{"id":16199,"date":"2025-10-03T13:09:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T13:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/?p=16199"},"modified":"2025-10-03T13:31:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T13:31:16","slug":"scenes-from-a-hacker-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2025\/10\/03\/scenes-from-a-hacker-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Scenes from a hacker house"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
\n
\n \n

Sign up for the Nieman Storyboard newsletter,<\/em><\/a> delivered every Friday in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

***<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

Dear Storyboard community, <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

My mission for this newsletter is to focus squarely on journalists who are doing the work, and what we can learn from them. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

If I admitted to a second, unspoken goal, it might be: \u201cLet’s not talk about AI.\u201d I want Nieman Storyboard to celebrate the work that humans are uniquely capable of doing: Observing the world, and making sense of what is happening through storytelling. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

But when a reporter is able to bring me into San Francisco’s AI subculture? Count me in. Here’s Kerry Howley at New York magazine<\/a>, observing the young founders of today: <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n
\n
\n
\n \n

Someone tells me I absolutely have to meet a \u201csupercool\u201d guy named Patrick Santiago, and when we talk for the first time Pat is down to hang pretty much immediately, so I walk over to Market Street, a few blocks from the Tenderloin, a part of town in which another woman advises me to walk \u201cwith purpose\u201d if I walk at all. Pat is transforming a few dozen rooms in a one-star hotel with frightening reviews (\u201cVery unclean. Health and safety concerns\u201d) into \u201ckind of a summer-camp experience\u201d for aspiring founders, mostly 20-somethings with no interest in drawing a paycheck from big tech. He calls his hacker house Accelr8, and he started it, broke, as a way of \u201craising in the AI boom.\u201d The first residents, who rent rooms Pat has leased from the hotel, rode up the creaky elevator just this past June. Pat\u2019s wearing sweatpants, Adidas slides without socks, a Patagonia fleece he occasionally tugs over his mouth as he vapes, and a square piece of plastic on a string called a Buddi, an AI device that records and summarizes all of his conversations.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

In each vivid scene, Howley makes us feel like we’re there, hanging out with the cool kids and stumbling into a room with a 50-year-old guru who goes by the name Professor Dumpster. This is another boom in a city that has seen many come and go, in a country that is otherwise shut down and turning on itself. As Howley writes, \u201cEvery gold-rush story is a tale of a ticking clock.\u201d <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

How can other writers capture current moments and bring them to readers? Contributor Emilia Wisniewski dug into the Nieman Storyboard archives to share insights from some of the most iconic narrative nonfiction.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

From index cards to interviews: Eight journalists on reporting and writing scenes<\/a><\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n \n
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Jonathan Borba<\/a>, Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

\u201cThe trick \u2014 and of course, it is not a trick \u2014 is to choose and use just what is needed to paint a picture and pull readers into the moment. Too little and the picture is fuzzy or incomplete or, worse, confusing. Too much and the reader is overwhelmed, not knowing where to look, what to pay attention to or, worse, bored.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

[ Read the story<\/a> ]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

Links of note<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n \n
\"\"<\/a>
Kari Howard at the Nieman Foundation’s Lippmann House on the Harvard campus in 2016.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n \n