May 20 2014

@steveklabnik including you?

— Nick Quaranto (@qrush) March 5, 2014

I was always not quite sure about moving to San Francisco. I’ve heard about this place for my entire life: back in high school, during the first bubble, I would read Slashdot and wonder about life out west. But San Francisco is like a vortex for software developers. It’s got this gravitational pull that’s hard to escape. When I made the choice to move here, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to handle it. Turns out I can’t.

So I’m leaving. My job is great, but it’s not worth staying in this city. I haven’t done anything outside of work in a few months. I go to work, work hard, go home, and then go to sleep. I don’t go home late. I go home at five. It’s not work/life balance that’s the issue. I’m just not psyched for the ‘life’ part. San Francisco has sucked out all my creativity, most of my passion, and has made me increasingly frustrated with things. Elaborating further would just be repeating Tom Dale and tef with not much difference, so I’ll leave it at that.

So, at the end of the month, I’m leaving Balanced and the city. I’ll be arriving in Brooklyn, a place I’ve been trying to live for the past few years. I’m going to deeply miss my friends and my (ex-)coworkers, but I have a lot of friends in NYC, too. Every hour I spend in New York, I feel excited, and every hour I spend in San Francisco, I feel drained.

So here’s to new adventures. I can’t wait to be happy again.