"Hackers and Hookers" Startup Party Is Tech's New Worst Idea
"Beer. Dance floor. Shot bar. Food truck. Girls." Nerds. Obliviousness. Poor judgment. Skewed cultural views. Social regression. Bros. MySQL. Crushing it. A party atmosphere combined with everything that makes the rest of the world hate you, Silicon Valley: this party is not smart.
This sort of thing gets kids in trouble even when they're too beer-soaked and underdeveloped to "know any better"—but what possible excuse is there for a bunch of nerd grownups? None. There is no excuse. It is shitty and ill-advised.
A "Hackers and Hookers" themed Halloween party, organized by a startup co-working collective called "Hacker Hideout," tech people might be smart commentary on the state of gender and business today. If it weren't real. But, yes, it is real: for $10, you can drink unlimited beer with a bunch of losers whose companies won't even get purchased by Yahoo!, wondering Where are all the girls??, and generally lacking social mores. At least it's "walking distance from the T-line Muni," with "lots of free parking," so it will be easy to flee if you show up by accident and aren't thrilled by the preponderance of dudes in Dockers and Lyft t-shirts talking about "mobile first."
This is monumentally dumb and tone deaf, but when you encourage startup people to think, live, and work like stunted children with checking accounts, it's sadly not all that surprising. Maybe if they'd stayed in college instead of purusing dropout dreams, they'd have learned that this sort of thing is for collegiate jerks—but anyway, see y'all there! I will be dressed as Sexy Jack Dorsey.