Steve Jobs would always make up stuff ("reality distortion field") to motivate and push people. One of his famous stories that I found very funny --
According to Mike Slade, he was working at Microsoft around 1990, and Jobs was trying to recruit him to NeXT. (Bear in mind that Microsoft was only a few years from launching its mega-hit Windows 95, while NeXT was struggling to sell computers.)
During a conversation, Jobs told Slade he would find his talents wasted in Seattle. In contrast, Jobs called Silicon Valley a hub of excitement and activity where Slade could blossom.
Jobs then launched into a spontaneous, impassioned speech. He described Palo Alto, California, as a “special place” and likened it to Florence during the Italian Renaissance. There was so much talent in the area, Jobs said, that you could walk down the street and bump into a scholar one moment, an astronaut the next.
Jobs’ off-the-cuff description of the place bowled over Slade. It was a twist on Jobs’ famous pitch to Pepsi CEO John Sculley. (Jobs asked whether Sculley wanted to sell sugar water his whole life or join Apple and change the world.)
After the talk, Slade agreed to pack up his stuff and move to Palo Alto.
Jump forward a year, and Slade and his wife were eating in Il Fornaio, an Italian chain restaurant with a location on University Avenue in Palo Alto.
“We were sitting there, in early ’91, and I’m reading the menu,” Slade recalled. “And on the back of the menu at Il Fornaio it says, ‘Palo Alto is like Florence in the Renaissance…’ And it goes through the whole spiel! The fucking guy sold me a line from the menu! From a chain restaurant!! Bad ad copy from Il Fornaio, which was his favorite restaurant, right? Such a shameless bullshitter!”
In harmony with Silicon Valley, a nearby university, and a popular fruit-named computer company, Palo Alto cultivates an arrogance and narcissism that I would not describe as "underwhelming".
So I'm completely unsurprised that Il Fornaio's pitch would resonate with Jobs and that he would quote it verbatim.
Be that as it may, a number of cool things - and successful companies - have in fact come out of Palo Alto. And you can meet some interesting people there. I believe you can still catch Pac-4 football games there as well.
Il Fornaio and Palo Alto might also have been better in 1990, when Jobs quoted his pitch.
Different strokes for different folks. I quite like PA in relation to other cities on the peninsula. It's upscale, has a good mix of cuisines and fanciness/expense for them, has interesting differing types of shops to explore on a few different streets so it isn't just me main strip like Castro in Mountain View, or Laurel in San Carlos, and is generally safe and clean.
I'm not sure what would make it more appealing to you, but it may be that you're just seeking a different vibe or are at a different point in your life where you may not value some of those things the same.
I mean, the food is pretty mediocre especially when you look at the prices (except Bevri and Zadna that are delicious), the nightlife is basically non existant, the shops are eh, there’s cars everywhere downtown and the general amenities (playgrounds, parcs, cool places to walk and bike around) for kids are sub par. I don’t see how it can worth paying $2k a sqft to live there imo.
Sushi Shin is a Michelin starred sushi restaurant. We have decent ramen options, we have Zareen's and Broadway Masala for Indian, we have Redwood Bistro which has some authentic sichuan and iDumpling for XLB. We have good beer and decent brewpub options, and a few good brunch spots. There's several other decent food options as well. Agreed things are overpriced at many, but that's the peninsula as a whole.
If you're at the stage of your life where you have small children, or are not someone who does a ton of going out, nightlight is irrelevant.
Agreed it could have more shops, it's very one dimensional right now.
Every downtown has cars everywhere, and the strip of restaurants on Broadway is notable in that it is still blocked off for foot traffic and is wonderful.
I have no idea what your idea of above average is for parks and playgrounds. We have a Magical Bridge, Maddux and Stafford parks and others. We have Stulsaft and other options.
I'd be really curious where you're getting $2k/sqft.
Man, Steve Jobs' Palo Alto must have been a truly special place. The only memorable thing I encountered in Palo Alto's street (while working there a few years ago) was the overwhelming stench of urine in the underpass beneath the Caltrain Station.
More seriously, there really is an absurd shortage of clean, available, public restrooms that are open 24 hours. It's a huge issue in the Bay Area and SF especially, but it's bad in many US cities.
At some point we seem to have decided that clean streets (and train stations) are not worth the changes in regulatory requirements and funding that would be required. Palo Alto actually has a pleasant and quaint waiting room from its Southern Pacific days - but of course it's always closed, especially post-pandemic.
I was shocked recently though when I was in a BART station that had a public restroom that was actually open and maintained. Seems like a good idea considering how often escalators are "closed for maintenance."
Seems kind of apocryphal. You mean to tell me a smart professional engineer working at one of the biggest and most prestigious (at the time) companies of the world is going to quit that job, uproot his life, and move to an entirely different state, just from a single "Trust me, Bro, it's awesome" endorsement from a potential employer? I'd have wanted to at least fly down there, look at a few apartments, visit the office, and so on, before making that kind of commitment. It makes a cool story, but there must have been more to it.
Steve Jobs, whatever else you want to say about him, had charisma. It's a big part of why he was successful. So that's kind of the point. He had an ability to take a message like "trust me bro, it's awesome" and say it in a way that it would resonate, and that ability was most of the secret sauce of being Steve Jobs.
Eh, at least this short story did not say that. What it stated is the 'hook' line that got him was pulled from a menu. Not that this guy didn't at least to go Palo Alto first and make sure it wasn't a total shithole.
It’s a funny story, but… yeah, the early 90s was a special time in Silicon Valley. It was THE center of the computing world. And you really did just randomly bump into amazing people at Fry’s or restaurants or bars or whatever. I don’t think younger people understand how much around them today, when it comes to technology, can trace its roots to 90s South Bay and Peninsula.
I object to the idea that San Francisco, with its yuppie tech culture, was truly comparable to Florence in the Renaissance. The Renaissance produced works of culture and art in addition to the technological advances. In that regard, Seattle produced the best music of the decade and would be an equal contender to the title.
Huh - I was about to post "I just listened to that podcast!" and bro out with you about Dan Carlin and Hardcore History, but it now occurs to me, and Googling confirms, that "reality distortion field" in that podcast was probably a reference to a known saying about Steve Jobs rather than an original thought.
It was a well known term, and even Apple fans would refer to the RDF (often as an excuse why something hadn’t turned out to be amazing as rumor had it).
According to Mike Slade, he was working at Microsoft around 1990, and Jobs was trying to recruit him to NeXT. (Bear in mind that Microsoft was only a few years from launching its mega-hit Windows 95, while NeXT was struggling to sell computers.)
During a conversation, Jobs told Slade he would find his talents wasted in Seattle. In contrast, Jobs called Silicon Valley a hub of excitement and activity where Slade could blossom.
Jobs then launched into a spontaneous, impassioned speech. He described Palo Alto, California, as a “special place” and likened it to Florence during the Italian Renaissance. There was so much talent in the area, Jobs said, that you could walk down the street and bump into a scholar one moment, an astronaut the next.
Jobs’ off-the-cuff description of the place bowled over Slade. It was a twist on Jobs’ famous pitch to Pepsi CEO John Sculley. (Jobs asked whether Sculley wanted to sell sugar water his whole life or join Apple and change the world.)
After the talk, Slade agreed to pack up his stuff and move to Palo Alto.
Jump forward a year, and Slade and his wife were eating in Il Fornaio, an Italian chain restaurant with a location on University Avenue in Palo Alto.
“We were sitting there, in early ’91, and I’m reading the menu,” Slade recalled. “And on the back of the menu at Il Fornaio it says, ‘Palo Alto is like Florence in the Renaissance…’ And it goes through the whole spiel! The fucking guy sold me a line from the menu! From a chain restaurant!! Bad ad copy from Il Fornaio, which was his favorite restaurant, right? Such a shameless bullshitter!”
https://www.cultofmac.com/573753/how-jobs-poached-a-microsof...