San Francisco may have a reputation for being AI-obsessed and chock-full of antisocial tech nerds, but those are only stereotypes—right?
A viral post from a San Francisco tech worker brought all the city’s clichés into focus, after he visited New York City and was seemingly amazed by people interested in anything other than AI.
Parv Sondhi, a San Francisco-based project manager with experience at Apple, eBay, and UC Berkeley, took to social media to share his observations after spending a week in New York City. In his post, he remarked on seeing “very few AI ads or billboards around” and coming across “way more artists.”
Sondhi seemed especially wowed by how social New Yorkers are relative to San Franciscans. He noted that “people are actually outside touching grass (or cement 😅),” “everyone is willing to strike up a conversation (not about AI agents),” and that he “found a way to talk to folks without mentioning AI.”
In one particularly head-scratching observation, Sondhi noted that “even cafes” had “very few screens with Claude Code or Cursor or some coding tool.”
“It’s genuinely refreshing to remember there’s a whole world outside the feed,” Sondhi wrote to conclude his post. “The SF tech bubble makes it easy to forget how alive real cities feel. Sorry SF, you’re still home . . . but perspective is healthy.”
In the replies to his post, Sondhi continued praising New York City’s energy, saying “no one cared how many agents I have running” and “I actually felt motivated to read and write more instead of just spending 20 hours on my laptop.”
Bursting the Bay Area bubble
When Sondhi’s post left his audience and spread to social media at large, it quickly went viral, garnering 3.6 million views on X. Non-tech insiders took Sondhi’s amazement at everyday life as an indictment of San Francisco and of tech culture at large. “This is the bleakest thing I’ve ever read,” reads one viral reply.
“What an amazing reminder that I can never move to San Francisco,” quipped another commenter.
“I don’t actually think SF is this bad,” wrote a third. “If you willingly choose to spend all your time with the world’s most maladjusted tech freaks that is a personal choice.”
Even Bay Area residents outside of the tech world chimed in to defend their city, saying Sondhi’s experience within the tech bubble is far from all that San Francisco has to offer. “I promise you most of SF is awesome normals,” one user posted.
Another San Francisco resident expressed resentment over the irony of Sondhi’s post. “Love when the people who are actively destroying San Francisco through tech are like, ‘I went somewhere else and it was so great! SF is a tech bubble!’” they wrote.
America’s most tech-obsessed city
Is San Francisco really all that different from other U.S. cities? After all, New York City has the most total tech workers in America with 422,000 as of 2025, making up 11.63% of the city’s total workforce, significantly higher than the nationwide figure of 7.25%.
But that pales in comparison to San Francisco, which boasts the highest concentration of tech workers in the country: 22.54% of the city’s workforce is in the tech industry. That’s nearly double the concentration of New York City, making it easy to see how Sondhi’s trip could come as a culture shock.
Still, San Francisco has plenty of culture beyond its bustling tech industry, with some commenters highlighting the city’s beautiful public parks and robust public transit.
One replier to Sondhi had some advice for any SF-based tech bros planning trips beyond the city. “To my fellow Bay Area residents visiting cities other than San Francisco: if you could try not to tweet like the smoke aliens from Arrival first encountering humanity after you go to exotic places like ‘New York,’ I would really appreciate it,” they joked. “This reflects on me as well.”