so, this might be the greatest city in the world
When I first landed in San Francisco, I had no idea what I was looking for. I came here about a month ago—unemployed, newly single, and, for the first time in a while, unanchored in any serious way. So I adopted a policy of “aggressive openness,” which sounds like a weird therapeutic intervention but is just a convoluted way of saying: I’ve been saying yes to everything. In most cities, you can sense some kind of dominant social gravity. New York has ambition. LA has image and influence. Berlin has irony. San Francisco has…what? At first, I thought it was optimism. People here say things like “it’s early days” or “this could be the unlock for consciousness research.” It sounded like a Silicon Valley cliche, until I realized they were seriously stating their intentions, the way medieval cathedral builders might’ve discussed projects they’d never see completed. But optimism didn’t feel exactly right. It’s too emotional, too forward-looking. San Francisco doesn’t always believe things wil
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