Consulting Up in the City

It's been so much fun working the new gig up in the city. Apart from the fact that it's lovely to be in a "good" design firm again with nice, decent UNIVERSAL good taste, i am struck by how different it is from the energy level on the Peninsular.
It's amazing what an hour drive makes. I am used to a smart, intelligent, academic, intentional, spiritual community in Palo Alto but in San Francisco, the one thing that strikes me that is so different is SPEED.
Or maybe it's because i feel like i am growing old, but i think enoch and i live a pretty hectic life. But when i walk into Scout Labs this young startup on top of the 13 floor of a gorgeous building on Fremont, the one thing that strikes me apart from the fact that the CEO is a woman and practically younger than me is the SPEED.
The speed in which they talk and work and work the computer. The speed in which they zip around the interface. The speed in which their brains work, they way they map mental models to different applications online.
i mean i am used to deep, intellectual, profound discussions made in classrooms, but these guys are machines. They are talking and moving a mile a minute. They are blazing.
It's exhilarating watching them. It's fun to watch them with their ultra-thin lap tops, email and ichating and iMing and sending things to printers all at the same time.
It's fascinating watching how their minds work.

It reminds me of a client that my brother-in-law Ben ( who is a VC and a decade younger ) referred me. When we met up he looked at me and said " It's such a relief to be working with someone my age" and we both just laughed.

It's amazing to see what the new generation expects out of their UIs.
Although, gigs like these that are referred by my agent pays me less than what i get on the Peninsular, i've decided it is worth the pay cut just to go up there every 3-4 weeks and take the pulse of the new tech community.