By its very nature, San Francisco is a youthful town. Its also a place where the drive to succeed is at least as strong as it is in New York (perhaps even more so), with start-ups, VCs, angel investors, apps and pop-ups everywhere you look and where overnight tech millionaire 20-somethings abound. If you dwell on this side of city life too much, you run the risk of feeling either poor, irrelevant or an underachiever.
So i don’t. Generally. And, what also gives me some not insignificant comfort, is that the overlords of the tech world tend to generally be dicks. Self-involved, egocentric and boring. And that is by their own admission, so I’m not being #mean or #bitter here.
Anyway, so today, as I waited by the coffee machine (a new touchscreen one offering not just coffee but “specialty beverages”), I experienced a little microcosm of SF life that made me laugh, sigh and shake my head ruefully all at the same time. That’s quite a feat, even when fully caffeinated. As I was standing waiting for my coffee to be hand-milled and percolated to perfection by the little elves that live inside the Jumbotron of Java, my eyes strayed to a fellow 3rd floor inhabitant, casually leaning against the counter top, engaged in a conversation with a colleague. My eyes were initially struck, nay assaulted even, by the mustard yellow jeans he was wearing. And, as per predictable, he was wearing a suitably “interesting” colored shirt, oh so casually half-tucked in and – no prizes for guessing here – thick horned rim glasses and Van sneakers.
Yes. Sound the alarm. It was a full-on Hipster alert.
Yes, they don’t just live in Williamsberg. And yes, they are equally as smug and annoying on the West Coast as they are back East. BUT – as I caught myself thinking this and started to chastise myself for becoming a grumpy old fart, alas Annoying Hipster opened his mouth and sealed the deal on why there are, indeed, stereotypes in the world and why sometimes snap judgements are, indeed, correct.
Trendy co-worker: “I can’t wait for you to move – when are you moving?”
Annoying hipster: “A couple of weeks”
Trendy co-worker: “We can take the MUNI in together”
Annoying hipster: “Totes”
I feel old.
5 Comments
thats funny and you not old ,just mature enough to enjoy it and rejoice in your life, Being old would be me ,too intimidated to. use that machine! An overheard moment Alan Bennet woukd have loved.xxxxx
Lol!!!!i needed that laugh ty!!!! 🙂
It's strange but I too feel so old around these new hipsters. Loved the blog comments and the rather honest and candid opening paragraph. I think this is the only place in the world where successful people can feel poor and inadequate. Its a constant battle not to fall into a deep depression about ones own accomplishments and financial (or lack thereof) achievements. Your blog entry, although humorous, was spot on, in my opinion. Can't wait to see you all in a few weeks. We are off on vacation on Monday so hopefully I will have a little sun tan when I see you. Love A
Mustard yellow jeans is better than the jeans that look like they've been pulled out of the compost bin……
🙂
@Ashley – in my eyes, you are the absolute epitome of success, so for even you to feel that way too sometimes, makes me feel a little bit better! Don't worry though, classical competence will always beat out trendy techhy fads in the end….. 🙂 (see my next post…)