Werd I/O

Edward Snowden released this letter to the world in PDF format. The following is a searchable text version of same. Any errors or inconsistencies are unintentional and my own. I am unconnected to Edward Snowden and he has not authorized this reshare or transcription.

To whom it may concern,

I have been invited to write to you regarding your investigation of mass surveillance. I am Edward Joseph Snowden, formerly employed through contracts or direct hire as a technical expert for the United States National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, and Defense Intelligence Agency.

In the course of my service to these organizations, I believe I witnessed systemic violations of law by my government that created a moral duty to act. As a result of reporting these concerns, I have faced a severe and sustained campaign of persecution that forced me from my family and home. I am currently living in exile under a grant of temporary asylum in the Russian Federation in accordance with international law.

I am heartened by the response to my act of political expression, in both the United States and beyond. Citizens around the world as well as high officials - including in the United States - have judged the revelation of an unaccountable system of pervasive surveillance to be a public service. These spying revelations have resulted in the proposal of many new laws and policies to address formerly concealed abuses of the public trust. The benefits to society of this growing knowledge are becoming increasingly clear at the same time claimed risks are being shown to have been mitigated.

Though the outcome of my efforts has been demonstrably positive, my government continues to treat dissent as defection, and seeks to criminalize political speech with felony charges that provide no defense. However, speaking the truth is not a crime. I am confident that with the support of the international community, the government of the United States will abandon this harmful behavior. I hope that when the difficulties of this humanitarian situation have been resolved, I will be able to cooperate in the responsible finding of fact regarding reports in the media, particularly in regard to the truth and authenticity of documents, as appropriate and in accordance with the law.

I look forward to speaking with you in your country when the situation is resolved, and thank you for your efforts in upholding the international laws that protect us all.

With my best regards,

Edward Snowden
31 October 2013

If you can get shit done, you can get shit done.

If you're in technology, there is nowhere else in the world to be. Period. The critical mass of talent, investment and employment opportunity mean that - if you're the kind of person who already has the skills and circumstance to be able to make something out of nothing - you can thrive here like nowhere else in the world.

For years, working on Elgg, potential investors would tell us, "move to San Francisco". Our advisors told us that. Some of our customers told us that. And we didn't listen, because we believed that we should be able to create the same kind of opportunity elsewhere.

You can create opportunity elsewhere, but San Francisco is a special kind of place. Need to talk to the person who created product or technology X and get their advice? You can have a coffee with them, almost guaranteed. Need to learn about a product, or get investment feedback, or find top-tier developers? This is the place to be. In other words, if you're here to make money, be surrounded in technology and other smart people, and create something quickly, you're golden.

It's not for everyone, and probably not forever, but it has its place, and I'm not unaware that being here is a privilege all on its own.

The fact that it's beautiful, the weather is pretty good, you're less than an hour away from incredible national parks and world-beating wine country, and it's highly connected with the rest of the world doesn't hurt either.

But more: there's a buzz in the streets, the restaurants all serve amazing food, there's music from every bar doorway and little snippets of culture and history around every corner. I work on the edge of Chinatown, and walk to get coffee past Francis Ford Coppola's restaurant on the edge of North Beach. The echoes of beat poets still hang in the air. Every house is an individual, and the stores are idiosyncratic and independent.

These things are what made San Francisco appealing in the first place, and it's these things that I'm worried will be lost.

I guess I must be missing something obvious about the land of opportunity.

Here's how health insurance works, in a nutshell: I pay hundreds of dollars a month, either directly or through my employer. Then, when I go to the doctor, I may still need to still pay some money. If I get hit by a bus or have to have cancer treatment, I may still need to pay thousands of dollars. If I need an ongoing prescription, I may still need to pay. Etc, etc, etc. And this is considered normal. (If I am on a very low income, or elderly, or a few other special circumstances, these costs may be subsidized for me.)

Toast in San Francisco famously costs $4. A loaf of bread, if I don't want it pumped full of corn syrup, is somewhere between $4-6. A friend spent $8 on two heads of broccoli the other day.

Want to live in San Francisco? A one-bedroom apartment rents for somewhere between $2500-$4000 a month, depending on the area, excluding bills. To own, a one bedroom apartment costs around $600k; a 2-bedroom house in the Inner Richmond district is almost a million dollars; a 3-bedroom house is closer to $1.5m.

People talk about becoming going out on your own and starting your own business, but there's no meritocracy here. This is a market that's only open to the already-wealthy; people who come from affluent backgrounds or have significant cushions saved up. For everyone else, the only real viable solution is to work for a megacorp, which will pay you the six-figure salary you need to get by here. I believe that, for many people, Silicon Valley is a closed shop.

The culture of entitlement that comes with this is immense. People talk about having made it on their own, and the power of individual achievement. More and more, I hear anti-union, anti-working-class, sexist, racist bigotry in casual conversation. Even the prevalence of something as archaic as traditional gender roles is jarring to me; I've seen more cat-calling and casual misogyny since I've lived here than anywhere else I've ever been. And they talk about the efficiency of private business. Private business is efficient, but in part because it's also sociopathic. Talk about business efficiency to people who lose everything when they get sick; who are evicted from their homes because their landlords want higher rents; who are allowed to slip through the cracks because of poor luck.

I'm single with no children, but one day I would like a family. These are not the values I want to bring children up around. I believe that there is no such thing as individual accomplishment without society, and that we're all richer when we take care of each other. I also believe that San Francisco was once an oasis of this kind of thought, and it's deeply sad that such a progressive place has become so inhospitable.

There are many things to love here: the boundless ambition, the critical mass of talent, the historical culture of the city itself. I've met wonderful people, and have wonderful friends. But I do have to wonder what kind of place this is becoming.