Snap Inc is tucked away inconspicuously less than a block from Venice Beach in L.A. The company’s presence here is almost totally stealth — if you didn’t already know where it was, you would be hard pressed to find it.
I was here to visit for just one whirlwind day (flying in from NYC late last night, then flying off to Quebec City for the UIST conference tomorrow morning). This morning I gave a guest lecture, and then, over the course of the day, met with a lot of very cool and brilliant people.
I hadn’t been completely sure what to focus on for my talk, so I had given a sort of overview of various thoughts and experiments. Then, after meeting with all those great people one on one and in small group discussions, I developed a better understanding of what I should have focused on in my talk.
I kept thinking, all through the day, “Ah, if only I had shown that demo, or described this project.” But of course, when I’d given my talk in the morning, all of those great conversations had not yet happened. And outside of a Ted Chiang story, nobody can actually see the future.
So I consoled myself by noting that those very thoughts meant that this is probably just the beginning of a fruitful collaboration. And the next time I come here for a visit, I will probably know exactly what to lecture about. 🙂