New Year, New Me, New Job, New City.

Got a new job, moving to San Francisco. Funny how life works.

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There’s this old Yiddish proverb that says, “Der mentsh trakht un Got lakh.” In English, it translates to: Man plans, God laughs. That’s been an accurate description of my life lately.

Six weeks ago, I applied to a new job in New York. Three days ago, I started that new job in New York. Two months from now, I’m moving to San Francisco for that new job in New York. Man plans, God laughs.

Planning is overrated, anyway.

Back to the job: earlier this week, I started my new job at Slow Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund. I’m working as an investment associate for one of Slow’s general partners, Sam Lessin. After a Zoom chat and a visit out west a month ago, I decided that I really wanted to work for Sam. Sam happens to live near San Francisco. I figured that if I wanted to work for Sam, and I wanted to make the most out of that opportunity, it would make sense to, you know, live in the same metropolitan area as Sam.

So I’m headed to San Francisco for a few months in the spring, and more permanently later this summer. If we’re friends (either from the real world or Twitter), acquaintances, mortal enemies, or some mixture of those three, and you live in the Bay Area, let’s hang once I move. I’d like to build a west coast social graph, and I hope that you can play a role in it.

Relatedly, if you’re building (or thinking about building) something interesting, weird, esoteric, novel, and/or, most importantly, valuable, hit me up. A conversation with you is now a big part of my job (plus, I love riffing with interesting folks on their ideas), and I’d like to learn about what you’re working on.

I’m going to publish a more detailed blog on the thought process that went into this change next week, but for now, some thoughts on what I’m up to next. For the next few months, I have three priorities:

1. Crush it in this new job: I know a lot about venture capital, having written fairly extensively about it over the last few years, but what I don’t know much of is the ins and outs of working in venture capital. It’s a steep, fast-paced learning curve, but I’m excited by the challenge of learning/doing something new. It’s been a while.

2. Finish my book: One reason for this career change is that I found it damn-near impossible to write a book while I was also writing for my day job. My “writing” brain was totally drained by the latter, making it incredibly difficult to focus on the former. No excuses now: time to lock in and finish this thing. I’m looking forward to focusing the “writer” part of my brain on this project. (Frankly, the career pivot aligns with what I’m writing about, too)

3. Get back to weekly blogging: Again, it’s tough to write in your free-time when you’re constantly writing for your day job. Writing used to be an escape from reality: an activity that helped me think things through. When you’re writing for your day job and in your free time, it doesn’t feel like an escape. It feels like an extension of your job. And that’s not fun. I’m excited to get back to that writing, and I’m going to be publishing on a regular cadence again.

Was this move unexpected? Well, yeah. If you’d asked me on Thanksgiving if I had any plans to move to California, I would have thought you were crazy. But life comes out you fast. That being said, there’s something exhilarating about diving into the unknown. Injecting a little novelty into your life. Is it nerve-wracking? Sure. But at least it’s not boring.

See you in San Francisco.

- Jack

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