It was 2008, roughly a year following Twitter’s official founding. On Monday, it was. For some unknown reason, when I woke up in our modest Berkeley apartment, I opted to dress for the day in a crisp white dress shirt. I usually wear something comfy, like a t-shirt and jacket, so I never wear shirts like that. However, I put it on after finding it in my wardrobe, and my wife Livia told me I should wear it. I thus did.
After walking for thirty minutes from our house to the Berkeley downtown BART station, I sat down on a bench and waited for the train after swiping my card through the turnstile. A twenty-three-minute drive from Berkeley’s downtown the train goes in a tube that is fastened to the bottom of San Francisco Bay at the Montgomery Street station in San Francisco. I was always a little anxious about it, which made my dubious white shirt a little sweaty. I realized the shirt was an error.
I walked the thirty minutes from Montgomery Station to Twitter’s office, then across Bryant Street, with my Apple PowerBook tucked under my backpack. I was pretty shvitzing by the time I went into the workplace, which was about two hours after I woke up.
My friend and courageous Product Manager at Twitter, Jason Goldman, informed me as soon as I got into the office that Ev was waiting for me in his car downstairs. It was unusual for me to arrive at work and be informed that Eve was expecting me to leave. There was an issue. “What makes him waiting on me? Which meeting is this? So I did. Just leave. He stated. I then pivoted and left the building behind. Yes, Enough, Ev was waiting for me directly in front. I entered the vehicle. “Where are we headed?”
Los Altos.
I began struggling because I was unable to recall anything about Palo Alto on my agenda. “Oh!” Is this the day we’re meant to conduct the Google Q&A? said I. “I regret wearing this shirt. In this shirt, I feel strange.
I was obsessed with a white button-down shirt that looked like a suit, despite its simple appearance. Did I really need to tuck it in? We were heading to Google, or somewhere else, and I already felt uncomfortable in the dumb clothing. We took off in the direction of 101 South. Ev like driving quickly. He was generally patient with me, but when I would ramble on, he would become irritated.
