A couple of weeks at Stacker News, Austin \ stacker news ~Travel

Hi! I’m sox ^^ I went to Austin in the first two weeks of May to visit the place where the Stacker News magic happens.

A little backstory

note: I'm not a good writer, at all, take this post as a travel log, hence the territory choice Some of you that might have read my name in release notes and comments, probably also wondered who the fuck I was (maybe nobody).

SN was my go-to for news and discussions about bitcoin and much more. But now it's my day-to-day life. All the way back in October I started making some contributions to the SN repo as a way to challenge myself, but it became what I wanted to do every day pretty fast.

I joined Stacker News as a contractor in January; my title is Everything! And I find that to be pretty cool. I focus on your experience with SN and, at the moment, cool stuff for territories.

There’s much more to this story, but this post is about my trip. I’ll share my story of winning back my dream of coding another day.

So where was I — ah yes, the trip

Going to Austin, TX

I’ve never been in Texas; to an European, it’s like entering an opposite dimension, but I quickly found that to be false. I packed my stuff and embarked on a 25-hour journey composed of airports, flights and long lines at the customs.

sorry for the blurred pic, it was really late. But I made it! Normally, I would’ve been too excited to sleep, but the toll of the flights made me die on the bed right after I entered the Airbnb. I didn’t even got the chance to experience jet lag lol.

Working at PlebLab

My first day couldn’t start any better: I got a Waymo!

@ek picked me at the entrance, and I just couldn’t stop myself from hugging him as our first real-life interaction. Ek made me meet lots of great people with great projects; PlebLab is really fucking cool, guys.

@Car gave me a PlebLab shirt, and Ek gave me an original Stacker News hat; you guys don’t know how excited I got!

I sat next to Ek, stealing Car’s spot on Stacker News Live. I think I never worked this passionately about something; there’s something to PlebLab that I didn’t encounter in any other place.

Also, on the first day, @bitcoinplebdev tried to make me learn hacky sack. I almost don’t have reflexes, so it was hard, and I thank him for trying lol, but I really appreciated that he wanted to play with me. The first impression that I had of him was enough to make me comfortable talking to him whenever I wanted; he’s super cool!

Places

I would talk about all the places in which Ek and I had lunch together, but they’re a lot, aaaand I forgot to take pictures. I still want to say that the sushi that I had with Car and Ek was so good (and also a lot, we ordered a lot.) that I got sad when I got full.

Also the tacos near PlebLab, man, okay, those changed something in me, I tell ya. I even brought my girlfriend there on the last days lol.

One day, after work, we went to a bar to drink something, and I got to meet our zine lord @plebpoet She’s as fun as you can tell she is by her comments and posts. Even more!

secret ingredient of the drinks This place also accepts lightning! But Ek generously offered me the drinks, so I couldn’t try it.

btc++

I realized that I forgot to take the tickets, so Ek was kind enough to get them in time for me.

yes I wrote Sex by mistake on one side, the other side has Sox

Didn’t get pictures of the event, but it was jam-packed with cool talks on Mempools and projects. One of the coolest was FROSTR by @bitcoinplebdev and @cmd — I don’t think I’m being biased

Lunch was a picnic, and they gave us food to eat at the park. Here’s a squirrel that wanted some of that don’t-know-what-was-in-it roll:

@plebpoet gave me the Issue #7 of SNZ in person!!

I also finally got to meet @k00b here at btc++, with the glorious beard and all. I’m pretty introverted myself, so just meeting him was awesome.

I got to go to a party with Ek!

The view was amazing, sorry again for the blurred pic: I think I had too many drinks. Ek and I realized that m&m’s were fungible and had missions to gather some to have our own supply — again, we had too many drinks. Sadly, I had to go home early, but I had so much fun with Ek and all the people I got to talk to.

Texan barbecue

I had dinner in a texan barbecue place with @k00b, @ek, @plebpoet and @bitcoinplebdev and it was amazing! I got to eat a Chicken Fried Steak and my mouth is watering as I'm writing this. It was that good.

Meeting people that you work with everyday, in an informal setting, is something that I appreciate a lot. You need to trust the people you work with, you need to know their story. Without trust, you cannot possibly have a good relationship, personal or work. So I'm really thankful for this dinner with them ^^

The Range

I never touched a gun, never even thought of that. But when Ek told me that we could theoretically go there and try to shoot, I said yes immediately.

I mean look at how cool that AR-15 is, omg. I sucked. But I had so much fun and also did a life experience. Thank you @ek ^^

End

that's an animated Hello Kitty plush that I got for my girlfriend, who was kind enough to come with me This was an amazing experience and I got to meet amazing people that have the most amazing souls. Thank you all for everything, I can’t wait to come back ^^

As for Stacker News, thank you for being an amazing community. The work to make it better is never over!

sox

137 sats \ 9 replies \ @grayruby 12h

Great post. Sounds like you had a great time.

Did @ek relocate to Austin?

130 sats \ 8 replies \ @ek 10h

No, not yet 👀

112 sats \ 7 replies \ @grayruby 9h

You can take a half measure and live in Canada haha. We are very European. Except for the lack of history and culture. But we are communists like you guys.

132 sats \ 6 replies \ @SimpleStacker 9h

If you want communism and lack of history and culture, but at least having some nice beaches and mountains, you can come to California :)

50 sats \ 5 replies \ @realBitcoinDog 4h

California FTW!

70 sats \ 4 replies \ @grayruby 4h

California has great weather and scenery.

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250 sats \ 2 replies \ @Car 8h

It was awesome having sox around, he was a really cool bitcoiner, having him at pleblab was a blast. Also a really funny guy as well, my favorite two memories was him almost passing out on sushi :) and coming up with the term the "waymo gods" now me and ek use it all the time. k00b really knows how to pick some really cool people to work on sn.

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @sox OP 6h

thank you :' you're the coolest guy, I loved the side quests with both of you haha!

may the waymo gods be with you fr 🙌

64 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car 5h

haha

219 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 12h

Amazing travel log! Austin seems to be the coolest place on Earth.

159 sats \ 1 reply \ @OneOneSeven 10h

I also want to make the pilgrimage to SN headquarters at some point.

118 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 9h

Yeah I should do this as well some day

150 sats \ 0 replies \ @plebpoet 4h

you’re so cool @sox ! and well written, I loved reading this! so happy that we got to meet you in real life, until next time!

88 sats \ 0 replies \ @realBitcoinDog 4h

Thanks for sharing! SN isn’t just in cyberspace. It’s in Austin!

76 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 12h

Sounds awesome. I hope to make it down to SN headquarters at some point. @k00b owes me one of those big hats and I intend to collect.

69 sats \ 0 replies \ @jakoyoh629 10h

Seeing people in person, that's just next level. Good luck, and big respect for having the courage to leave Europe!

68 sats \ 6 replies \ @Satosora 12h

Lol, it seemed like you did a lot. I am very jealous of your SN hat. Hopefully l can get one when l stop by Austin at some point.

10 sats \ 5 replies \ @sox OP 11h

There's soooo much more! @ek made me do a lot of stuff and I truly thank him for his time. But I truly forgot to take pics during the trip :(

81 sats \ 4 replies \ @Satosora 11h

Its sounds like you did a lot. Did it open your eyes to the circular economy of bitcoin?

10 sats \ 3 replies \ @sox OP 11h

I tried to use sats as much as possible. From buying pizza to repaying someone.

More than opening my eyes, it was like a jailbreak from fiat. Austin is a really cool place to live as a bitcoiner

25 sats \ 2 replies \ @Satosora 11h

I have heard of how open that place is to bitcoin. Was it mostly every place that you went to? Or was the route picked based on the shops ability to use bitcoin?

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @sox OP 11h

Was it mostly every place that you went to?

I wish! No, sadly the majority of places don't accept it, but in local shops you can have more luck, a mini market near my house accepted it for cigarettes!

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66 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 12h

Thanks for this great story! What an adventure.

63 sats \ 0 replies \ @unschooled 12h

Cool travel log. Thanks to SN, I've felt it would be cool to visit and get a feel for Austin.

62 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 9h

That's cool! Seems like a great community over there.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @LibertasBR 26m

It was clear that it was a very rewarding trip and that the tour was more than just a highlight. Are you looking forward to returning?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Riberet 3h

Great post, Thanks for sharing!

I hope to visit SN headquarters someday too!