This. Currently all my stuff fits into two backpacks (a big backpacker one and a small one for the laptop). The only thing I miss from my old stationary lifestyle is a regular gym, sparring partners and a coach.
The only thing I don't understand about living in the googleplex is sex. Logistics is everything - I remember once dealing with a month of involuntary celibacy due to a bad living situation. NOT an experience I want to repeat. I guess these folks just have much better game than I do.
Most people go through much longer periods of celibacy than that on a regular basis when outside of long term relationships. For most people, the singles life is relatively sex-less. Presumably living on campus isn't a choice that most people make in the first place when they are in long term relationships and/or have regular options of companionship.
Even people IN long term relationships go through much longer periods of celibacy than that. Illness, long distance relationships, military deployments...
Just curious, what is "longer periods"? Is celibacy for a year really a plausible outcome for most people in SF? And is it so likely that it makes living in a car worthwhile? I'm honestly curious.
Year-long celibacy is not super uncommon in India, but Indian culture is explicitly set up to make sure women don't have sex until their parents get them married off. I'm really shocked to hear that SF is that bad.
Why are you surprised to hear this? You're hardly the first person I'd expect to not realize the social stigma most men in the tech industry face trying to date; combine that with the supply/demand in the Bay and you should expect that most men will struggle to date at all (really, anywhere on the west coast except maybe LA.)
I've been to the bay area twice in my life. Most of my dating has been in either NYC or (recently) Pune, India. I'm aware the dating situation out west is unsatisfying, I just thought the issue was just that one might need to go out every night instead of only fridays and maybe compromise a bit on quality.
The fact is SF has women and no parental supervision. How could it possibly be this bad?
I'm honestly asking because I'm curious about the mechanics of it.
The mechanics are: you go to any bar and the ratio is about 10:1 on a _good_ night. All the girls are sick of seeing tech people and so will ask you what you do, and when they hear "Google", "Facebook", "tech", "engineer", or "programming", will walk away in disgust. (Literally. Hell, a friend went on a Grouper where the girls found out he worked for Google and immediately decided they'd rather wait the clock out on their phones than speak to him.)
There is no step 2, as far as I can tell. One of the many, many reasons I left SF. (For Seattle, which is...marginally better, but not good by any measure, in this aspect.)
Serious question I have always wanted to ask someone like you:
How many changes of clothes do you own? I don't have an extensive wardrobe, but I couldn't fit the clothes I wear in an average week into a bag of that size, let alone everything else I use regularly.
I have 4 pants, maybe 4-5 pairs of shorts, 6 button down shirts, and 15 t-shirts. On my most recent flight from India, I even managed to fit a suit in.
What's the "turnover" with those clothes - i.e. how often do you buy new ones and throw out the old ones? Ever gotten any weird looks for running around in mostly the same outfits? What do you do when you need a suit?
What do you do about your data? Do you carry any additional HDDs in those backpacks? Don't you keep any spare hardware around for when things break to be able to replace them quickly?
What about legal documents (birth certificate, graduation certificates, tax declarations, etc.)? Do you store them somewhere safely, or keep them on you?
Also, do you have any allergies? One thing I allways seem to have too little of when travelling is napkins/tissues.
What do you do for more mundane things like scissors and paper and priting stuff?
Turnover is high. During my previous 6 months in India, I lost 2 pants, and pair #3 is dying. (My semi-girlfriend is telling me to replace it while I'm in NY.)
The backpack contains only a laptop, phone and tablet. I don't have massive amounts of data - I don't photograph every meal as some people do. When my stuff breaks, I pay a lot of money to fix/replace it.
Legal documents are stored with my parents in the US, except of course the passport.
I have no allergies and need no medication. The only tool I own is a leatherman multitool - I rarely need it, and it's good enough when I do. I don't use paper.
The only thing I don't understand about living in the googleplex is sex. Logistics is everything - I remember once dealing with a month of involuntary celibacy due to a bad living situation. NOT an experience I want to repeat. I guess these folks just have much better game than I do.