Silicon Valley is a show about pride. Even with all its expertly dumb gags like the aforementioned monkey spanking the monkey and Richard paranoid that his night sweats are going to turn into bed wetting, the show is following through with this idea that pride is the main motivator for the movers and shakers within Silicon Valley the place. At Hooli, that pride is causing Gavin Belson to give not two shits about one of the brightest minds in the world who has come to work for his company in favor of putting all of his effort into a guy who spends valuable resources making a giant potato cannon that may have to power to kill. For Belson, losing the compression race to Pied Piper, a company started by a guy he used to employ, will be the ultimate blow to his ego and so he, being made entirely of ego and juice cleanses, will stop at nothing in order to prevent that shameful loss. And fear of shame seems to be something of a corporate culture at Hooli, as Belson’s drones working on Nucleus are too afraid to tell their superior how incredibly behind schedule they are.
Read More about Silicon Valley, Ep. 2.05, “Server Space” shows how pride drives the show