San Francisco is absolutely not Global Weird HQ.
Is this guy unaware of New York?
I’m pretty sure Global Weird HQ is not in America. NYC and SF are some of the most uptight places in the world.
Advice
61–70 of 223 posts
Re: Advice
#62This is probably nit-picking, because I understand the intended message, but the "Aim to read a lot" bit gets me. I've always aimed to read a lot...but rarely manage to actually do it.
Try Audible and audiobooks, it’s easier to fill the commute with sound. You can also add the Kindle app to your smartphone top-4 bar.
I've never been able to get into audiobooks. I listen to podcasts already, and to be honest I find my retention on audible things drastically less than the written word.
Re: Advice
#63> Why San Francisco? San Francisco is the Schelling point for high-openness, smart, energetic, optimistic people. Global Weird HQ. This could describe Seattle, Portland, Austin, Denver (from my experience) in the US, and a myriad of other places worldwide.
Note: optimism in SF more easily sighted when the preferred political party is in power
Nah, there are still plenty of optimistic people in SF. Many of them right now are working on a blockchain something-or-other or an AI-powered something-or-other.
The type of folks you want to meet, if you're interested in doing something that will be seen as important in a generation, are generally fairly apolitical. Politics (at least the hyper-partisan variety pursued in the U.S. today) consumes a lot of energy for the purpose of opposing other people who are expending a lot of energy. It makes sense that neither one of them makes much progress, though they generate much heat and noise in the process. Real change comes from people working on stuff so weird that nobody bothers to oppose them.
Re: Advice
#64> If you think something is important but people older than you hold don't hold it in high regard, there's a decent chance that you're right and they're wrong. Status lags by a generation or more. I winced a little bit at this one, though it's worded strangely so I may be misinterpreting it. The way I took it is poor advice -- when there is a mismatch between yourself and another in terms of "what's important" or wha…
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Re: Advice
#65I'm a bit amused by the advice to move to SF because that's what all the other nonconformists are doing.
Literally stepped over human feces getting off the bus yesterday. There are alot of non conformists here.
Re: Advice
#66This is probably nit-picking, because I understand the intended message, but the "Aim to read a lot" bit gets me. I've always aimed to read a lot...but rarely manage to actually do it.
I used to read in bed every night. Sometimes it was technical material and at other times, it was entertaining fiction. It helped me in many ways - it made it so that I had an activity that helped me relax before I put the book aside and slept. It also helped me make big leaps in my understanding of certain technical topics. I found that (at least in my case) reading before bed led to high retention.
Also, doing it this way, it was an easy ritual -> brush teeth, shower, lie in bed and read, feel tired and can't focus anymore, set book aside, turn off bedside lamp and close your eyes and fall asleep quickly. This adds up to a lot of reading over the months and years.
Re: Advice
#67And remember: if you're not 10-20, you can still do all these things! The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, the second best time is now.
When you feel old and curmudgeonly, that's the perfect time to take a deep breath and become a beginner in something new.
Re: Advice
#68> If you think something is important but people older than you hold don't hold it in high regard, there's a decent chance that you're right and they're wrong. Status lags by a generation or more. I winced a little bit at this one, though it's worded strangely so I may be misinterpreting it. The way I took it is poor advice -- when there is a mismatch between yourself and another in terms of "what's important" or wha…
Agreed. The older I get the more I’ve learned to listen to other people and to question my own ideas. I’ve gotten to the point where I actually view people who listen to others and are open to changing their opinions when confronted with good advice as being much more intelligent than those who are sure they are right about everything all the time.
As the Bob Dylan song goes, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”
Re: Advice
#69One thing that I didn't do at that age and very much regret is to be really conscious of being healthy and physically fit. That's the right time to learn what you should and shouldn't put in your body, and how to be constantly active. There's a million different ways to accomplish that but it's important to find one. People at that age often don't really understand how closely linked physical fitness and mental healt…
I am in the same boat. And the damned thing is it's not that hard to do right by your physical health with moderate amounts of exercise and some self-discipline with meals and alcohol.
Re: Advice
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Advice is to visit, not to move!
I was in SF for the last WWDC, mostly to see and visit these people I keep hearing about. But I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where they were or how to talk to them. I went to WWDC, a couple of meetups, the Computer History Museum, walked through Stanford, ate hummus in Palo Alto, took only public transport or shared Lyft rides. But other than a chance meeting with the CEO of Mode Analytics in one can ride t…
I've basically done the exact same thing as you (though I was there for a different conference) and pre-organizing meetups online is essential, you just don't run into people, as you noticed. Even if you go to somewhere like Red Rock Coffee it's jam packed with people busy working on their thing, so you'd need to be pretty forward to strike up good conversations.
nl's advice seems to be broadly on the money. Get in touch with people online first, and also spend more time there so you don't have to pack the schedule too hard.