Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Those Kooky Billionaires

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Those of you who have ever seen Fiddler on the Roof probably remember the line from Tevye, “When you’re rich, they think you really know.” That certainly applies here in the Silicon Valley, as the words from billionaires – – no matter how wrong-headed or goofy – – get a lot of attention and respect.

Tim Draper is a big venture capitalist here, and among such stellar investments as Tesla and Skype, he also put cash into the clunker Theranos, whose bankruptcy (to my mind at least) seems virtually inevitable. Instead of being quiet on the Elizabeth Holmes debacle, he has instead painted the company’s failure as some kind of anti-feminist conspiracy against Ms. Holmes, instead of a simple matter of outright fraud.

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Thoughts on “Silicon Valley”

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A few years ago, when the HBO series “Silicon Valley” premiered, I rolled my eyes. I don’t normally like looking at the culture in which I reside (which is why I’ve never watched any of the Steve Jobs movies).

A few weeks ago, though, prodded by my SV-loving son, I started watching it – – and, yep, you know what happened – – I got hooked and watched the entire thing, from Series 1 through 4, every episode. It’s a very funny show, and pretty damned accurate. I’m actually glad my son watched the whole thing, since I want him to understand the culture around here without getting hurt too much by it.

Here’s one clip from it, which is about 50 times funnier if you’ve been watching the whole series; it also is critically-important to the season finale.

I actually need to excuse myself for the afternoon, since I’m helping a dear friend get her office set up, but hopefully Jack or someone will come along with a post. In the meanwhile…….suck it, Jin-Yang.

Appeal to Heaven

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Well, I’m afraid July 4 did me in. After I posted the clip from the John Adams mini-series, I once again fell into watching the entire thing again. For those of you who have Amazon Prime Video, it’s available for $0.00, and it’s a marvelous piece of work (thanks in large part to the talent of Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney). Yes, I will be doing some “real” stock market posts this weekend, but I needed something to throw out there, and this little video tip was on my mind – – so I heartily encourage its viewing!