My coworkers got me into the Silicon Valley TV series a few months ago and it was a natural pairing. As someone working in the tech industry and a pretty big fan of Mike Judge’s work, I felt that this was a series definitely worth catching (of course, once the current Game of Thrones season completed). I haven’t done any reviews thus far of the episodes but I did want to delve into the Nelson “Big Head” Bighetti character since he reminds me of myself more than the rest of the main cast.
Mike Judge often likes to bring up certain types of people in his writing and one of his favorites tends to gravitate towards the “Every Man.” In this case, “Big Head” is that “Every Man” or rather the “Every Average Developer.” When he’s being “interviewed” for stock options by Jared, he openly admits to being average while his more cynical coworkers of Gilfoyle, Dinesh and even Erlich Bachman assault him both in front and behind his back about his uselessness. He’s not exactly useless compared to many people in tech (i.e. project managers, product people and other forms of middle management) but he’s not the stereotypical rockstar engineer most people imagine in the Silicon Valley culture.
After overhearing the snide remarks about his true worth to the company, Big Head, in season 1 episode 2, decides to go for a bike ride. His only friend, Richard Hendricks decides to pursue him in case a catastrophe has stricken him. Instead, Richard detects through Big Head’s Nip Alert app that Big Head is at the lap dancer, Mochaccino‘s home. Richard catches up with him and Big Head talks about his rational for being an engineer in Silicon Valley. Essentially, he states that he simply wanted to earn a living doing something he was interested in through building applications. He has no real desire to make huge money and the squabbling over stocks has felt petty to him. In turn, he decides to leave Silicon Valley since the situation disgusted him.
That speech pretty much is how I feel about the tech industry in general. I’m certain there’s tons of other engineers out there who entered because they simply wanted a career they could enjoy and get paid for. Unfortunately, the way the industry has turned, it’s become all about money and screwing each other out of deals. Erlich Bachman emphatically advises to Richard about the necessity of becoming an asshole in order to succeed or even survive in the Valley. Those conflicting views of friendship over success are what make me hate this industry at times with a great amount of passion.
The irony of the situation for Big Head comes when he shows up back at the fictional Hooli to collect his belongings only to discover that the CEO himself decides to promote Big Head as revenge against Richard and his investor Peter Gregory. He goes back to announce to Richard his life changing promotion and Richard goes into denial about how he goes to bat for Big Head. But Big Head admits what a huge opportunity it is for him and runs with it.
Of course, over the seasons, we see Big Head increase in presence in Hooli despite having virtually little to no skill nor talent. The infamous “rest and vest” statement made by people who are cast off into the supposed purgatory of being unassigned is something that Big Head gradually embraces. Then when he’s finally given the stick to come up with a game changer for Nucleus, the rival product against Pied Piper, Big Head’s response is just his hopeful desire for the future while demonstrating a potato cannon.
For myself, minus the cosmic luck he manages to acquire in the show, Big Head practically reminds me of myself with where his head and heart are. He’s not entirely stupid but not the brightest block around either. But there’s a lot of people who end up resenting him because of his dumb luck. Nonetheless, I completely feel where he’s coming from.
The industry itself is truly ruthless. Rather than building noble devices to improve humanity, the tech industry has become about private ego wars between the rich and powerful. The middle people are nothing more than sycophants sucking up to the higher ups just to gain their percentages as we’ve seen happen to Gavin Belson. They hide truths from them so that they can demonstrate their strengths or consistently overpromise and underdeliver. The smart ones sell each other out daily for their own petty amusement and look down upon those who they do not see on their own level.
I suppose for someone like myself Big Head is the anti-hero of the story. Everyone probably favors Richard (and his team) for the most part because he generally represents the purer side of what technologists ought to be. However, you can see how he’s forced to change in order to survive. Thus far Big Head has remained the same and is considered a “great guy” by his former coworkers. I’m sure many average programmers are also “great guys” but in the end we get stomped on by that machine until one day it burns us out and makes us just want to go home (if we still have one).