Taser knife fighting: surprisingly good reviews

I’m spending a few months of this year in SF scoping out a move. First, a few observations on the city:

• People Activity here in a way we don’t Activity in Australia. In Australia we love a hobby - we pick something on the side and we try to get very good at it. SF people (at least the SF people I hang out with) LOVE a side quest. I class this as a hobby that you do once or twice without feeling the need to get extremely good at it, but just for the enjoyment of trying something new and coming away with great stories. This is awesome.
• Almost everyone here is involved in building something new, which generates an amazing energy. I am increasingly concerned about how little we build in Australia that is new, and how much our economy instead relies on exporting coal.
• Acappella is cool here (at least among some portion of people). This is an alien concept in Australia.
• Everyone reads here - people talk to you about books and read on public transport. This is for sure one of my favorite things.
• The distance to an unhinged conversation with someone is much shorter. Everyone is working on something interesting and often unexpected. Small talk doesn’t exist here because people talk about ideas - I can go from meeting someone to an in-depth discussion about when and how the world might end in the span of 20 minutes.
• People in SF are definitely in a bit of a bubble regarding their relationship to AI. The rest of the world is miles behind, and I don’t think the folk here realise it.
• No one knows what musk sticks are. Didn’t realise that was an Australian thing.
• There are a LOT of Australians here. All our best tech talent moves to SF. This is sad for our country but means there’s an awesome Aussie/NZ social scene here, and you can get an intro to almost anyone through them.
• SF is surprisingly small - you will bump into people you’ve been wanting to meet.
• Because most people here have moved from somewhere else, everyone you meet is very keen to introduce you to everyone they know. This makes for a wonderful social scene - the whole city is like your best hostel experience. Would recommend.

I was invited to go taser knife fighting in a basement in the Tenderloin (an SF side quest). This is against typical travel advice so please do your own risk analysis before agreeing to something like this. But it actually turned out to be a great time.

The side quest in question.

My tip would be to pick the smallest person in the room for your first rounds - the primary advantages in this sport(?) seem to be arm span and speed. I managed to win all my rounds based on pure-adrenaline-fueled speed.

I enjoyed the experience much more than I expected; it made me realise that it’s been a very very long time since I’ve experienced proper adrenaline. Not chronic-stress type adrenaline, but fast, dizzying, I’m-being-chased-by-a-tiger type adrenaline. It was mentally draining but in the best way, and created a sense of extreme clarity and awareness of my surroundings that I very rarely feel otherwise. This is maybe a sign that I spend too much time wrapped up in what’s happening in my head and not enough time noticing anything that’s going on physically around me, which is feedback I’ve received from many friends and loved ones. But I also suspect that for many of us (particularly those of us who spend a large majority of our life coding), our bodies miss the quick shock response to physical danger.

(Having said that, I watched one of my friends face off against someone who went into a fencing en garde pose without cracking a smile, and saw the blood visibly drain from his face with fear. Facing off against the more well-trained people in this sport is not for the lighthearted, be warned.)

(I should also reassure you that these aren’t real knives - although they will give you a real electric shock).