When the town turns into a company town for the makers of technical backpacks, I feel some admiration for the people that try to assimilate, but also... it's kind of a shame.
There's no easy reaction to all the engineers and technical staff that don't love making tech products, maybe don't even like it. I want to explain to them why I love it in the hopes they'll start to feel the way I do and be happy. But people are too complex for that. And you can't just be like "get some other job" because there are very few other jobs that won't leave them struggling to make rent, at least not without moving far away.
> Surrounded by transplants, we together inhabit a prehistoric California of 1970s sedans, rickety on the highway, hot air blowing through open windows into the backseat. [...] Our coworkers had moved here to be a part of the future, but we were left over from something that had already passed.
There's no easy reaction to all the engineers and technical staff that don't love making tech products, maybe don't even like it. I want to explain to them why I love it in the hopes they'll start to feel the way I do and be happy. But people are too complex for that. And you can't just be like "get some other job" because there are very few other jobs that won't leave them struggling to make rent, at least not without moving far away.