249 karma · joined July 11, 2016
As a nomad, airfordable is the best of the bunch to me. It almost balances out the karma of Legalist.
Sigh, yeah, it's a sinking ship. Sadly. My team is the best team I've ever worked with, and my boss is the only boss I was ever excited to work for. I Don't blame him, though, his hands are just tied now that the penny pinchers run the show.
Being cheap is funny. In San Francisco at my last job I was around $175k before the expected bonuses which never materialized, as they tend not to @ start-ups. To no avail I tried hard to sell myself on "$100k and I only work 9 months per year", but there's such a false notion that "bodies in the seat mean productivity". I ended up finding a gig around $110k, which provides me a far better lifestyle in the cheaper part of the Balkans/Near-East than I could afford in any US city where I would want to live.
This is part of the problem: golden handcuffs.
My time in refugee camps teaching Syrian music to Syrian refugees had more of an impact on the world than any of the companies where I've worked.
When you were a little boy, did you ever say "Mommy, when I grow up I'm going to sell banner ads?"
If I can't read about your product with my adblocker on, your product isn't worth my time.
Same thing, different decade.
Erdoğan is the dictator we know, and while replacing him would be nice, it needs to be done democratically or the country would fall into civil war, or possibly worse. Türkiye is the last line of defense between the East and the West. Any instability right now could be disastrous for all of Europe.
Gülen is an Islamist seeking to build a non-secular government. An Islamist had control of the military, they could enforce Sharia law to some extent and destroy what is both an important shipping route and block access to an important route of defense against Russia.
Contrary to popular belief, this is a semi-functioning democracy. The HDP received 13% of the vote last year, and now they have representation in parliament for the first time.
Also, allowing a coup to happen, or even worse, causing one, would have disastrous consequences for NATO.
Until about his recent to the US for Muhamed Ali's funeral, Erdoğan was his usual grumpy-old-grandfather self. He was on television every day spreading conspiracy theories, hatred, and misogyny. Within days of returning, he surpised us all by
- Repairing ties with Israel - Sending two ships of aid to Gaza (which was related to the rift with Israel) - Apologizing to Russia - Repairing trade and tourism ties with Russia (which is important. Between construction, agricultural exports and tourism, Russia means 10-15% of Türkiye's economy - Ordering the mayor of Istanbul (half) apologize to a Korean guy whose store was attacked on Ramazan, and chastizing the brutes who lead this attack. - Showing some flexibility about the schools being forced to convert into Imam Hatip (think Madrassa-Lite) - Suggesting that rich and educated Syrians would be given citizenship - Changing his public EU-accession rhetoric from dismissal to willing to negotiate
Even before the Atatürk airport attack everybody just knew something was coming, and the more general conspiracy theory was that Kerry either warned him of something coming, or made some pretty serious threats.
There is some credibility to this theory. Before the past few attacks embassies sent people home or told them not to show up for work, the Bastille day celebrations at the French Embassies in Ankara and Istanbul were canceled, friends at the US consul told us to stay home and cancel travel plans the day of the Ataturk attack (Surreally I flew back from a vacation 3 hours prior)
Unfortunately, Erdoğan has been very emboldened by the Coup, and most of this progress is gone for good.
We are hoping this all dies down, but I wouldn't advise visiting here this year. The nationalistic sentiment is very strong, the thugs are all out in force.
Well, I wouldn't entirely advise it. The very pleasant direct flight on Turkish Airlines from SFO to IST is about $1k right now. In Taksim nice hotels that used to cost $150/night now cost about $60. Hostels with breakfast are down to $7-$8 pretty much nation-wide. The beach-towns on the EGE & the Med rely almost solely on Russian and British touritsts who no longer come. Pansiyons (think B&B before AirBNB), AirBNB rooms, hotel rooms, and resort packages are almost free.
The dollar and the euro are very strong, and the GBP is still respectable. You no longer have to wait in line for attractions like Aga Safiya, the Basilica Cistern, the Topkapi Palace,or wade through a mob of people in the Grand Bazaar or the Spice Market.
Unfortunately this means that the music in Istanbul has died. Most of the best venues for Balkan/Turkish music have either shut down or switched to Spotify, many of the regular street musicians have given up.
"Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come" - Rumi
Dating is actually pretty wonderful in the bay area, with a few caveats:
1. For the most part, you must develop a non-aspy style of communication. Understanding how to read body language, knowing when to ask questions/follow-up questions, being an honest, authentic listener.
2. Have interests outside of work. It's great that you love your job, but if that's all you have, a partner will have doubts that you have room for them in your life. It shows both a lack of well-roundedness, and in the case of the start-up obsessed, a hyperfocus on money. Many techies also come off quite arrogant, failing to value non-engineering talents and methods of thinking.
3. Find your sub-culture. My love-life/dating life was always very successful, but that's because I had specific demographics based on common interests and activities. Mine were (I use past-tense as I'm quite happily married and in love to a woman I met after moving abroad) music (punk/ska/folk/world). I didn't just listen, but became part of the music scene, met everybody within it, helped promote shows, chipped in on kickstarter projects. This helped my geekiness move away from my own hyper-interest in pointless start-ups, and lose my interest in financial success, finding expression to be infinitely more satisfying.
4. Also, kink. The bay area has the best recreational sex scene in the world. If you're sexually intelligent, seduction and love will follow.
5. Leave the bay area. I'm not saying hop in the SUV and go crush some sweet slopes. Just leave. The next time you quit your job, stick your thumb-out and hitchhike around the world, or at least fly/bus/train there. The bay area is beautiful, but it's really small and myopic. I noticed on OKCupid that the women I was interested in were very passionate about music, literature, dance, and travel, so I decided to explore these and found myself incredible excited by them. I decided to forgo tropical/mountain vacations instead to explore the world, because national geographic just wasn't enough.
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Still, love and sex weren't enough. I loved San Francisco for the first 6 years, then moved to Oakland, where I should have been all along, for the next 6, after certain traumatic life events made me care more about myself than my career, and found myself wanting to live more and work less. It didn't last long, because before I knew it, techies turned into brogrammers, and I had to listen to them speak about VC and apps all of the time. The final straw was when a semi-well-known east-coast fratbro type messaged me on couchsurfing asking if I wanted to be his wing-man. Later that day, a co-worker was bragging to me about hiring a security firm to spray down homeless people who dared sleep in front of his condo building. He was the kind of bro who liked to make racial and homophobic statements under his breath when he was frustrated with his work. Unprofessionally I rm -rf'd my laptop (nuking several large projects which I had in flight), told HR where to send my last paycheck, and told my boss where to stick it. I've been very happy ever since.
In the end, if your goal is greed, or you care about nothing else than work, then the bay area is for you.
Everything else can be found in greener pasteurs.