Yesterday, during my one full day in San Francisco, I squeezed in three meetings.
First, I met with the folks from QuinStreet, the company that owns my personal finance blog. We met at the Mission Beach Cafe, where we had a fantastic breakfast. I ate pancakes with vanilla creme and bourbon syrup. I also had a side of the best bacon I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a lot of bacon in my 43 years on this planet.
Next, I dropped by Twitter HQ to meet GRS-reader Mark Christian and a few of his fellow geeks. I ate lunch in the cafeteria, where Mark showed me what has to be the best perk of all time. Twitter employees have constant access to an unlimited supply of bacon:
At Twitter HQ, employees have access to unlimited bacon.
Finally, I walked over to the offices of Lending Club. Lending Club is a peer-to-peer lending platform. In plain English: It’s a company that lets regular folks like me lend money to regular folks like you, but in a way that spreads the risk. I met some of the Lending Club folks last month at Fincon 2012, and they asked me to stop in so I could learn more about their operations. I have to admit: I used to be a skeptic about peer-to-peer lending, but I’ve changed my tune. I’m going to try it out, perhaps even in a big way.
It was a good day. Along the way, lots of little things went right for me. But perhaps the best part of the day was witnessing the never-ending bacon supply at Twitter HQ. If I ever own a tech company, I’m going to offer that perk to my employees, too.
Wow…I need to get a job at Twitter!
You might be surprised how quickly these sorts of tech company perks fall into your typical “hedonic treadmill” situation.
Once you have one slice of free bacon each day, you find yourself craving two slices. Then three. Before you know it, you’re eating a plate-full at every meal. 🙂
You probably know this already, but Mr Money Mustache has been doing an ongoing Lending Club experiment – those posts make for good reading, as they do on every other topic! I ordered a set of bike lights based on one of his recent posts.
Can you do Lending Club in Portland?
I couldn’t resist posting this to Facebook; especially after my peer group sent out the “imminent bacon shortage” messages just last week!
I obviously need to work at Twitter!
I wonder why all of the bacon? What about drinks? Anything good?
Sounds like you had an interesting day. Any secrets from Twitter that you can share with us?
Why bacon? You’re kidding!
I see that bacon and imagine twitter staff also talking like pirates all day and bringing their LOLcats to work, slapping each other on their backs for their wackiness. Sometimes “hurr, hurr, let’s be crazy unconventional and bring a decade old meme to life” really is too much. Would be interested to know what you guys discussed at twitter hq though?! Happy continued-travels!
I see plenty of Crossfit action in your future. 🙂 And maybe a statin? 🙂 I’d prefer the bacon to the doughnuts that HP used to provide oh so many years ago.
JD-
Greetings! This is Curtis. Coauthored a book on peer to peer lending and have done several personal loans! Email if you’d like to talk.
Sounds like you are enjoying life post QNST. 🙂
How was this bacon different from any other bacon? I think I’ve had the best bacon in the world (caramelized with brown sugar and toasted hazelnuts. YUM)! I want to hear more about the bacon!
Working at Twitter gives new meaning to bringing home the bacon.
But… why do you need to own a tech company do to bottomless bacon? You can do it at the editorial offices of MTM! 🙂
Is it bacon from pastured pigs or from factory-farmed pork? If it’s the former, Dan might just have to consider Twitter when it’s time to switch companies. One of his coworkers just went there. 🙂
Hi J.D.,
I’ve been a GRS reader for over five years, and in that time my husband and I have managed to save over $100K (and for four of those years we were both on graduate student stipends). Home prices are low where we live and we anticipate buying our first home mortgage-free this spring.
I’ll be visiting family in the Portland area soon. I know you sometimes like to meet up with GRS readers for lunch and was wondering if you’d be interested. If so, I’d love to hear from you. (I couldn’t find an e-mail address for you, but mine is attached to this comment.)
Take care,
Meg
Whoo hoo! Very happy to find you here. Long time GRS reader (from Scotland). Back in Africa and experienced no Internet for a while, Went to GRS on an off chance and found your link. Must say thanks, GRS (back in the old days) hence JD, was v. inspiring. Will definitely be reading here.
Bests,
Cari
Out of the blue question: did you go to middle school in Corvallis? Or was that another J.D.?
Not me. Must have been another J.D.
Now I like twitter even more thanks to your food porn. 🙂
I have maxed out my 401K and IRA contributions this year so just invested $500 in Lending Club’s main competitor. It’s a better bet than me trying to pick an individual stock!
Reminds me of a couple of stories: As a kid, my brother had dozens of legitimate food allergies. He hated liver, so he convinced my mom that he was allergic to it. Whenever my mom made liver for the rest of us, he got to eat BACON!
As an adult, I became a vegetarian. However, I still love the aroma of frying bacon. I worked at Nordstrom in San Francisco, which sits on top of a mall. Every morning I would take the elevator to the top of the building, pass through security and take a series of escalators to get down to my department. I had to pass behind four restaurants, each of whom was busily frying up the day’s supply of BACON! Delicious torture. My mouth waters at the thought as I type this. I haven’t eaten meat in twenty-four years, but I still miss BACON! Yes. I know there is veggie bacon, but it just isn’t the same…Thanks for the memories.