SF: Logbook

Day 50 (11/17/18)

Targeting algorithms in apps work much better here. Economist, NYT, etc. In UA it was plain waste.

Had to learn basic Spanish, since in some situations you have people who don't speak English. At all. That's why I would impose TOEFL-like exam for a lot of groups as a condition to get even temporary residence. Chinese is a runner-up here.

Go to visit museum? Find a day that is paid for you by somebody else (Target is interested in bringing museums to the people in need or to the people who prefer not to pay if there is any slightly chance not to do so).

Only here I've understood why Amazon is so wealthy company. It's meets your demand in an optimal and frictionless way with astonishing business acumen

On the rear side of the schoolbus: stop when red. Never saw something alike anywhere

There are so many people that not really know what they want and what they can. But also so many people that are really know what they want and what they can.

US is supportive and unsupportive at the same time 

Diversity and inclusion was the most voted topic on my Management course. Hm..

People from Latin America are so voluble

Once again about housing. It's pretty crazy here, to the extent, that it's so far the most expensive city of the world: https://i.redd.it/0lji1j8bzh711.png. The most hilarious thing is that the quality of infrastructure and housing are at best average (realistically, it's just OK-ish, really). 

How to know that a restaurant is good? When police officer come to it to pickup his order.

Walking is good, car is bad. 12K steps is an average daily distance

No plastic bags. Haven't you heard it harms the nature?

Subjectively I have a feeling that I spent less time here

I like set of US problems (any culture/country is just a bunch of problems), but I don't like US 'not problem anymore'

Today the townhall is homeless-free. Wow, that's a big progress, dear democratic municipality. For how long? (:

No objective way to make a judgment about you for natives. Black boxes with foots.

Police are using motorbike. Lower officers content themselves with KTM, whereas 'old soldiers' use Harley Davidson.

Isaac will cover his tuition with a help of his employer. Only in case he get A (and partly and semi-proportionally for lower grades)

Can trick russians with my accent. Haha

Parents (actually, nobody) have no access to college grades. Protected by Federal Law.

One person here (white collar) commutes 2h. One way.

Potluck is main form of socialization. Nice idea, especially if you have something to input (:

I never pickup a receiver. Calls are scum in SF unless you know the number.

Universities are for profit, despite their disguise

Politics is unattractive and broken in SF (as well as education, social and health system as a consequence)

"I am, at the Fed level, libertarian;

at the state level, Republican;

at the local level, Democrat;

and at the family and friends level, a socialist."

--Geoff and Vince Graham (quoted by Taleb in Skin in the Game)

My recipe for solving root issues in SF? Permissionless economics and permissioned ethics over permissioned economics and permissionless ethics

NIMBY as a hypocritical political trade-off and main modus vivendi at the same time. Turning a blind eye on anything is a short-term-sweet but long-term-bitter solution. Intellectual honesty for finding out, Integrity for doing.

AQI 357. Worst place to be on Earth in terms of air. Should be solved in a couple of days though.

How does society in SF looks like

https://www.wired.com/story/how-silicon-valley-fuels-an-informal-caste-system/

Induction as an institute is nonexistence for Latino people's type of thought/speech. Barbara's Minto Pyramid is to the rescue.

Yosuke is a guy that I'm chatting with regularly. He studies in Tokyo Institute of Technology. A charming person, of course. Both of us end up living near Japancity... His main criteria for finding a place to live in SF was to find a place where he can continue practice Kendo. Every interaction with Japanese person makes you a little bit better. The same goes for Haruka, Saori, Mei, Mutsuko, Kaori and other Japanese people, that I met here.

Koan:

SF (0) is antipode to Tokyo (1). I would stick to 0.8-0.9

SF (1) is antipode to any UA village (0). I would stick to 0.8-0.9

Everybody says genuine compliments to each other here. Nice.

Day 20 (09/16/18)

1. SF climate is sublime. Especially if you go in for sports.
2. Freedom is double-edge sword. China and Russia might be intrinsically incapable of it (al least history has no support for opposite claim)
3. Counterintuitive: constraints in a life are good
4. Money is a big deal here. You have a great advantage if your fuel is different, so that you don't buy overpriced fuel and you behavior displays both different process and different results (whereas on the input all of us have more or less the same substance)
5. Interesting aspect of being vs appearing. In western culture you supposed to live up to positive attitude which is fine unless you feel the opposite. That is where Integrity comes in. A one should be not mean, but also not fall into hypocrisy. In reality though we have this: https://twitter.com/vkovanovic/status/1034951349232787457  
6. My regular size in UA is M, in Asia it's L in the US it's XS. Speaking about T-shirts, I tried so many options, but leasing T-shirts (tie's dragon as a mascot, do you remember?) so far is my favorite. Some things are difficult to buy. Well, just pulling a leg.
7. Uniqlo, Daiso, Spotify, Amazon Prime and so many other things are still not available to the developing countries.
8. People form post-Soviet countries (Union Sovietica as my Argentinian friend call it) are the least pleasant to deal with (with Muslim countries and Mexico as runners-up). Japanese behavior is still a golden standard. Irasshaimase! <Just for the records: it shows less of greeting and more as respect toward the performer of its action (like the customer) by honoring them as opposed to humbling the speaker. The difference is subtle, but substantial in it's delicacy>. 
9. Freedom is quite expensive for majority of people (and it's not about money). I'm wondering, did The Founding Fathers anticipated that or it's a new thing? Food for thought. 
10. Integrity and Vitality are the most important things here. Probably, this is one of the biggest discoveries so far. 

Day 15 (09/11/18)

1. Roughly 74 percent of packaged foods and beverages in the U.S. are made with some form of sweetener. Beware!
2. Swimming, gym, basketball, tennis, zumba (Latino instructor of course), tai chi (Chinese instructor, of course), jogging. There are a lot of sport around if you have time (as well as energy, some spare cash, and place to sleep at night, obviously).
3. According to fiscal year 2018 figures, “low income” status in San Francisco begins at $82,200/year for a single person, the highest in the US.
4. Homeless is a quite unpleasant thing for anybody, who is more or less 'un-homeless'. Hopefully, there is a map that can help to reduce encountering homeless areas: http://mochimachine.org/wasteland/
5. Since you are student you have a lot of perks. One of it is Amazon prime. It's free. Well, technically all the time it's courtesy of somebody else. This time it's a courtesy of Sprint. 
6. I heard that neighborhoods is important for SF, however only now I understand what is the reason behind that. It's like microcities. I live near Japan town (technically Western Addition), which is in average. Here is a map: https://www.areavibes.com/san+francisco-ca/neighborhoods/ and https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-san-francisco-rent-trends/
7. Internalizing experience takes time and energy. The good news is that it's decrementing, since you absorb some minimum and after hitting a particular threshold you eventually swim un-distracted
8. If you live with parents, in general you supposed to pay a rent to parents (somewhat lower the market though).An explanation from a native: "We are family, but also we are individuals and should be responsible for our own life". 
9. It seems I like almond milk. Especially when it cost less than a dollar per liter. 'Must have' badges encompass: dairy-free, lactose-free, gluten-free, soy-free, carrageenan-fee, saturated_fat-free, cholesterol-free, artificial_colors-free, artificial_flavors free. With all that you still can find 'not to be used as infant formula' which makes you thinking about food industry as a whole. 
10. So many different people here. Not only China, India, EU and other major countries, but also Algeria, Ethiopia, Yemen, Panama, Salvador, Venezuela, etc. Broadly speaking, "41 percent of immigrants during those years arrived from Asia, while 39 percent came from Latin America", NYT claims. Here are just some examples of different backgrounds:

• Sanir from India. Student of data. Can't eat anything here. Has to cook by himself. Meanwhile his family already found a wife for him. He hopes she is nice.
• Delmar from Brazil. Head of Anti-laundering department of National Bank of Brazil. He prefers regattas and own a boat. Actually, this is what brought him to SF specifically.
• Canuk from Turkey. His major is genetic solutions for serious illness. Prospective PhD student. From his perspective Science is the most impressive thing in the US. In Turkey he is forbidden to practice genetics, since it's 'playing with gods'. However, he finds it hypocritical, since at the end of the day everybody is happy to use medicines from their laboratories. His eventual goal is to put his family to the US somehow.
• Denny from Hong Kong. It looks like Denny has everything he needs. Why SF then? "It's all about diversity, I'd like to be in non-monocultural surrounding", told me Denny. Yeah, this is the place, for sure.
• Rowena. She has 4 jobs to catch up here. Originally rom Venezuela.
• Whity from France. History makes french people bad in English. Capuleti, Montecchi, you know it.
• Phan from Vietnam. Very excited about everything here. After all, Vietnam is truly communistic country (in addition to other 4 countries, namely Cuba, Laos, North Korea and to some extent China). However, for my question about his preference of political regime for a new hypothetical country he was evasive. Ideology is a big thing, you know..

Day 3 (09/01/18)

1. Now I'm officially a dweller of San Francisco. In order to prove that to local organizations you just need to show your lease (if you don't have an ID). That's all.
2. Today I asked sherif what's the diff between sheriff and policeman (referring to my research on Quora). A sheriff is cooler, as you might expect (: Like people in uniform. They are professionally responsive. "To Protect and to Serve" from movies get a tangible form
3. Homeless people are not an economical category, but rather a philosophically-political one.
4. The sharp plunge of Argentino's peso plays a role in my reality. Who could have thought?
5. Tennis courts are free to the public. The same goes for the basketball court. The other day I stumble upon an empty place with basketball ball as a welcome drink. Good start of the day.
6. Libraries are free to the public. And yes, you can get literally any book or magazine (3,946,841 to be precise) either offline or online via Kindle or iPad. As well as Treehouse (USD25), Lynda (USD26), Rosetta Stone (USD20) and subscription for many others if you know what I mean. And yes they provide you support on housing advice, career finding, and language development. Yes, it's free. And still, it's empty.
7. All cuisines are the same in terms of price. Sandwich with processed chicken, bread with leaves, falafel, pad thai and sushi with salmon would cost ~USD8-10 each. Sometimes in an ugly small room with bad smell, sometimes in the lively supermarket and sometimes in cozy restaurant. Pretty much the same. An unusual byproduct of that is that you find yourself in a good place eating good food. But not frequent of course (Scrooge McDuck is wanted).
8. You can buy tennis racket for 5$, but pillow for 100$ min; you can buy several kilos of strawberry for a couple of dollars, but a dozen of eggs for 5$ min. Misbalances or regularity? Go figure.
9. Streets are now overcrowded. Too expensive?
10. It's difficult to get up later than 5:30 am. Resourcefulness, I suppose.