San Francisco and a night with Malcolm Gladwell

Made it to San Francisco! After travelling almost 2,000mi (1,785mi precisely), the equivalent distance of driving from Adelaide to Darwin, it's time to put the car away and start exploring by foot.

Made it!

I started out early this morning and headed towards the Embarcadero wharfs and the Bay Bridge, stopping for a (good) coffee and chocolate croissant at Peet's Coffee and Tea.

It was beautiful down by the wharfs in the early morning sun and mist, shrouding everything in a golden haze and casting strong shadows. I entertained myself by photographing the bridge and wharf and keeping an eye out for interesting San Franciscans on their way to work.

Bay Bridge, San Francisco

Embacardero wharfs

To work in style

Heading north along the piers I passed the Exploratorium museum (something for a later visit) and Tcho chocolates, where I couldn't resist a quick visit. Then it was on to Pier 39 with its tacky tourist shops, although the views of Alcatraz and sea lions are worth negotiating the trash beforehand! The sea lions were smelly but entertaining.

Pier 39 sea lions

I didn't linger in the fishiness, but headed uphill through some lovely suburbs, with pastel painted townhouses - some getting ready for halloween - towards Coit Tower.

Halloween houses

On arrival I found a group of artists clustered around the entrance. It appears it is the Tower's 80th anniversary on 8 October, and the community were celebrating.

Inside the tower are a number of life-size murals that depict early life in San Francisco. Industry, baking, streetscapes and complimentary to the amazing views over the bay stretching from Bay Bridge all the way to Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Views over San Francisco

I descended the disjointed and hidden stairs that wound through secret gardens, and gates entwined in bougainvillaea and made my way back down to the wharfs, and the ferry terminal where a farmers market had set up. I love fresh produce! The colours, the crispness, the displays of food that you know have been harvested in the hours beforehand. Even though I wasn't cooking, or staying long in the city, I picked up a punnet of tomatoes and some pears to snack on.

Then it was over to California St, past the shoe shiners, to catch the cable car. Another "must do" in hilly San Francisco. We rattled, stop started and lurched up the steep street, peeking out between the buildings at each intersection to see what views were revealed. Much better than walking!

California St Cable Car

It was time for lunch, and I joined a line of locals waiting outside Swan's Oyster Depot for fresh seafood. I'd read that this was a unique place in the city, and a favourite for fresh food and great service. Needless to say, I had plenty of time to meet the people around me in the line, as we waited for the small, 18 ppl only bar to turn-over!

Yum! Swan Oyster Bar

After discussions on things to see and do in the city, my favourites so far, impacts of the government shutdown, good restaurants to eat at and some time reading my book, I'd made it to the front of the queue and moved in to pull up a stool at the bar. A number of burley servers decked out in white aprons and gumboots stood on the other side, relaxed, but constantly on the move, shucking oysters, cutting open sea anemone and putting together your dish on the spot.

Made it in!

I grabbed an Anchor Steam beer and a cup of clam chowder with crusty sourdough. Mmmm... the perfect way to start lunch. Next was a plate of fresh oysters with lemon, tasting of the sea. The menu was sketched across the wall in front of me, and there were still many things I wanted to try. The guy next to me ordered a delicious looking plate of sashimi with salmon, Ahi and scallops. Further along people were eating plates of fresh crab and prawn salad. And I watched some smoked salmon being delicately carved from a fillet.

Sea anemone

I settled on a crab meat cocktail. Delicious! Tender, tasty meat. Simple in a glass with sauce on the side. The man on my other side recommended the horseradish - whoa, it had a kick! The atmosphere is jovial and fun, with everyone chatting to the people around them. I'm not sure if it's the freshness of the food, the candour of the men serving or just the relief at being able to eat after waiting in line for so long (!), but everyone was in a good mood.

Crab cocktail

Very full, and with a few pints of beer filling any potential gaps in my stomach I slowly made it back down the hill towards the hostel, for a Christmas-style post lunch nap before the evening's activities.

By luck, I'd chanced across an event being held at the Castro Theatre - Malcolm Gladwell talking to Michael Lewis about his new book, David and Goliath. I couldn't believe that two of my favourite authors would be together, on the one night I was in San Francisco! The show was sold out, but I was hoping to find a way in.

I arrived early and started wandering the line outside asking if anyone had a spare ticket. There were a few others also lingering, hoping for the same thing. I just missed one opportunity, but was convinced I'd get in somehow. Positive thinking! Luckily enough, a few tickets were returned to the box office. I practically leapt the 4m from where I was standing, and soon enough had one in my hand. Woohoo!

Success!

The conversation started with Michael Lewis exploring how Malcolm Gladwell had become a writer, and a bit about his life growing up. Malcolm Gladwell is a great story teller, and diverged into tales of being the sports journalist at his school and making up characters and weekly reports from the football team that no one watched. Of having parents with no rules, and great flexibility that made it hard for him to feel like he was rebelling. At one point, he and a school mate devised a new metric system, whereby their school result would be calculated as the product of their grades x absentee days (i.e. you're judged on doing the best without actually turning up). His mum said this was fine, and even wrote him absentee notes!

Later at college he wrote a regular Zine on the art of slander - essentially they had to attack someone every article - and even had "best of" editions.

From university, he first attempted to get a job in advertising, but was unsuccessful. He ended up applying for a role as a journalist at the American Spectator, from an ad at the back of a magazine. He knew nothing about the publication and when asked "why do you want to join AS?" he responded, "doesn't everyone want to work for AS!".

He managed to get the job at the right wing magazine, based in Indiana, but it didn't really suit him (unsurprisingly!). He worked for a magazine owned by Reverend Moon - a very relaxed role, involving lots of trips with mates and eventually moved to a job in Washington and where he worked as a freelancer and eventually the Washington Post.

Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis

From here the conversation shifted to his recent release David and Goliath. The book is about our irrational perception of what is an advantage (that what we often believe is an advantage, isn't). He argues that in the battle between David and Goliath, David wasn't the underdog - he had superior technology, and potentially Goliath was partially blind. The book follows his thinking in Outliers about advantage, but questioning what an advantage really is.

Gladwell spoke about how he wants to focus on narrative more in his writing (like Michael Lewis does), and had attempted to do this through a story about an Indian father wanting to spend more time with her daughter by coaching her basketball team. The father has never played basketball before (initially seen as a disadvantage) but takes an unorthodox approach, and encourages his team to focus on full court defense. His team of unlikely winners, make the national play-offs with this approach.

Both authors joked about their styles - Michael Lewis would have turned this story into a 300 page book, whereas Malcolm Gladwell needed to pull together a number of stories on the same theme. Gladwell didn't say it, but his strength is connecting the dots, and pulling insight out of a number of initially disparate stories.

When asked by the audience if he sees himself as David, Gladwell quickly responded that he didn't - that he'd been lucky to follow one advantage after the other in life.

What a great night!