Some things I’ve learned in 5 years living in the Bay Area

• List style articles are popular around here, even better if they are enumerations of things, like ‘[X] things you should start doing now to be [productive, successful, rich, happy]!’

And this will be another one of those. But I should clarify that whatever list I can come up with should be taken in perspective. This is not just things that anyone could learn living in the Bay Area, this is what a south american immigrant tech worker has learned living in San Francisco in the second half of his twenties starting at mid 2011 and having not lived in any other american city or foreign country before. All of those elements (and more) contribute to my bias. I think moving out of your own culture helps you define both yours and the new one you are getting into easier.

That said, these are some things I can think of, some of them could be topics of long reflections and it can be risky to leave them so shortly developed, but I’ll keep this superficial. Here it goes:

The city

• I’ve seen so many bizarre situations — especially on public transportation — that I got used to it to the point (almost) nothing shocks me anymore.
• Coming from a very homogenous country, I keep developing my understanding of diversity and how it can be measured in different ways. San Francisco still has ethnic diversity but has a shrinking demographic diversity. No matter where people are originally from, most of the people you see around nowadays are young adults (good luck finding a teenager), single, liberal and working in tech.
• When I found our current place years ago I looked at the space, the sun light exposure, the old looking style. Never thought the most important feature that has made us stay here for so long was being under rent control :-/
• Many people think San Francisco is the center of the universe. I think about it more like the biggest lab in it, surrounded by a thick reality distortion shield.
• Very few people are from here, and they’re known as unicorns… probably fewer than unicorn startups at this point.
• No matter how long or little you stay in the city, you will make new friends and you will see friends leaving.

California

• Respect for each other’s believes and behavior is the norm. That is a good thing for sure, especially in work environments, but it goes so far that very few times you will get into disagreement, people would silently judge you instead, to avoid conflict.
• Being nice is not the same than being friendly. In California it seems to be easier to find the former than the latter.
• If after meeting someone they tell you “We should hangout sometime!” it means you are probably not seeing that person again.

Food

• Waiting *just* 30 minutes to get seated on a restaurant is getting lucky. The city loves lines.
• Drinking instant coffee is unthinkable (sudden coffee is another story)
• The dairy free milk options for your espresso drink are endless (soy, almond, hemp, rice, cashew, sheep and on…)
• I can identify Californian and New American cuisine, but please don’t ask me to describe it.
• New Yorkers will hate the pizza here and I just don’t get it, theirs is even more greasy! Anyway, sensitive topic…
• If you get a cheap salad, you get greasy dressing. If you want none or light dressing, you need to get a super organic expensive one.

Weather

• There is mist, clouds, fog and then Karl, the Fog.
• Fall is summer, summer is fall and winter is not that bad.
• Always wear layers!

Society

• The love americans have for personal freedom is something I can’t stop dimensioning. From guns through cars to birth plans, it just manifests in almost everything that shapes this society.
• The definition of “Latino” is not as easy as I thought. While I would originally consider myself part of the group, Americans only recognize a specific demographic of people coming from Central America as such. I literally have been told “but you’re not a Latino!”.
• Gentrification is a controversial and ubiquitous topic. It is said this city has gone through change multiple times, but the one that started a little before I moved here, has been explosive. SF, now the most expensive city in the country, it has attracted thousands of highly paid and qualified workers for the tech industry, pushing most of everyone else out and causing awful problems like a shortage of teachers in public schools among many more. It’s puzzling to feel part of that change, but while it’s tempting ( and maybe possible ) to blame someone I just can’t think how a small, geographically bounded city with tall buildings regulation could have reacted to absorb the housing demand as fast as it grew. It now seems to have saturated to the point it can’t physically fit more people in. A salary is already paying for just one room in a shared apartment. Anyway, long and complicated topic.

Startups

• Startup founders, even though they have their unique values and priorities, have common personality patterns. I’m getting better and better at identifying that stereotype.
• Yes, there is (was?) a tech boom with startups popping up every day, but while looking for a job last year I saw plenty of them were focusing on providing services for other startups, meaningless problems, making the elite’s life even better or all of the above. More recently there seems to be a cooling down period with investors funding more focused, reasonable, meaningful endeavors. Again, my bias.

I’ll stop here, this is looking more like a list of writing topic ideas than learnings. Also time is limited nowadays due to the demands of a little someone who turns 3 months tomorrow. She is teaching me way more profound things and at a high pace, and I still need to process all of that.