I moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco because of a cold DM on X.

I grew up in the LA suburbs, and after attending college there I built my career in journalism across the country, first covering local news, and then crypto. I liked my comfortable life with friends and family.

Then in February, the chief of staff at Corgi, the AI insurance startup that recently went viral for its seven-day workweek, messaged me on X to ask if I would be interested in a role. I’d never heard of Corgi, but I’d seen a lot of people in crypto pivot to the AI industry and wanted to check it out.

A week later, I flew to San Francisco to visit the team, and in March, I joined them as their Head of Brand. My entire life changed in an instant.

Moving from Los Angeles to San Francisco felt like stepping into a completely different value system

In San Francisco, there’s a strong sense that AI is transforming the city and a level of intensity that I don’t think people outside the Bay Area fully appreciate. Everyone here believes they’re early to something massive.

Everyday, I meet people who’ve moved across state and city lines to work at startups in San Francisco. Like me, they’re willing to make extraordinary sacrifices for the possibility of being part of the next OpenAI or Anthropic.

In LA, one of the first questions people would ask me at events was, “What’s your Instagram?” Conversations often orbited around who you knew, what parties you were invited to, and how well you’ve curated yourself online.

In San Francisco, online curation still matters, but in a different way. People ask for your LinkedIn or X account. Or sometimes they skip social media entirely and ask, “What are you building?” Nobody seems particularly interested in whether you’re fashionable, attractive, or influential online. The currency is ideas, fundraising, and products.

Neither city is better; they optimize for different things. For now, I’m happy to be working with my head down in San Francisco, where I’m more productive and motivated than I was in LA.

My journalism background was more valuable than I expected

Coming from journalism, I assumed I’d be the least technical person in almost every room.

When you think of Silicon Valley, you think of engineers and founders who’ve raised millions of dollars. Conversations move quickly from product roadmaps to fundraising. At times, I wondered whether someone with an entirely different skillset really belonged in this environment.

Over time, I realized I was wrong. In the age of AI, companies compete on narrative, taste, and making people care. Storytelling is becoming infrastructure. OpenAI has highlighted the enormous opportunity for new forms of creative and narrative work emerging alongside AI, while hiring roles dedicated specifically to shaping the stories that help executives and customers understand the technology.

Rippling is hiring a Head of Storytelling to build its editorial voice and point of view, and Notion now has an entire Storytelling function within the company. In a world where everyone has access to the same models, the advantage increasingly belongs to the people who can synthesize ideas, understand culture, create meaning, and tell compelling stories. The humanities aren’t becoming less valuable in the AI era, they may be becoming more valuable than they have been in decades.

Since journalists can identify what matters in a sea of information and explain complicated topics clearly, my experience is incredibly useful for writing, editing, and shaping content about Corgi’s brand.

Changing industries doesn’t always mean leaving behind the skills you love most. Sometimes, it means finding a new way to use them.

I’m glad I moved despite the emotional trade-offs

I still miss many things about Los Angeles, like being close to my family, familiar neighborhoods, and the comfort of a city where I always knew the best spots to meet friends for coffee. LA shaped who I am, and I don’t think anywhere will ever replace it.

But moving to San Francisco has stretched me in ways staying comfortable never could have. I didn’t just change address, I moved into an entirely different world. I’m surrounded by people who genuinely believe they’re living through one of the most consequential technological shifts of our generation.

Whether history proves them right remains to be seen, but as a journalist used to documenting periods of change from the outside, I’m glad I’m experiencing this defining moment where the action is happening.

Like many others, I’m willing to uproot my life to be part of this once-in-a-lifetime shift. Even with the uncertainty, long hours, and emotional trade-offs that came with leaving my life in Los Angeles behind, I’m grateful I said yes to that cold message on X.

Seattle – Our pleasant weekend continues as afternoon highs remain a few degrees cooler than normal.  Onshore flow will keep many along the coastal regions in the low 60s, while the interior lowlands warm into the 70s to close out our weekend. 

Onshore flow will continue to keep afternoon highs cooler than normal. 

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Stronger onshore flow, along with a weak disturbance to our north will increase clouds on Sunday morning with a few spots potentially seeing a stray light shower.  Clouds will quickly begin to clear by the afternoon with sunnier skies by midday. 

Sunday will begin cloudy with sunnier skies by the afternoon. 

A stretch of warmer weather is heading our way beginning Tuesday when we warm into the 80s, and it sticks around into the upcoming weekend. 

A stretch of 80 degree days are ahead! 

The Colorado Court of Appeals this month reversed a discovery sanction against the Denver District Attorney’s Office after a judge found prosecutors violated a man’s rights two years ago when they turned over an exculpatory 911 recording just six days before his jury trial was set to begin.

Denver District Court Judge Eric Johnson dismissed all of the charges against the defendant to punish prosecutors for what he said was a larger pattern and practice of discovery violations by the Denver District Attorney’s Office, a sanction that has become significantly more common across the state in recent years as the Denver DA’s office and others have faced scrutiny over flawed practices.

The Court of Appeals left alone the judge’s discovery violation finding but rejected the sanction in a July 2 opinion, finding that Johnson did not give prosecutors a real chance to contest the judge’s finding of a broader pattern of such misconduct within the Denver District Attorney’s Office before he dismissed the attempted-murder case.

“Defense counsel never even mentioned a pattern and practice of violations before the court ruled from the bench,” the opinion reads. “Instead, the court raised the issue sua sponte (on its own) in its bench ruling. As a result, the prosecutor had no advance notice that the court believed that the District Attorney’s Office engaged in a pattern and practice of discovery violations or, based on that finding, that the court would impose the most severe possible discovery sanction.”

Judges must give prosecutors the opportunity to research and respond to allegations of a pattern of misconduct before imposing a sanction, the Court of Appeals panel found. They noted their ruling is the first time the issue has been considered in a reported case, that is, a published opinion that sets legal precedent.

The higher court sent the case back to Denver District Court for a new sanctions hearing on the discovery violation. They noted in their opinion that Johnson could once again dismiss the case as a sanction against prosecutors, as long as prosecutors have an opportunity to be heard first.

In the underlying case, which appears to be sealed and no longer public, defendant Ahmad Ahmed was charged with attempted murder and four counts of assault after authorities said he stabbed a person in front of a Family Dollar store in 2022. Two of the victim’s friends then threw rocks at Ahmed to drive him away, prosecutors contended. Ahmed later claimed he acted in self-defense.

Prosecutors did not share five 911 call recordings regarding the stabbing with defense attorneys until six days before Ahmed’s jury trial was scheduled to start in 2024. In one of those recordings, the 911 caller described Ahmed as the victim in the incident, not the assailant, and described the other people throwing rocks at Ahmed.

Ahmed’s defense attorneys immediately sought out the witness, who said he was willing to testify in the case but that he was traveling and would not be available for the jury trial scheduled six days later.

That prompted Ahmed’s defense team to object to the discovery violation in court, arguing that the 911 caller’s account was exculpatory and that prosecutors should have disclosed the recording to the defense team much earlier in the case, as required by Colorado’s rules of evidence. The defense asked Johnson to dismiss the case or issue other sanctions.