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San Francisco tech culture makes research hard

notes.andymatuschak.org · 427 words · saved by 1 readers

I love San Francisco dearly. I love the optimism, the energy, the earnestness, the ambition. But most of the time, the culture here isn’t really what I need to make progress in my research. Often, it’s actively harmful. The main thing I struggle with is deliberateness. Deep research requires a slower pace than tech industry work. Others are moving very quickly, and conversation often implies that I should be too. It often feels hard to give longer-term ideas time and space to develop while living in this social context. When I talk to people about what I’m thinking about or where I’m stuck, the questions they ask are usually about action, motion—and, often, incrementalism. Sometimes the stereotypical bias to action can be very helpful, even for a researcher! But often these framings aren’t what’s needed. Often I just need to sit with the problem for another hundred hours. And what I need from a conversation partner is a provocative question, a creative reframing, a thoughtful reference

San Francisco tech culture makes research hard San Francisco tech culture makes research hard I love San Francisco dearly. I love the optimism, the energy, the earnestness, the ambition. But most of the time, the culture here isn’t really what I need to make progress in my research. Often, it’s actively harmful. The main thing I struggle with is deliberateness. Deep research requires a slower pace than tech industry work . Others are moving very quickly, and conversation often implies that I should be too. It often feels hard to give longer-term ideas time and space to develop while living in

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