The HBO Silicon Valley series predicted a lot of data problems

Data fuels the central tension in the brilliant (if slightly dated) HBO series Silicon Valley.

New, edgy, self-conscious nerds with no money and big dreams want to decentralize the internet, storing all data everywhere on every individual’s device, putting everyone in charge of everything online.

Meanwhile…

The mega-rich, old-school tech tycoons (aka the guy running the made-up corporation Hooli, an obvious stand-in for Google, and the über-rich venture capital ‘gurus’) want to literally box up data on expensive private servers and sell the box (and its data) to the highest bidder.

Privacy for the individual is the big problem for the new-age nerds. Privacy (at a high cost) for corporations is the only priority for the industry titans.

One group wants everyone online for the benefit of all. The other wants everyone online for the benefit of the rich.

Spoiler alert: Everything falls apart for the data socialists. Status quo maintained.

Yet, the nuance is in the details. And what can we learn from this nuance with regard to data?

MeFirst vs. MeToo.

Silicon Valley predates the MeToo movement, but, just by covering tech bros and the industry around them, the series calls out underlying structural issues upon which tech (and other) wealth is based in our current economic system. Which is to say…