Tomorrow, I am engaging in one of my most important campaigns so far. I'm going deep inside the technological society of "Silicon Valley". I need to pose as a high tech engineer from the south having just moved to the "Bay area". At least six weeks, possibly much longer. Only one problem: I have not got a clue what I am doing, and I have nowhere to live. I'm screwed, as usual.
I blame my boss. Six years ago he sent me on a mission into the darker parts of Sweden to uncover secrets inside their industrial military complex. I was 21, ambitious and at the top of my game. But for some reason, my boss made a lot of effort to ensure me: "things will be alright". "Don't worry". "We'll back you up". Maybe I looked nervous, maybe he just thought somebody my age should be nervous. Well, I listened to him. Thinking that everything will be alright, I put off booking my tickets until 5 hours before the flight was due. I didn't check my equipment or go over my mission objectives.
When I six, I tried to steal some candy from a convenience store. The manager caught me and my friend. I've never broken the law since. It's called learning from your failures. Maybe if my mission in Sweden would have gone bad, maybe then I would have learned to plan. Leave enough time to get things sorted in case anything goes wrong.
But the mission was a great success despite me putting in minimum effort ("it's going to be alright" i thought). Since then, I've never planned. Never prepared. And I've been cutting it thinner and thinner. This very moment must be as thin as it can possibly go before it becomes a razor that cuts my wrist. I'm sitting in Las Vegas with a ticket to San Francisco- but no home, no plan, no clue. I'm searching the web for maps, hotel listings, public transport maps, events listings etc. I'm reading about American football on wikipedia and trying to listen to the people around me to pick up accents and slang. Apparently "Silicon Valley" is part of what is known as "South Bay". Mandarin speaking Chinese and Indians tend to live in South Bay. The Cantonese live somewhere else and often go back as far as 5 generations in the US.
Wish me good luck. This is my life, this is what I strive for. A moment of clarity is all I ask for, just a split second when I understand that I might be sleeping on a bench tonight. This is what I call extreme working- an adrenalin rush equal to jumping off a cliff (with a parachute of course).
