Listening to: Stronger - Kanye West

I’m in Boston for the next two weeks, mainly to present at the Mass Customization Conference at MIT.

Thought the best way to reflect on my time in San Fran was best of list:

• Best quote - “To prepare for takeoff please place your seats into their upright and most uncomfortable position.”
• Best office - The Squid Labs HQ in the Alameda control tower.
• Best party - The party at Squid Labs HQ… there was something delightfully Gibsonian about it.
• Best gadget - iPod Touch by far.
• Suckiest thing to lose - Credit card. Lugging cash sucks and the emergency card is one rung above useless. Apple Stores don’t accept it… though high end jewelry stores do.
• Most surprising conversation - The breakfast chat I had with Mike the homeless guy. Proof positive that poverty is a huge economic scourge and not an inevitable side effect of wealth generation.
• Best scam - The guy who spent all day on a pay phone asking people for change so he could continue some vital conversation. He must’ve just fed the change into phone and hit the “return” button. Every time I saw him he was being handed cash.
• Best experience - Two weeks of not feeling like a nutter. It’s has been two weeks of hanging out with people who see the world and, importantly, business like I do.
• Most important lesson - Pay it forward. That’s how things work. People are, to a soul, really generous and keen to help out. They know at some point in the future it’s going to help them out.

UPDATE: Rod refers to that great “No Rain” video by Blind Melon to describe the feeling of being in Silicon Valley.

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