What Elon Musk Really Thinks of 'Silicon Valley' The billionaire behind Tesla and SpaceX thinks the creators of the new HBO series 'Silicon Valley' need to spend a little bit more time at Burning Man.

By Benjamin Kabin

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

This week Mike Judge, Dave Krinsky and John Altschuler premiered their new HBO comedy series Silicon Valley, but not everybody thought it was funny.

Many in the audience at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City, Calif., said the show hits the mark in illustrating the enormous power that engineers wield in Silicon Valley, but according to Elon Musk the real Silicon Valley is "not that kind of soap opera."

"None of those characters were software engineers," Musk told Recode. "Software engineers are more helpful, thoughtful, and smarter. They're weird, but not in the same way. I was just having a meeting with my information security team, and they're great but they're pretty fucking weird — one used to be a dude, one's super small, one's hyper-smart — that's actually what it is."

Related: Mike Judge's New Series 'Silicon Valley': Will You Watch?

Musk said the show fails to capture Silicon Valley's carefree attitude about how people are perceived and suggested that Judge just didn't "get it" because he's never been to Burning Man festival.

"I really feel like Mike Judge has never been to Burning Man, which is Silicon Valley," Musk said. "The parties in Silicon Valley are amazing because people don't care about how they're perceived socially … Hollywood is a place where people always care about what the public will think of them, and it's f--king sad, and the show felt more like that."

Benjamin Kabin

Journalist

Benjamin Kabin is a Brooklyn-based technology journalist who specializes in security, startups, venture capital and social media.

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