{"id":266,"date":"2026-05-17T18:06:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanhomejournals.com\/?p=266"},"modified":"2026-05-17T18:06:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:06:32","slug":"theres-no-joy-in-silicon-valley-these-days-menlo-ventures-partner-says-the-rich-arent-particularly-happy-either","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanhomejournals.com\/?p=266","title":{"rendered":"There’s no joy in Silicon Valley these days, Menlo Ventures partner says: ‘The rich aren’t particularly happy either’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In San Francisco, the AI boom is creating fame, fortune \u2014 and existential dread.<\/p>\n

As rapid technological development widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots, a sort of machine-age ennui has set across San Francisco, says Deedy Das, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures.<\/p>\n

Read more The best headphones for working out in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Das said in a post on X, which had almost a thousand responses by Sunday afternoon, that over the past five years, the fortunes of a small group of employees at leading AI companies, like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Nvidia, as well as some smaller startups, have “skyrocketed.”<\/p>\n

Money, however, it seems, really doesn’t always buy happiness.<\/p>\n

Those who’ve made it feel a “profound” lack of purpose, Das wrote, as some of them watch their wealth multiply from less than $150,000 to over $50 million in a matter of years.<\/p>\n

“It flips your life plans upside down.”<\/p>\n

Many, he said, are hitting that threshold young, long before they expected to be financially set. He recalled asking one founder why they didn’t simply sell their company. The founder’s response: If they sold, they would have money \u2014 but lose the attention and relevance that came with always building.<\/p>\n

The under-$500,000 bourgeoisie, meanwhile, feel like they’re on a path with no end, Das wrote. As layoffs ripple through the industry\u2014 most recently at Cloudflare and Coinbase, which both cited AI as a reason for the cuts \u2014 once lucrative roles are fading away. “Many software engineers feel like their life’s skill is no longer useful,” he said.<\/p>\n

Middle managers, too, are unhappy, Das wrote, as another wave of the “Great Flattening” rears its head. “They see the writing on the wall: middle management is being hollowed out in many companies.”<\/p>\n

Instead, people are racked by a new kind of existential dread, Das said. “Am I in the right place? Should I move? Is there time still left? Am I gonna make it?” he wrote.<\/p>\n

Read more Say hello to the new class of AI jobs<\/a><\/p>\n

This other half has a name, too: Several users in the replies called it a “permanent underclass.”<\/p>\n

One possible solution: Move to New York.New York City-based tech blogger Packy McCormick, responding to Das on X on Saturday, said that amid 70-degree, sunny weather in New York City, he was heading to a kite festival.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t heard the words ‘agent’ or ‘token’ once all morning,” McCormick wrote. “Greatest city in the world.”<\/p>\n

In the end, everything is relative. Das said that it can be easy to scoff at the “champagne problems of the valley.”<\/p>\n

One user in the replies summed it up: “May you get everything you want quickly and with little effort,” they wrote. “An old curse.”<\/p>\n

Read more Inside Amazon: 12 employees describe life under layoffs, AI pressure, and 5-day RTO<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More money, more problems, as they say. 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