JohnN

thesixtyone.com - yc alums!

Agreed. I don't think any of my friends considered their jobs "predictable and secure" when they started. And in many cases the huge bonuses they received last year wil cushion the fall. Let's just hope they haven't become to accustomed to a certain lifestyle.

You are right, the choice doesnt have to be so binary....

I come at this from the other perspective. I was a business guy who has learnt some hacking and got into the whole startup thing about 2 or so years ago. Nearly all my friends are non-hackers, they laugh at me when i receive tweets and think I am crazy and raise eyebrows when I make some programming joke.

But you know what, underneath it all they kind of envy me because I have a palpable passion which many of them lack. They see that for me, life is not something you endure its something you enjoy. I have recently made more hacker friends and have great conversations with them...

But ultimately the people i get on best with are the entrepreneurial types. They can be selling lemonade on the road or trying to do the next big web thing, they dont have to be hackers and so i would suggest you broaden your pallet. Look for those kind of people.

Mix and match and you will be happy. I am sure u can have friends who have little interest in internet startups but still get on well with. I just hope u have something more to you than internet startups.

Ballmer's performance has been questionable but its not wise to fire a CEO without a ready replacement....I dont think Microsoft have anyone.

Yer....I think Google did this.

>"Nothing personal, but that's the kind of shareholder that ruins good businesses. The language of Ballmer's letter is clearly intended to cause precisely that kind of action from Yahoo! shareholders."

Perhaps you are right. But shareholders rarely hold stock to build good businesses they are there to make money. They would happily invest in a bad company if it was about to be bought out for a huge premium. Once you go public, few things matter other than the numbers.

Plus 72% of Yahoo shareholders are professional money managers, arbitrageurs, and regular investors. These people are likely to want this deal to go through.

Personally, if I was a Yahoo shareholder I would be calling up my lawyers to start suing the Yahoo board. Financially this deal is clearly good for shareholders coming at a 60% premium.

I can't personally see why Yahoo would be worth $38 a share. The job of the board is to do what's in the best interest of shareholders but ultimately it personally seems this deal was not rejected because of the numbers but because of the sentimental attachment to Yahoo independence.

Expect some litigation

I've heard about "investing in a mutual fund" a million times and I am surprised these seasoned professionals advised googlers to do that. With enough humility, hard work and emotional control you have a better chance of beating the market. I've never been satisfied with investing in mutual funds because the average returns will be lowish - 5-7%.

So I studied Buffett, Peter Lynch and few other well known investors strategies. It took me about 4-6 months tracking their histories and the reasons behind their decisions. From this I developed my own strategy based largely on Buffett's and its worked a treat. Generally getting about 15% growth a year.

But then I spend weekends looking at annual statements, reading investment forums and have even gone to the Annual General Meetings. For me its all fun.

I guess the Googlers may not have time for that but I believe it makes no sense buying stock of companies you can reasonably assume will perform badly for the next 5years or so (e.g. mortage companies!). Thats what you do when you buy an index fund. You get the good with the very bad.

Not necessarily....hire great team, give them some stock then go on holiday

update - just to be more explicit, the founders of a business need not be involved in its future to make it successful.

I think it all depends on your definition of success. Many of the hackers on ycnews seem to want to make money so they can do something else. Becoming financially successful is just a step towards allowing them to concentrate on a passion without worrying about monetization.

In which case it would seem logical to make x million the quickest and easiest way possible. I think many will agree its easier to do that building "mundane, income-producing businesses" than trying to create the next Google. In which case, keep the mundane apps coming...

Wow, that's a lot of open source technology. Erlang is really getting popular these days.

Out of interest how are they handling unicode support?

Agreed. Though I am scratching my head as to what that company he linked to actually does.

It seems there has been a minor rebellion on FB about the Twitter app

looks like no ones parents are their heroe

haha, not too long I hope!

It probably set in when I went to a conference for journalism related professionals. Everyone was scratching their heads and asking how the hell do we make money from this new new media.

For once I was surrounded by non-entrepreneurs asking tough questions, i didnt exactly have answers to. Entrepreneurs rarely ask each other tough questions (they want to make friends and network). These journalism professionals actually cared about their industry and its sustainability not the hope that someone will buy their company and make them rich.

Agreed, hence why I thought i'd publish my two cents

Anyone on YC working Solo?

Well I am pretty fresh i've stuck to LAMP just like you. Its a good base. I built some of this, though had some help from a friend.

www.scribblesheet.co.uk

the only changed the homepage

Go to someone else's offices who are doing a startup. That will get your ass in gear when you see how hard they are working.