* FiDi or SoMa got kinda seedy during the pandemic, so you might want to avoid living there. Since you're young, you might like the vibe in the Mission or Marin

* FiDi or SoMa got kinda seedy during the pandemic, so you might want to avoid living there. Since you're young, you might like the vibe in the Mission or Marina/Cow Hollow. My favorite neighborhoods are the ones with Victorians/flats west of Hayes Valley (Duboce Tri, Lower Haight, Castro, Divis/Nopa, etc). * When I first moved to SF I got a 1br apartment, but later rented a very nice 2br2ba flat as the "master tenant" and got a "subtenant" roommate. Maybe you wouldn't consider having a roommate, but it's nice to have someone else around. If you set the rent price relatively low for a high-end apartment where each person has a private bathrm, you'll get more roommate applications than you can handle. Winnow the emails down to dozen or so. When you interview a dozen candidates, there's almost always one person who stands out as someone who would make for a great flatmate. (Warning: if you rent a 3br place and get 2 roommates, it's a lot more complicated. Difficult to know who did what, e.g. left food in the frig, etc) * You might consider joining a lot of meetup.com groups. I joined literally over 100 SF-based groups and during the 2010's would go to at least 2-3 per month. I stopped going to meetups during the pandemic but it seems like in-person meetups are ramping up again. * You run a mobile game studio? Join the Stanford Games/Entrepreneurs list. https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/gsb-videogames https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/gsb-videogames It doesn't have as much chatter as it used to, but every once in a while there's some insider discussion. I used to be in the game industry, so I'd offer to connect you with people, but it's been some years so my contacts are kinda old. * Your main goals are mostly professional, but consider the opportunity for other things. When I first moved here, it was supposed to be temporary for maybe 3 years max, so I tried to take advantage of things here that I couldn't do back in Atlanta. I did things like: every winter I joined a shared ski house in Tahoe, I volunteered as a National Park Service docent at the Point Bonita Lighthouse, and did more biking/hiking/outdoor stuff that I rarely did in Atlanta bc it was too hot there. This mindset turned out to be a nice forcing function to push me to do things that I wouldn't have done otherwise. Like, you're right by the ocean so you might consider taking up scuba, surfing, kayaking. * Feel free to contact me. My email is in my profile.