Open Letter
A Letter to The Sutro Society
Ladies & Gentlemen,
I wanted to write to you to state my intentions for the Sutro Society. We have come together to discuss why Sutro Baths was never rebuilt.
The principles I want to communicate are:
- The beauty of building physical things for your own community.
- Investing in spaces for people to gather can change the future.
- Shaping physical space changes your relationship with reality.
On the first principle, I believe Adolf Sutro embodied this. He made his wealth by building the best tunnels for the miners of California.
He accumulated enormous tracts of land in San Francisco and began building. He created Cliff House, Sutro Heights Park, the railroad on the north side of the city, and, of course, Sutro Baths.
What I love about the way Adolf lived is that he constantly reinvested. Every time he had spare capital, he expanded his businesses & his community investments aggressively. The sheer force of will required to create an ethereal glass bathhouse in a saltwater-ridden pit is hard to fathom.
The other important aspect of his life that is worth consideration: spending money where you live is moral. As technologists drive home prices to eye-watering levels, local San Franciscans are left out in the cold loathing our success. I think Adolf realised this. He knew that wealth was a responsibility & shared it directly with his own community.
He reinvested in the place that gave him everything.
That is what I would like to propose to the Sutro Society.
If you have more than you will ever need, what do you do with the surplus? My pitch: build something beautiful in San Francisco.
Start small, learn how it works, partner with others, then build something of your own. Use that capital to improve our city.
On the second principle: Investing in spaces for people to gather can change the future.
Where can you get away from a screen & see a man eye-to-eye? For me, that is inside a sauna & on the mat in martial arts studios. You cannot bring a phone into a proper sauna and you cannot wear them while fighting. You must engage with another person fully.
Spaces where we can escape our phones are sacred. Discussions had in a bathhouse are magical. They are elevated by the contrast of the hot & the cold. I have had many ideas while submerged in a frigid cold plunge. Priorities have been re-shaped in the furnace of a good sauna.
Giving people a physical state change is what can nudge them towards a mental shift. Just take them to a lake so you can both jump in together. It always helps. In cities, people rarely have access to tranquil natural experiences. So we must craft man-made environments to give people access.
I believe these spaces can change how people think which, in turn, can change how the future unfolds.
On the third principle: Shaping physical space changes your relationship with reality.
We stop playing with Lego. We put down the hammer & saw. We do not build fires. It is atrophying our understanding of ourselves.
When you whittle your own spear, build your own hut, put together your own robot, or renovate a room in your home, you make it yours.
A lot of the people I meet in technology are disembodied from reality. The last physical thing they built was a simple set of drawers from Ikea. Re-engaging with making things with one's hands is an incredible experience.
I would encourage all the members of the Sutro Society to try making something they want. A simple object, tool or item they will love. It will change you.
^*^
In summary, I hope that the Sutro Society will encourage the community of people in digital technology to spend more time in physical reality. We should invest our capital in teams who can make things happen in the real world. Do not just send money, spend time. Go make things yourself. The world is moulded by people who do this: you can do it too.
Yours,
Richard Burton