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While Wired just published a comprehensive business travel guide for San Francisco, the timing reveals a curious disconnect. The media company that covers tech’s bleeding edge has delivered a lifestyle piece that largely sidesteps the AI revolution reshaping the very city it’s describing.
Wired just dropped what looks like an exhaustive guide to San Francisco for business travelers, complete with hotel recommendations, restaurant picks, and cultural hotspots. But there’s something almost surreal about a tech publication writing about San Francisco in 2024 without really talking about, well, tech.
The guide does acknowledge that San Francisco sits ‘at the epicenter of the machine intelligence revolution’ and mentions that AI companies have set up camp in certain neighborhoods. But that’s about where the tech coverage ends. Instead, most of the 23,000-word piece reads like a lifestyle magazine’s take on the city – heavy on Mission burritos and Dolores Park picnics, light on the seismic business shifts happening blocks away.
It’s a fascinating editorial choice. Here’s a city where OpenAI has become a household name, where every coffee shop seems to host pitch meetings, and where the AI boom has fundamentally altered the business landscape. Yet the guide spends more words on pizza recommendations than on the startup ecosystem that’s drawing those business travelers in the first place.
The article does mention key locations like the Moscone Center, where major conferences like Dreamforce and Microsoft Ignite take place. And it notes that neighborhoods like SOMA house corporate offices south of Market Street. But these feel like perfunctory nods rather than insights into why business travelers are flocking to the city.
What’s particularly striking is how the guide addresses San Francisco’s reputation. Author Michael Calore pushes back against ‘doom loop’ narratives, arguing that reports of the city’s decline are ‘gross exaggerations.’ He’s probably right – the city is clearly thriving in many sectors. But he makes this case by highlighting restaurants and bars rather than the economic indicators that actually matter to business travelers.
The disconnect becomes more apparent when you look at the spaces the guide recommends. Take Noisebridge, described as ‘a community of makers, hackers, DIY advocates, and hands-on tinkerers.’ It’s portrayed as a quirky cultural curiosity rather than part of a broader innovation ecosystem. Similarly, the guide mentions that South Park is where ‘Twitter, Instagram, Dropbox, Strava, and countless other San Francisco startups got off the ground’ – but treats this as historical context rather than ongoing reality.
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