SF Notes - Day Zero

Pertinent Observations from one evening in San Francisco

Hello from San Francisco!

I got here this evening. I tried to take Bryan Caplan’s advice to not sleep much on the flight (still ended up sleeping ~4 out of the 16 hours), and I hope to be able to sleep properly tonight. Like a hero I’ve scheduled three meetings for tomorrow, starting in the morning (though the first one is with an old friend, and no “deliverables” from that). Let’s see how that goes.

For Friday, I’ve scheduled FOUR, including a dinner meeting, and am slated to catch up with a friend in the middle of all that.

Anyway, some quick pertinent observations about the trip (so far) and the journey:

• The process in Bangalore airport was peaceful - mostly. No lines at either checkin or passport control or the main security. I had gone from entrance to lounge in some 15 minutes (and this is despite having my bag flagged for further checking - I’d forgotten to keep out some batteries)
  
  And then I realised flight to US meant TWO security checks. The second was at the gate and was rather chaotic (reminding me of old AAI airports). Long lines, tiny trays, major confusion, etc. The moment I got through that I’d got myself into the plane.

• I can’t understand Air India’s seat pricing. When I went to check in on Monday, almost ALL available seats were priced at ₹6300, with one emergency row “window” seat at ₹6500 and two middle seats in the very back row at ₹0! This made no sense at all (and I decided I’ll “do the clever arbitrage” by taking the ₹6500 extra leg room seat).
  
  The only explanation I can think of involves either game theory or anchoring - and that by showing me lots of vastly inferior seats at ₹6300, they succeeded in making me pay ₹6500 for the extra legroom seat.

• It wasn’t a “window” seat. There was no window. I was pretty much staring at the wall of the plane for 16 hours. But the leg room was good. Not ideal (my right leg had less space than my left - though it was my LEFT hamstring that cramped 3/4 the way into the flight), but good.

  

• This seat meant I could as many times I wanted without disturbing my row-mates. This was peaceful.

• I realise I haven’t travelled much since I became fussy with food (low carb, etc.). I didn’t appreciate the airline food. The first “IST lunch” was good but not very good, and later I felt it was spicy. The next snack was okay. The final snack (the “SF time zone lunch”) was atrocious (some bun) and I skipped it, and was insanely hungry by the time I landed.

• Walking fast helps getting ahead of the line at US entry passport check. Took just ten minutes. Only weird thing the guy asked me was to “show details of some specific meetings”. I just opened my Google calendar and held it up, and that satisfied him.

• SFO has a nicely designated Uber pickup zone in an open area. This is unlike Delhi or London where you have to literally go into the parking lot to get your Uber! Here is me just before I got into my cab. The scene behind me, here, I quite liked - made a good first impression.

  

• Needless to say, tonnes of tech ads on the way from SFO to SF. I saw ads for Vercel, some cloud storage (which I can’t remember now), some GPU service (again can’t remember)., etc.

• It was dark by the time we got into SF city, and my first impressions weren’t great. I thought the roads weren’t lit up well enough, and that promoted seedy characters and activities.

• My hotel is in a good location, though, and the roads around are well lit. I walked around a bit looking for a place to eat dinner (I was insanely hungry). There is this road behind my hotel that seems nice, with lots of places (though I had a slight sticker shock - meals that would otherwise by ~£10 in London are like ~$25 here, 6 years later)). I took a while to decide where to eat and finally settled in a nice looking and crowded Thai place. Had some pork belly soup with rice. Was quite nice.

• While crossing the road on my way back I saw a Waymo, and got a bit freaked out. Anyway I’ve downloaded the app, and plan to try it sometime in the next few days

• There is a largish Whole Foods Market close to the hotel and I went to check it out after dinner. Got some yoghurt and stuff. Funniest was the Whole Foods didn’t stock eggs, and instead had a sign that said “we are unable to find eggs that satisfy our standards on animal cruelty, hence we’re not stocking eggs” (the meat counters, including staffed counters, were in full operation, though!).

Welcome to SF, I guess!

Here is a view from my hotel window: