# Rico Tan

> Field notes on IT leadership, AI automation, systems thinking, travel, food, and the road. Written by Rico Tan — Director of IT, AI consultant, and builder based in San Francisco.

## About

Rico Tan is an IT and operations leader with 20+ years of experience in enterprise IT, AI governance, and systems architecture. He consults for K-12 schools and nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area on AI adoption, Microsoft 365, and cybersecurity.

## Travel — Korea 2026

- [Seoul 2026 — Field Dispatches](https://ricotan.com/seoul-2026-field-dispatches/): Four field dispatches from Seoul, South Korea — May 2026. Bukchon Hanok Village, Anguk café culture, Jongno grilled fish, and Hongdae late nights.
- [The Village That Seoul Built Around Itself](https://ricotan.com/the-village-that-seoul-built-around-itself/): Bukchon Hanok Village — one of Seoul's best-preserved traditional neighborhoods, 15th-century Joseon Dynasty architecture surrounded by the modern city.
- [₩17,900 and the City That Doesn't Go Home](https://ricotan.com/%e2%82%a917900-and-the-city-that-doesnt-go-home/): ₩17,900 all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ in Hongdae, Seoul — why Seoul's streets stay full on Monday nights.
- [The Alley That Hasn't Changed Since the War](https://ricotan.com/the-alley-that-hasnt-changed-since-the-war/): 삼천포집 (Samcheonpo-jip), Jongno's grilled fish alley — post-Korean War origin, KBS and MBC featured, ₩50,000 for a full spread.
- [The Neighborhood That Feels Like Somewhere Else — Then Doesn't](https://ricotan.com/the-neighborhood-that-feels-like-somewhere-else-then-doesnt/): Anguk-dong and Samcheong-ro: Seoul's most layered neighborhood — London Bagel Museum, Café Jinsun garden patio, traditional hanbok shops.
- [Seoul on $26: Lotte Food Court, a Freight Elevator Hotel, and the Outdoor Library](https://ricotan.com/seoul-lotte-food-court-mohenic-hotel-outdoor-library/): First day in Seoul: T-money card frustrations, the Mohenic Hotel freight elevator check-in, a $26 three-course food court meal.
- [Cimer Spa at Paradise City, Incheon: Complete First-Timer's Guide](https://ricotan.com/cimer-spa-paradise-city-incheon-guide/): Cimer Spa at Paradise City — pools, water slides, jjimjil rooms, 10 min from ICN airport. Complete guide: what to bring, etiquette, how to get there.
- [화포식당 (Hwapo Sikdang) — Seoul City Hall Korean BBQ Worth Going Back For](https://ricotan.com/hwapo-sikdang-seoul-city-hall-korean-bbq/): Premium aged Korean pork near Seoul City Hall — better than Mapo-daero, easier to get a table.
- [The Best Meal We Had in Seoul Was in a Food Court](https://ricotan.com/the-best-meal-we-had-in-seoul-was-in-a-food-court/): Best seafood near Gate 16 at Goto Mall in Seoul — the hidden gem most tourists walk past.
- [Kyoto Shio Ramen at The Hyundai Seoul — SARUKAME+ Michelin Bib Gourmand](https://ricotan.com/sarukame-plus-kyoto-shio-ramen-hyundai-seoul-michelin/): SARUKAME+ at The Hyundai Seoul, Yeouido — Michelin Bib Gourmand 2024/2025/2026. ₩13,000 Kyoto Shio Ramen.
- [Starfield Library Seoul: Beautiful. Overcrowded. Here's When to Actually Go.](https://ricotan.com/starfield-coex-library-seoul-honest-review-when-to-visit/): Honest review of Starfield Library (별마당도서관) in COEX Mall — when to visit to avoid the crowds.
- [How to Shop Olive Young Without Wasting Money — The AI Research Method](https://ricotan.com/olive-young-myeongdong-shopping-guide-ai-research-tips-tax-refund/): Smart Olive Young Myeongdong shopping: AI research before you walk in, barcode scanning, tax refund tips.
- [delight SSAM, Lotte Myeongdong — Korean Yubu-Chobap](https://ricotan.com/delight-ssam-yubu-chobap-lotte-myeongdong-seoul-basement/): Creative Korean yubu-chobap in the Lotte Mall Myeongdong basement — stuffed tofu sushi with creative fillings.
- [Getting Your Hair Done in Seoul: Juno Hair Myeongdong](https://ricotan.com/juno-hair-myeongdong-haircut-scalp-treatment-seoul-guide/): Walk-in haircut and scalp treatment at Juno Hair Myeongdong No.1. ₩45,000 men's cut, ₩198,000 scalp treatment. English-speaking staff.
- [The Spaceship Hidden in Myeongdong](https://ricotan.com/the-spaceship-hidden-in-myeongdong-jeonghwa-arts-university-seoul/): The silver egg-shaped building between ordinary commercial blocks in Myeongdong — Jeonghwa Arts University.
- [Seoul Transit Reality Check: T-Money, WOWPASS, Uber — Honest Guide for Families](https://ricotan.com/seoul-transit-reality-check-tmoney-wowpass-uber-family-guide/): Which card do you actually need in Seoul? Honest breakdown for families.
- [YVR SkyTeam Lounge — A Quick Field Note](https://ricotan.com/yvr-skyteam-lounge-priority-pass-field-note-2/): Field note from the SkyTeam Lounge at Vancouver International Airport — Priority Pass access, food, atmosphere.

## Travel — Thailand 2026

- [Lunch at the Fishing Pier: Bangsaray Seafood Restaurant Review](https://ricotan.com/bangsaray-seafood-restaurant-bang-saray-review/): At low tide, the Bang Saray fishing fleet sits on the exposed mudflat. Honest review of lunch at the pier restaurant.
- [Tractor Launch, Monkey Island, and a Jet Ski: Bang Sare Rainbow Yacht Near Pattaya](https://ricotan.com/bang-sare-rainbow-yacht-pattaya-day-trip/): A day trip on the Rainbow Yacht catamaran near Pattaya — boarded via tractor, Monkey Island stop, jet ski, and open bar.
- [Eating Where the Locals Do: So Tai Seafood Near Pattaya](https://ricotan.com/so-tai-seafood-pattaya-local-gem/): So Tai Seafood near Na Kluea, Pattaya — 4.5 stars on Google, a hidden gem on Wongnai. Local seafood done right.

## Technology & AI

- [I Built a Personal Command Center with AI — And It Updates Itself](https://ricotan.com/i-built-a-personal-command-center-with-ai-and-it-updates-itself/): What if your morning routine didn't start with checking five different apps? How I built a self-updating AI command center.
- [The Operating System Problem No One Is Talking About](https://ricotan.com/ai-operating-system-problem-agentic-ai-governance/): AI has moved beyond chat interfaces into operational infrastructure. The next enterprise challenge is agentic AI governance.
- [Your AI Financial Advisor Just Got Real (And It's Watching Your Spending)](https://ricotan.com/your-ai-financial-advisor-just-got-real-and-its-watching-your-spending/): OpenAI shipped something that changes the personal finance conversation — a real-time AI financial advisor.
- [Adding Real-Time Web Search to Your AI Agent: Tavily, Exa, and What Changed](https://ricotan.com/tavily-exa-openclaw-search-api-install-guide/): How to add Tavily and Exa to an AI agent stack — what each does, when to use which, step-by-step setup.
- [Personal Finance Automation with Firefly III, SimpleFIN, and an AI Agent](https://ricotan.com/firefly-iii-simplefin-openclaw-personal-finance-tracking/): Self-hosted personal finance tracking without SaaS subscriptions — Firefly III, SimpleFIN, and AI-driven daily sync.
- [What Background Jobs Taught Me About Reliable AI Agents](https://ricotan.com/openclaw-cron-migration-cloud-to-local-devstral/): Moving 18 scheduled AI jobs from cloud to local — the reliability audit that reveals what breaks in production.
- [When AI Memory Gets Too Complicated: Lessons from Replacing a Broken Plugin](https://ricotan.com/killing-mem0-openclaw-memory-plugin-replacement/): A memory plugin that controls what the agent remembers controls the agent — what I found when I audited mine.
- [What a Week-Long AI Gateway Incident Taught Me About Reliability](https://ricotan.com/crash-resistant-ai-gateway-lessons-week-incident/): Five design principles for a crash-resistant AI gateway — learned from a week of production instability.
- [AI Agent Memory Needs the Same Discipline as Production Code](https://ricotan.com/ai-agent-memory-discipline-production-code/): Why AI agent memory deserves the same rigor as production code — versioning, namespacing, and decay policies.
- [The Hook System Trap: Three Gateway Crashes and One Design Lesson](https://ricotan.com/openclaw-hook-system-trap-ai-gateway-crash/): Three real crashes from the same misconfigured hook pattern — and the architecture insight that stopped them.
- [The Heartbeat Problem: Monitoring an AI Agent That Never Stops Running](https://ricotan.com/heartbeat-architecture-monitor-ai-agent/): How to monitor an always-on AI agent — cron health checks, status escalation, cost anomaly detection.
- [Thirty Days Running an Always-On AI Agent: The Honest Debrief](https://ricotan.com/what-i-learned-running-ai-agent-30-days-straight/): What broke, what surprised me, what it actually costs — 30 days of continuous AI agent operation.
- [Local vs. Cloud AI: What Belongs Where in an Agentic System](https://ricotan.com/local-ai-vs-cloud-ai-when-to-use-each/): The practical framework for choosing between local AI models and cloud APIs — cost, privacy, latency compared.
- [What AI Agents Should Remember — and What They Should Never Store](https://ricotan.com/managing-credentials-memory-ai-agent-securely/): Credential discipline and memory architecture for a self-hosted AI agent.
- [Building a Draft-First AI Publishing Pipeline: Five Things That Broke](https://ricotan.com/ai-publishing-pipeline-built-in-one-afternoon/): Building a pipeline where AI drafts, stages, and waits for human approval — five real breakdowns and fixes.
- [Three AI Governance Failures I've Seen (And How to Prevent Them)](https://ricotan.com/three-ai-governance-failures-and-how-to-prevent-them/): Three real AI governance failures — prompt injection, data leakage, unchecked automation — and the policies that prevent them.
- [What I Learned Connecting an AI Agent to a Live Publishing System](https://ricotan.com/connecting-ai-agent-to-hosting-account-what-broke/): The first time you wire an AI agent to a live system — what breaks, why auth matters, where the safety nets need to be.
- [Project Hail Mary Is the Best Sci-Fi Film I've Seen in Years](https://ricotan.com/project-hail-mary-film-review-best-sci-fi-2026/): Project Hail Mary — the rare sci-fi film that respects your intelligence. Best sci-fi movie in years.

## Lifestyle & San Francisco

- [Riding Above the Clouds — Twin Peaks, San Francisco](https://ricotan.com/riding-above-the-clouds-twin-peaks-san-francisco/): There are rides you plan — and then there are rides that just happen. Twin Peaks on a motorcycle, above the fog layer.

## Pages

- [Now](https://ricotan.com/now/): What Rico Tan is currently working on — AI automation for IT operations, small teams managing more systems than people.
- [About](https://ricotan.com/about/): Rico Tan — IT and operations leader based in San Francisco. Work sits at the intersection of enterprise IT, AI governance, and systems thinking.
- [Home](https://ricotan.com/)

## Optional

- [Agent (MCP protocol)](https://websites-agents.hostinger.com/ricotan.com/mcp)

[comment]: # (Updated 2026-06-03 — all published posts indexed for AI crawlers)