Ed McManus
Technical Advisor, Silicon Valley · 1 appearance on the record.
computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →
14statements → 9claims → 3claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 3.86/5average certainty → 1.21/5average debate potential →
3 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 5 not checkable as stated how the 9 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
9 assertions · 1 opinion · 2 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 9 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Ed argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
McManus: GitHub account made for Silicon Valley character Winnie accidentally went viral
“I actually, I created a GitHub profile for playback purposes, right? So just, like, we wanted an authentic looking GitHub profile. The best way to do that is just to make a GitHub profile for that person. Yeah. So I made one for Winnie and we had to populate i…”
Everything Ed McManus said on the Y Combinator Startup Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
McManus: Silicon Valley's fictional Middle Out algorithm is technically plausible
“The surprising thing with Middle Out is that, like, there is actually a technical background for it, and like, it is actually the result of a lot of sort of machine learning developments applied to compression. So the sort of, like, the theory behind the tech,…”
McManus: Mr. Robot is the gold standard for television technical accuracy
“One is Mr. Robot. And even when I was on Silicon Valley, I kind of said like, this is the gold standard for both playback and technical accuracy.”
McManus: Shorter TV season orders enable higher technical accuracy
“Season orders are going down, right? So, like, now instead of, like, producing 20 episodes a season, they're only doing 10. Which just means that the quality of every episode is so high that they can, you know, afford to Take the time to reach out to the consu…”
McManus: Silicon Valley's beta storyline was based on his startup Yard Sale
“They ended up pulling directly from our experience with Yard Sale launching a beta, and sort of, like, not being totally sure at first, like, whether this thing is working or not.”
McManus: Silicon Valley Only Parodied Figures Already in Major Headlines
“I think that, that like we, the show would not go after anyone unless it were sort of like already kind of like a big story. A lot of what the writers end up using is, is, You know, stuff that gets pulled from the headlines.”
McManus: GitHub account made for Silicon Valley character Winnie accidentally went viral
“I actually, I created a GitHub profile for playback purposes, right? So just, like, we wanted an authentic looking GitHub profile. The best way to do that is just to make a GitHub profile for that person. Yeah. So I made one for Winnie and we had to populate i…”
McManus: Silicon Valley writers did not fully understand Y Combinator's significance
“That's a question that I asked the writers, and I started to realize that, like, it was kind of on their radar, but they didn't really understand the significance of Y Combinator in Silicon Valley.”
McManus: 2015 startup sale was primarily to return investor capital
“We were cranking hard on our startup for four years sold it in 2015 and the acquisition, it was kind of mostly just to sort of do right by our investors, return as much as we could. But it was not like, you know, phenomenal outcome for the company.”
McManus: Greylock recommended him to HBO for Silicon Valley technical advising
“Randomly someone from HBO reached out to Greylock, who was one of our investors and asked them the question, like, hey, we're trying to put together sort of like this team of superstars from the tech world. Who would you go after? And both me and my co-founder…”
Ed McManus: Technical TV advisor role is mostly listening, rarely speaking
“Most of the job is actually just sort of, like, sitting and listening, and it's very rare that you actually have to speak up and sort of, like, help them course correct.”
HBO's Silicon Valley writers visit San Francisco startups before every season
“Before every season, they actually come up to San Francisco for, I think, like a week or two weeks and meet with a bunch of startups. So they, like, every writer goes through this kind of like you know, crash course to get up to speed.”
McManus: Wrote or reviewed all technical dialogue in Silicon Valley Season 3
“Any time, like one of the characters says anything technical, that was something that, that either I wrote or reviewed.”
McManus: Silicon Valley's background whiteboards and props were designed for freeze-frame accuracy
“So if you watch any episode, just pay attention to the stuff in the background, because like the show is designed to be possible. Like you can freeze frame anything and like look at the documents, for example, in their hands or like the whiteboards in the back…”
McManus: Silicon Valley flashed real, compilable C code Easter eggs on screen
“I think in the second episode we hid an Easter egg in some C code. That we like had just sort of like flash on screen for like a second. Pausing it, copying it over and actually compiling it. And it was kind of cool. I wrote like a really simple compression al…”
Appearances (1)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| The Technical Advisor for Silicon Valley on HBO: Ed McManus · Y Combinator | May 17, 2017 | 26m |