So once again I take up the task of laying down some of my thoughts about the whole world, and why it kind of sucks, and why some parts of it are awesome.  It is kind of an exercise in vanity to assume anyone is reading this, but I kind of enjoy going back and re-reading my ridiculous shit, especially the parts of it that almost made sense.

So what made me decide to start blathering on again?  Unless you live under a rock which doesn't happen to get cable, newspapers, or radio, we are in some trouble.  People are screaming their heads off about the end of the financial world as we know it, and some of it actually seems to have less than the usual amount of hyperbole. 

But who cares?  Programmers should.  Yahoo! is not, nor has been for quite some time, a front runner for web searches.  Their day in the sun passed a while back.  But a 700-person layoff at a major tech company is a bad indicator for programmers in general.  One can't help but wonder if the mini-bubble driven by Google's insanely high stock price might collapse under the weight of such dire financial news.  If this happens, VC for web startups may evaporate.

However, since no one can predict the future, people are going to soldier on relentlessly with their startups.  Really, there is little else to do.  The odds are against success all along, what could a little recession do to the odds that would make them any worse?

EDIT:  Looks like I'm not the only one curious about the recession's effects:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=101703

 
 

Freddie Mercury said it best:  spending all your time and money to keep yourself alive. 

I would like to go on record saying that I wholly endorse the trend of super-bootstrapped startups such as 8coupons, which is featured in that article.  It pleases me beyond measure to see people going to such lengths to pursue their startup goals.  Quite frankly it makes me feel extremely lazy and underachieving, picturing these people cranking out code with steady jobs while I work piecemeal at best, with only a part-time programming job and some undergrad classes to distract me.  I should seriously take a page out of their book and man up, crank out some code, and get shit done.

In fact, I think I will!  Screw this blog, I'm going to work!

...right after I go out for some drinks at Beehive and hang out with my girlfriend.  Having a girlfriend in Boston is dangerous to your work ethic!