We’re moving to San Francisco on Monday, April 16th.
We pack our stuff (books and household items; all the furniture is being given away) into a shipping container over the preceding weekend. Then we get on a plane, cat stowed in cargo, and go. There’s an apartment waiting for us in Hayes Valley. We might actually be crazy enough to drive to the local Ikea across the Bay Bridge that same afternoon. If we don’t, we won’t have any furniture. Our stuff arrives a while later.
That’s the “when” and the “how” of this move. The “why” is, first and foremost and as previously mentioned, to work at Obvious. Twitter is growing rapidly and we’re a small team; trying to keep up with the other engineers from across the country, all the phone calls and brainstorming and small crises, is a challenge. I’ve more or less been living on Pacific time since working out there several weeks ago, and I’m tired of it. My head’s already there.
There’s a broader question of “why,” though, given that: a) I already lived in San Francisco once and b) Timoni and I really liked Portland, Oregon way more. The answer is more or less that there’s more in San Francisco, even if it’s not all better. There’s more neighborhoods, more weekend trips in easy driving distance, more people, more shows, more possibilities, more going on. More than DC, and way more than Portland. We really want a change, and San Francisco delivers on the change front.
It won’t be too long before we’re back to visit on the East Coast, though. More about that soon.
1 comments:
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Author: <a href="http://dwoolstar.blogspot.com">Derek Woolverton</a><br />
Posted: 2007-04-06 01:14:19<br />
I love working for Bay Area companies, but my wife is not from California and does not understand all the things that California offers, like traffic, crime, earthquakes, etc. (We even got to experience the riots in LA back in the 90s.) So we've left California for living, but I've found the grove for working with CA teams.
Partly we didn't move very far. AZ is in the same timezone as CA half the year, and the rest of the time I just sleep in an extra hour. Its also really easy to get from AZ to SFO or SJC, so I can pop out frequently to hang with the rest of the team, then get back home quickly and spend the rest of the time in my socks with the kids.
So I would say, don't give up on being stuck in the Bay Area for the next 10 years. Form more friendships with other engineers and then use that in the future to bridge the distance gap if you do escape the area. Heck hire me and I'll try and show you how to make it work.
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