it doesn't even get f**king close to what's in Silicon Valley. The show didn't have any of that."
"The parties in Silicon Valley are amazing because people don't care about how they're perceived socially, which I don't think Mike got. Hollywood is a place where people always care about what the public will think of them, and it's f**king sad, and the show felt more like that."
On the other hand, Selwyn B. Goldberg, a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, thought the show "was no more unreal than real life here." He explained, "Since the last bubble, it's been complete insanity."
Simon Roy, president of Jemstep, agreed, saying that the comedy depicted the enormous power that engineers have today. "In the '90s, in the 2000s, it wasn't like this," he said.
"Silicon Valley", set to premiere Sunday, April 6 at 10:30 P.M. ET on HBO, is partly inspired by Judge's own experiences as a Silicon Valley engineer in the late '80s. The show follows young tech guys who are living together and trying to make it big in the Silicon Valley. It stars T.J. Miller, Thomas Middleditch, Josh Brener, Martin Starr, Zach Woods and Kumail Nanjiani among others.
"Silicon Valley" 1.01 Clip #1:
"Silicon Valley" 1.01 Clip #2:
