Well, you're right that it informs me whether I want to attend or not...

Why can’t people even write their own product descriptions without AI anymore???

Hyperbolic as those descriptions are, it’s not like they’re not sourced from reality. Sam Altman’s reputation in SV is well-established; Musk promised the roadster what, a decade ago? These guys preach a promised land of milk and honey and so many hear lap it up like dogs.

Let them generate studio ghibli profile pictures of themselves

Oh, I've never thought that Florida was uninteresting. Florida is nothing but ~interesting~.

I'm sort of projecting (I've been here most of my life, I got tired of it, now regaining appreciation for Florida the last few years), but I've also noticed others (not you) don't realize there's more to Florida than most people realize.

I grew up in South Florida (not a native), and my experience of strip malls and ever widening highways is: if there was a state below Florida, that's where the desperate and unrooted migrants would have kept driving to.

I spent my childhood fishing in a swimsuit every day I could. I loved it. But as an adult, any south of Ocala and east of Gainesville is a cultural wasteland (with cutouts for Miami and Tampa).

SF is my favorite city in the world, but as a tech worker in a flyover state I've given up on it being anything but a nice place to visit. I couldn't afford it alone, let alone with my family.

SF is not Silicon Valley (arguably, depending on your generation, it is not even part of Silicon Valley).

Housing it a lot more reasonable (nowhere near cheap, but feasible) in the actual Silicon Valley.

Unfortunately I don't particularly care for SV. I left my heart in San Francisco. I love the fog, the density, the hills, the food, the diversity, the transit, and the ocean. Silicon Valley has some of that, and it's in close enough proximity to be able to work in SF or visit regularly, but my dream is to live in Sunset or Haight-Ashbury in an ancient house and ride my bike around town with my girls. Maybe someday.

Do you find jobs that allow you to take sabbatical? Or do you leave jobs and find new ones for each expedition you do?

I think you care way too much about this topic.

It's almost like having a quasi-public utility instead of just, I don't know, a public utility? is a bad idea!

"I don't fear surveillance because I don't break the law!" is the rallying cry of the current privileged class. Laws change.

This was such a weak interview, I recognize this is a car podcast and Joel's not an investigative journalist but the lack of pushback was so disappointing.