After 1,5 intense days on the design thinking workshop, Sunday was a bit more relaxed. First I moved to San Fransisco, to 15th and Mission street. From here, everything looks close.

I went for a big walk, touched Mission District, Castro, SoMa, Union Square. Not Tenderloin, though. What I saw from Market st, was more than enough. Overall, I like the city. Everybody is more open and smily than at home. Love the street art and the big billboard ads.

I didn’t want to touch the main tourist attractions just yet. I just wanted to get a first impression, and go to places where I can easily talk to locals, to do interviews.

Learning from the DT workshop, I was focusing on the empathy part — understanding how and why people learn, what challenges they have, what their positive experiences are. What did you learn last time? Tell me about your experiences with the course. What effect did the new skill have on your life? These were the questions I asked. I didn’t push it too hard, I asked 10 people, 6 took time to answer, 3 gave their mail address so we can follow up.

In the evening I ended up at the Flying Pig Bistro. I ate a delicious Nacho Dog hotdog, in a cozy environment. The price was also right. Here I also did my last interview, with Darren. He’s an impressive guy. Works as a sushi chef, does photography as main hobby, teaching himself new techniques all the time. He also uses his electrician knowledge from high school to build a kind of IoT device that measures and records the temperature of his fridge in his kitchen.

Tomorrow, the pre-arranged Silicon Valley tour will start. It has some interesting elements, will be fun. Although I’m worried that I will have to miss some parts, so I can do the personal meetings. I already feel, that 2 weeks are a very short time to be here.

Next day.

#conquestofparadise