

On Keeping Busy and Staying Sane in Startups - PStamatiou
http://paulstamatiou.com/keeping-busy-staying-sane-startup-life

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lyime
I am happy that Paul got hooked into EDM after we started working on Picplum.

I can't stress enough how Important it is to make friends who can enjoy things
outside of tech. I have had conversations with many folks at startups and they
are consumed by their work. It feels like some people actually want to talk
about tech and startups all the time, at work and on the weekends. I think
this is rather unhealthy.

I think in a city like San Francisco we are fortunate to live with people who
enjoy all sorts of hobbies and work in many different industries. This is even
more true in cities outside of the bay area.

While living in Portland, I wanted to move to SF and had the urge of wanting
to hang out with tech people, all the time. Good thing that never happened,
luckily I had made a quite a few friends during the Mugasha days, many of them
shared the same passion as me (EDM). We started going to a lot of shows
together, having meals during the weekdays and even traveling around the
country. This is the ultimate relaxation for me. I really did not miss talking
about ruby on rails or steve jobs on the weekends.

I have to thank Portland in many ways. It's a very diverse city. It's a great
place to make friends who come from all parts of the country and world.

You have to get out of your comfort zone and it doesn't matter what other
people think.

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davidw
> hanging out with a different social circle often; ones outside of the
> tech/startup world.

That's one of the things that made me happiest about moving to Italy from the
Bay Area. I have a fairly wide range of friends here, some of whom are up on
all the latest startup news, and others who could care less because that is
not at all their area of interest. It feels a lot healthier to me that way. In
the bay area, it felt like you were never really that far removed from tech;
it just permeates everything. Which is cool, I guess, for a bit, but after a
while I found it cloying. I appreciate having a wide range of friends here.

~~~
edwinnathaniel
This also helps people to be open minded, not seeing the world from a single
perspective.

~~~
davidw
Exactly. It's so easy to get caught up in doing something that impresses your
hacker friends, when there's tons of stuff out there like, say, bingo cards,
or, in my case, helping people format their books, that will make "ordinary
people" sing your praises even if it's kind of boring from a 'cool tech' point
of view.

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markbao
This is why I love living in NYC. Tech doesn't touch every corner or anywhere
near it. The diversity of occupations and activities is grand. That isn't to
say that the Bay Area doesn't have these kinds of activities and people, but I
can go weeks in NYC without bumping into the tech scene, something that can't
quite be said about the Bay Area (at least from my personal experience.)

~~~
rdl
I like hanging out with tech people who have substantial outside hobbies; it
makes it a lot easier to talk about those activities (cooking, sushi,
shooting, parties and DJing, video production, robots, ...) with some common
ground.

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eswat
_For us, the key to staying sane at a startup is hanging out with a different
social circle often; ones outside of the tech/startup world._

I really should have done this sooner rather than later when I first moved to
Ottawa. Currently living with seven others from the same incubator, in an
estate right by the Kanata tech park where not much goes on for a twenty-
something. It’s very hard not to get engrossed in just startup and software
development (design in my case) culture and this has been draining me for the
past few weeks. Finally getting my act together and breaking off from the pack
to do random things (BarCraft, training for Spartan Race, techno music
festivals, etc.).

