I read this post a few days after Gasda himself wrote this in Unherd: "If the members of a technologically optimised overclass see, hear, and move differently — how will they see the rest of us, the non-optimised?" (https://unherd.com/2025/04/beware-san-frans-rationalist-cult/) Seems like he's thinking of the city's duality in a broadly similar way, although he's focused more on the vibes rationalists carry with them rather than the future of San Francisco after, say, the "narrative bubble" around AI bursts. Growing up here, I noticed this a lot, and I think you highlight it really well--the "hopeless utopianism" of some techies never really feels grounded in any much beyond a narrative that "disruption good." It's a generalization, of course, but it's been a useful one, especially looking at this from the policy side of things.
It doesn’t have to be this strained to live in a boom town where the price of admission makes everyone, including most tech and tech adjacent folks, feel poor. Not everyone wants that $23 Mixt salad, ignore the insta girl hype and stay stubbornly film. Tech however does need a good grounding in the humanities and our current education system has clearly failed in its purpose of raising the whole child.
I read this post a few days after Gasda himself wrote this in Unherd: "If the members of a technologically optimised overclass see, hear, and move differently — how will they see the rest of us, the non-optimised?" (https://unherd.com/2025/04/beware-san-frans-rationalist-cult/) Seems like he's thinking of the city's duality in a broadly similar way, although he's focused more on the vibes rationalists carry with them rather than the future of San Francisco after, say, the "narrative bubble" around AI bursts. Growing up here, I noticed this a lot, and I think you highlight it really well--the "hopeless utopianism" of some techies never really feels grounded in any much beyond a narrative that "disruption good." It's a generalization, of course, but it's been a useful one, especially looking at this from the policy side of things.
I completely agree! And thanks for linking Gasda's piece, I actually hadn't seen that
I become incrementally more socialist from each post! (It's a kudos to good writing!)
It doesn’t have to be this strained to live in a boom town where the price of admission makes everyone, including most tech and tech adjacent folks, feel poor. Not everyone wants that $23 Mixt salad, ignore the insta girl hype and stay stubbornly film. Tech however does need a good grounding in the humanities and our current education system has clearly failed in its purpose of raising the whole child.