I spent almost 4 weeks in Amsterdam this summer, working and absorbing the scene there. I’ve been going to Amsterdam since 1975 - and this time was the best so far (even though it rained straight for two weeks.)

I get insulated living in San Francisco - as it’s not really the U.S. - yet all you have to do is drive across the Bay Bridge into the East Bay - to find the real U.S.

It’s really the worst of two evils here - insulated geeks on one hand and red necked Republican crackers on the other.

Getting outside of the U.S. is key to recognizing how fucked up it is here. As I bopped around Europe and NYC, spreading the ‘new kinds of micro-content’ meme I realized how big of a world it is - and how many people really want and need RSS and aggregators to go further.

We can’t just stop here - it’s too important.

I was able to keep my blogging, relationships and work flow steady while living in Amsterdam. There’s no real reason for me to be living in the Bay Area - except when it comes to meetings, dinners and schmoozing. But hopefully with enough real stakes in the ground here - I can head out and do the same sort of standards building that we’re achieving here.

Of course my family is here in SF -in two separate homes, so I won’t be leaving permanently, but you bet I’ll be showing up around the world - more often.

So when I think about Amstel Beer, Ocean’s 12 (which had scenes shot at a local Coffee House named the Dampring), Peter Mitchell or Kjetil Larsen - I smile.

Thanks dudes - for a geselig time.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 21st, 2004 at 8:30 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.