When I moved to silicon valley a little while back I lived about a 3 minute walk from Facebook's main campus. Virtually all of our neighbors worked at Facebook. A super nice and social older couple quickly struck a friendship with my partner and I. They seemed like they could be anyone's grandma and grandpa.
In the weeks afterward several conversations with them veered into vague stories about the older man's time in the "three letter agencies" and their connections to the top of those agencies. The older man had joined the Navy out of high school and ended up in naval intelligence officially for the next 50 odd years. They mentioned that while the older man, who was in his 70s or so was retired, the wife who was maybe 20 years younger was not, and Facebook was contracting her as some nondescript project manager. The old man continually heaped praise on his wife never failing to say how much better she was at the job than he ever was. She would go silent or change the subject any time he brought stuff like that up.
They stayed about a total of 6 months before they moved back to Virginia. My partner formed an especially close bond with them and still keeps in touch. The wife is always going somewhere for a few months at a time so the old man goes too.
Meeting them was when things clicked for me. Obviously the state is going to have a lot of deals with these tech companies, whether or not the companies want anything to do with them. The platforms didn't get as powerful and concentrated into the hands of so few by magic. The really crazy thing was understanding that an agent could look and act so normal that you would never suspect them of being an agent in a million years if the beans hadn't already been slightly spilled.
When I moved to silicon valley a little while back I lived about a 3 minute walk from Facebook's main campus. Virtually all of our neighbors worked at Facebook. A super nice and social older couple quickly struck a friendship with my partner and I. They seemed like they could be anyone's grandma and grandpa.
In the weeks afterward several conversations with them veered into vague stories about the older man's time in the "three letter agencies" and their connections to the top of those agencies. The older man had joined the Navy out of high school and ended up in naval intelligence officially for the next 50 odd years. They mentioned that while the older man, who was in his 70s or so was retired, the wife who was maybe 20 years younger was not, and Facebook was contracting her as some nondescript project manager. The old man continually heaped praise on his wife never failing to say how much better she was at the job than he ever was. She would go silent or change the subject any time he brought stuff like that up.
They stayed about a total of 6 months before they moved back to Virginia. My partner formed an especially close bond with them and still keeps in touch. The wife is always going somewhere for a few months at a time so the old man goes too.
Meeting them was when things clicked for me. Obviously the state is going to have a lot of deals with these tech companies, whether or not the companies want anything to do with them. The platforms didn't get as powerful and concentrated into the hands of so few by magic. The really crazy thing was understanding that an agent could look and act so normal that you would never suspect them of being an agent in a million years if the beans hadn't already been slightly spilled.