Canonical City

I have been to San Francisco three times. The first time, I was mesmerized by how beautiful California is. The second time, I was preoccupied with other things and the city passed me by. I have just returned from the third, and it has churned something in me. Physically, there is not much to it. There are AI ads everywhere. There are people working on their laptops on Caltrain. There are the offices of all the products we use every day. That is about it. I did not meet or talk to the important people who make San Francisco what it is. I only saw the ads, the train and the buildings, and still the city did something to me. Maybe that is the point. The ads are not written for everyone. They assume the person reading them is building something. On the train, people don’t wait to reach the office before they start working. And the products I have used for years come out of a building I can walk past. In most places these things feel far away, made by somebody else. Here they are made down…