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$700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

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Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#111

Post by trimethylpurine »

ribosometronome wrote: post #94
trimethylpurine wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scientifically, "bugs" refers to hemiptera, not crustaceans. As for flavor, second hand account indicates that bugs taste like chicken, while first hand account indicates lobster doesn't taste like chicken, at least not to me.

>Scientifically, "bugs" refers to hemiptera Contextually, we're downstream in a conversation caused by someone saying they will not eat bugs. If you had to guess, do you think someone yelling they won't eat bugs would eat fried crickets? Or popcorn pill bugs? Shrimp fried bees? Chocolate cockroach crunch cereal? None of those are hemipterans. I imagine those are all pretty well covered by the "I will not eat bugs!" s…

All that's true also, but since he said "scientifically" I thought it was important to point out that it wasn't the case. And more directly that lobster really isn't very similar to cricket at all, so even though people like to gross each other out by saying it's the same, it's really not. Cockroach is much more similar to grasshopper than lobster. And yet plenty of people eat grasshoppers, but very few eat cockroaches. Therein lies the nuance. Lobster is so different from "bugs" that we shouldn't be grossed out by the false claim that it's the same thing, any more than someone would want tomatoes on their hamburger, simply because they like pickles.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#113

Post by trimethylpurine »

TylerE wrote: post #107
trimethylpurine wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not accurate. Scientifically, "bugs" refers to hemiptera, not crustaceans. Nomenclature isn't typically determined by the quality of nutrition, nor the economic class to which an animal is fed. But this is interesting, nonetheless.

Are you upset by people who don't refer to tomatoes as berries? Because, scientifically, they are.

Not upset. Just correcting you. Bugs are hemiptera, which is an order of the class insecta. Lobster is not in that order and it's not even in that class. If you say "scientifically" then you're especially wrong.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#114

Post by trimethylpurine »

TylerE wrote: post #79
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know? I was offered fried scorpions and grass hoopers once, but I was too chicken to try. My friends thought they taste normal, it sounds plausible at least.

White meat protein is what it is. There's a reason "tastes like chicken" is a thing.

Dude if lobster tastes like chicken to you, you're cooking it so wrong.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#115

Post by tim333 »

tomohelix wrote: post #91
mixmastamyk wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scrappy people solving problems is the only way problems are gonna get solved. Also living in a dorm is not the hardship you seem to think it is. It’s better accommodations than 90% of people in history have ever lived. Watch Les Miserables for a reality check. Better to direct anger at the landed gentry who made this possible.

The apathy is what I am angry about. The sentiment that "this is fine" is what allowed this to happen. Laws and regulations need to be adjusted to enable better housing for more people. But they get blocked because those who hold the means don't see any problem with people below them living in squalid conditions like this. Make no mistake, I see this as a terrible living situation. Just because some war time refugees…

Well, long term. However there will always be young people willing to crash on a couch or equivalent to go somewhere interesting.

I've done a fair bit of backpacking with maybe even more annoying sleeping arrangements and it's great fun at times.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#116

Post by tim333 »

johnsanders wrote: post #62
alexpotato wrote: post #11

My favorite story, possibly not true, about alternative sleeping quarters is from the days of sailing: Sailors who were too drunk to make it back to their ships after a long evening at the tavern would to a room in the back of the tavern, In that room would be two ropes stretched from wall to wall: 1. about waist height 2. just below armpit height. The top rope was slightly offset, horizontally, from the bottom rope.…

Pretty sure this was a thing in Victorian England. It's in Jack the Ripper stories and possibly where the word "hangover" came from I think.

I refuse to believe it's a thing until I see someone do it on youtube.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#117

Post by krapp »

kranner wrote: post #24
DoreenMichele wrote: post #7

Not ideal, but a step in the right direction. We used to have SROs -- Single Room Occupancy -- units for singles, childless couples, retirees. We've torn down about a million of them since WWII. We need to update the concept and bring it back in some fashion. If your life is online, you don't need that much space. You don't need rows of bookshelves when you can download kindle books. Founders of online businesses are…

More than a step, this oversteps the mark by quite a bit. A human being shouldn't have to live in a space that small. I can't imagine it not screwing up anyone's mental health when just looking at a picture of it is giving me an anxiety attack.

Automation and AI are going to destroy the value of human labor (physical and mental) over the next several decades, and under capitalism, the market value of a person translates directly to the amount of calories they can eat and cubic feet of shelter they can afford. When your value to society is all but nil, it makes sense that your allotment of space is little bigger than a coffin.

This is a quirky neo-bohemian thing for techies now but I can see it becoming commonplace under a pay-as-you-go no contract rental system in the future. Although I also think homelessness is going to be normalized in the future as well so this sort of thing won't look nearly as bad as the alternatives for most people when the climate change apocalypse really hits.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#118

Post by glimshe »

Living like the homeless and poor of most US states and foreign countries... Just for the privilege of being in SF?

When I came to the US to work in tech, I made sure that I'd never live in a worse situation than my supposedly 3rd World home country, but this is way, way worse than what I could have had working in tech back home.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#119

Post by nunez »

Honestly if I were in my 20s and wanted to grind like this, these would be perfect. I wouldn't sleep that much, anyway (because of the grind), and when I wasn't sleeping or working, I probably wouldn't be "home".

Plus, if this guy's startup moons, he has an awesome "story" about how he slept in a coffin to chase that hustle.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#120

Post by strangesmells02 »

rm2040 wrote: post #66
strangesmells02 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly like that! Ive spoken with them and that is a great group of folks! Im in their discord and I think theyre onto something huge. Theyre more targeted for remote though. I was thinking more along the lines of somewhere in the suburbs for people who need to go into the office. You could have 5000 square foot property and rent 10 van spaces at 1000 a month each. OR have a duplex at 3000 a month each for 6000 tota…

Gotcha. The other day I saw some RVs here by google: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZaPAEhWhnfW4Bn6XA I don't know the legal set up is but it's close to what you describe.

Yeah, I'm assuming that's either some sort of city sponsored safe parking program or the cops get rid of them every now and then.

I want a more upscale van life experience where it's working people and nice facilities.

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