That Was The West That Was

[mangosteen]

From last Thursday until today, lifecollage and I were away in the San Francisco Bay Area on vacation. There was much doing and shlepping and conversing and other such things, but I don't feel like listing them right now.

Observations: A few notes from the trip.

California is a complete state filled with "have it your way". There is very little of the "we're all in this together" you'd get in denser regions of the country, or those with harsher weather. Social rituals to smooth mundane daily interactions just aren't as necessary. More on that below.

It is still possible to terrorize California drivers with Boston driving skills.

It's easy to look at the tech culture of the bay area and say that tech people in the bay area have no work/life balance as we know it in the northeast; but that's not precisely true. It may at first glance look like a bit of "let's all act like friends until business gets in the way" hypocrisy; but that's somewhat misleading. It's just that the boundary is a bit more fluid.

The finance and insurance companies of the northeast are built on the bedrock that allows the start-ups of the bay area to grow in tectonically unstable soil.

I'm a city boy, but I couldn't imagine living in SF. Its infrastructure is just too dysfunctional in too many ways. The alternative (some random subdivision in the peninsula) scares me just as much, though.

Contrary to what I thought before breakfast on Saturday, *French* cuisine is the one with the tiny portions, *not* Californian. All I needed is one bigger-than-my-head omelet to correct that one.

The Toyota Camry is a very Beige car. It has all of the personality of a sewing machine, and I don't mean one of those $2000 Japanese sewing machines that do everything but pick out the fabric for you. The handling is a bit loose, and its center is vague. That being said, it's the fastest version of Beige I've seen yet.

If one is driving fast enough southbound, it doesn't feel like one is driving down a highway, as much as one is dropped down from the top of the road. I will note that going 93mph on I-680 is one circumstance where that can be said to happen.

I forgot how quiet gasoline engines could be.

Walking up to the State House in Sacramento and touching it was a very odd experience. Given how alienated I've felt from state and (especially) federal government over the past 6 years or so, it felt *good* to actually be able to walk up to a building that contains the governing body for the 7th largest ecnonomy in the world and confirm that it physically exists, as opposed to it being some locked-down and inaccessible phantasm, as is my current image of the Capitol Building in DC.

The next conservative friend I have who tells me that I live in "Taxachusetts" will be beaten over the head with California. Repeatedly and a lot. After that, they will be beaten over the head with the 26 states that have a higher average state/local tax burden than the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Following *that* beating, I will tell them that they are wrong.

As I walked into xthread's office, I noticed the smell of outgassing industrial carpet. The last time I smelled that particular smell was 15 years ago when my father was doing consulting work for a small tech startup in Palo Alto. That smell will always be associated with "promising new tech startup" for me.

Note to self: I will not get offended when a tech person's immediate reaction to "I work for a university." is "You're in semi-retirement, then?" Oh, screw that. Of *course* I'm going to get offended by it. I'm just going to politely nod, smile, and then decisively correct them.

Seeing someone essentially start their social life from square one at age 60 is a hard thing to watch sometimes, but it makes me incredibly happy, all the same.

And one big one, to finish it off:

Here's the theory. If one grows up in the northeast or the midwest, there's an overriding thought process that goes something like "If I don't make arrangements for myself, the winter is going to come, and I'm going to die." To my mind, this has a small bias on everything one does, from building community, to social conventions, to many other sorts of value judgements. Having to "buckle down for winter" provides an implicit penalty for failure, i.e. "If I screw up often enough, winter is going to come, and I'm going to die." The west coast has no such implicit penalty for failure, and I believe that that has a small but profound effect on social and work behaviors.

So, that being said, for a long time I knew that there were several differences between the west coast's" no penalty for failure" thought model and the northeast's "buckle down for winter" thought model, but I couched all of them in terms of the more stolid and reliable mien of the northeasterners vs. the flakiness and easy life of the Californians. It never occured to me to look at it in terms of the idea that tech people in the bay area really do think that anything is possible, because they don't build in the assumption that they have to hunker down for the winter. It makes them less... afraid, in a way. The contrasts between Silicon Valley and Rt. 128 in Boston make a bit more sense now, but there are a couple of books to read on the subject before I firm up my thoughts on it.

Comments

[cos]

Do you ever walk up to the Massachusetts capitol building?

[mangosteen]

Yes, but that was a long time ago.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

As a happy Corolla owner, I like that my car has no personality. It reliably gets me from point A to point B. It's a very practical car. My stereo, stove, and food processor don't have personality either. They're there to do a job. That's just how I see cars, though, and I know that other people see them differently (particularly men).

Have I mentioned my Corolla happily purrs along, 1995 (bought new) and 215,000 miles?

[mangosteen]

Your defense of your consumer choices has been noted.

Allow me to venture a guess.... your definition of "personality" in this context is defined in terms of "the ways in which something doesn't work as expected, but is rationalized away and worked around."

[awfief.livejournal.com]

No, there is no definition of personality in this context because I do not attribute personality to a machine that does work for me. Computers don't have a personality either, nor do databases. I call those workaround "bugs" or "features" whether they're technological or mechanical.

invincible california

[estheruth.livejournal.com]

what about the coming of the great white hankerchief/presumable huge earthquake?

Re: invincible california

[mangosteen]

Good point. I think it's a matter of predictability. Winter is inevitable. The Big One is inevitable too, but it doesn't arrive on a pre-set schedule.

Re: invincible california

[cos]

It's on a different scale. At any given time, assuming the earthquake isn't going to hit while you're working on your current project is a pretty safe assumption.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That was some really insightful travel writing. I usually just skim most weekend getaway posts, but I read all of that.

Intriguing points you make about the differences to be found in Northeastern versus Californian mindsets. For a long time, when interacting with Californians I've noted a striking absence of urgency in the day to day way they think and respond. Urgency being something very near and dear to we Northeasterners, I doubt I could live comfortably in a society that didn't make use of it.

My most front-seat view of this difference is when dealing with my Californian travel partner, J. He doesn't get the whole concept of Now Means Now. To my mind, "time to go to dinner" means get your shoes on and be waiting downstairs in 5 minutes. To J, it means light a cigarette, fiddle with the TV for a while, find something on YouTube that he absolutely must show me, check voicemail, decide he wants a quick shower, and then finally shuffle out the door for dinner. Certainly part of that is simple personality differences, but sense that the lion's share of it is cultural.

Well anyway, glad you two got back safe and sound. Come to dim sum, and don't be late! ;-)

[siderea]

For a long time, when interacting with Californians I've noted a striking absence of urgency in the day to day way they think and respond. Urgency being something very near and dear to we Northeasterners, I doubt I could live comfortably in a society that didn't make use of it.

A born-and-bred Yankee, I lived three years in CA and that lack of urgency drove me Up A Freaking Wall. I returned to the land of my birth with a very clear appreciation of go-getter Type-A people.

I would argue it's not merely fear of winter, but an appreciation of good weather, too, which we Yankees are motivated by. We understand how precious and fleeting opportunity is, whether the right time to put the crops in or the right time to call in sick to go enjoy the first warm day of spring. In CA, there's always another beautiful golden day to put whatever-it-is off to. But here in the northeast, the day must be seized. I think we get more out of our time because we realize how limited it is, and so we "drink life to the lees", squeeze the last bit of juice from every hour, and link the plate of living.

[lightcastle.livejournal.com]

Hey mangosteen, I find it interesting that we both hit a similar social theory.

In my case though,I insist it is not the cold. It's the weather. Most cultures with pronounced hospitality traditions seem to have weather that could kill you. That means deserts as well as blizzards. In other words, someday you might be the one stuck out in the elements and needing to get in.

Thus, Canadians are really nice to strangers.

I do like this "if it is always nice, you don't need to get it done today" theory, as it also explains the wonderful energy in Greece.

What I find, however, is quite the opposite of you, siderea. Namely, I find way to many easterners mistake indulgence for living to the fullest, mistake wild swings of excess as "living life to the lees". There is no subtlety in their passions, no savoring of their pleasures.

Having an actual 4 seasons does teach one to appreciate what is special about each one, though, that is far too true.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this!

As you know, I grew up in San Diego. It's very different from the Bay Area in some ways; it's much more conservative (probably because of the huge military influence) and pretends to be laid-back, but isn't really. But much of the cultural mileiu is the same...

Two particular reactions:

The next conservative friend I have who tells me that I live in "Taxachusetts" will be beaten over the head with California. Repeatedly and a lot. After that, they will be beaten over the head with the 26 states that have a higher average state/local tax burden than the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Following *that* beating, I will tell them that they are wrong.

Go you! This state has a terrible reputation that it so does not deserve. Some of it may be from being next door to New Hampshire. But that state has some pretty serious problems when it comes to environmental destruction and school inequality. (Also, to some degree, NH sponges off its taxier, wealthier neighbor to the south -- see being_homeless's story for a good example of that.) In any case, if one wants government services, one has to pay for them, and also be willing to put up with more governmental regulations.

Note to self: I will not get offended when a tech person's immediate reaction to "I work for a university." is "You're in semi-retirement, then?" Oh, screw that. Of *course* I'm going to get offended by it. I'm just going to politely nod, smile, and then decisively correct them.

Oh g-d, I get this too sometimes! My general answer is, "Yes, I could sell my soul to Big Pharma and make twice as much money, and also have NO life outside of work and be constantly facing pressure to finagle the numbers in Big Pharma's favor."

Re: Taxachusetts

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

This state has a terrible reputation that it so does not deserve.

Actually, it did deserve it once. The moniker was applied to the state when Michael Dukakis (a name I can't say out loud without spitting in disgust) was running for president. At that time, the governor was busily hiding the gross budget imbalance using all sorts of "creative" financial techniques, but because Massachusetts is not the Federal government, we ultimately had to pay for all the splufty showy programs he was attempting.

Think about it: why has Massachusetts, of all states, had Republican governors for the last sixteen years? It is still the hangover from the Dukakis debacle, and the absurd hikes in taxes, fines, and fees.

Weld was able to dig the state's bond rating out of the sewer and return it to financial respectability within a mere three years (well before the Dot Com Boom), so it really was due to Dukakis. (hack, ptui)

Nonetheless, folks from "away" remember the "Taxachusetts" tag, and it obviously still provokes mirth in them to repeat it.

Re: Taxachusetts

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

why has Massachusetts, of all states, had Republican governors for the last sixteen years?

Actually, if you recall our first Republican governor, you might also recall who ran against him. The Democrats nominated one of the most famous raging assholes in the commonwealth when they nominated John Silber, then president of BU, for governor. And he was famous for his raging assholity -- notably extreme social conservatism, with an apparent willingness to inflict it on others indiscriminately -- in the most liberal parts of the state. Despite this, he only lost 52-48.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

It is still possible to terrorize California drivers with Boston driving skills.

We are so, so proud of you.

{kvells}

[formlesspassion.livejournal.com]

Really interesting stuff. I understand my own prejudices better now, and will travel more wisely and consideratly. Thanks.

[fj.livejournal.com]

It was my mother's theory that it was the cold that stopped Poland from being as poor as, say, Ethiopia. She noticed abject poverty, walking-in-a-rag and living-in-a-plastic-bag poverty on a large scale of the population, only happened in tropical countries -- because everywhere else they would freeze to death en masse, or have a revolution first.

I am still not ready to embrace the theory of climatological geopolitics as devised by my mither, but what you are basically describing is the fable of the ant and the grasshopper - except the grasshopper is not lazy, he's just thinking further. To that end I would like to point out LA as a counterexample: Silicon Valley ain't here. It is a surprisingly conservative media town.