Comment by helpfulContrib
2 years ago
Its 1992. A friend of mine has asked me to meet with someone, to discuss the idea of 'selling things through the web'. I didn't like the idea - "this is not what the Internet is for... and the web is too esoteric, difficult to set up and use, TCP/IP WinSock blahblah", and I dismiss the thing entirely on an ideological basis. That friend goes on to participate in something that later became .. Amazon.
Its 1994. I turn on the modem back at an ISP I've just built, in a place called Los Feliz. After a few months of putting out the fires, I decide "this ISP thing is balls", and I leave. The guy I built the first data center for, goes on to be worth 300 million buckaroonies.
Its 1996. An associate has flown us to San Francisco for the day, to meet a guy who has been trying to get his auction site launched for the past year. We have lunch, we discuss the whole concept of 'online auctions', I dismiss it as being unviable "because latency" and legal jurisdiction. Okay, a few years later, I buy a synthesizer on EBay. I still have it, to remind me of myopia.
Its 1997. I get hired to make a bookmark-management site, called "Storease". I build it, but I don't like it. People will find things, then add their URL to our site, and collect "Storease". "This will be too expensive to scale properly unless someone comes up with data-centers as a commodity..." Something about this rubs me up the wrong way. Could've been delicious, though.
Its 2010. I buy a few bitcoins, for 30 cents each, and keep them around long enough to make .. 300 bucks. I'm proud of myself for selling 10 bitcoins and making 300 bucks.
This stuff happens. Its a difficult thing for technologically inclined ideologues to see the woods for the trees.
Its 2023. I am still ignoring crypto. All my friends are millionaires. I'm just glad to have a new version of JUCE to play with ...
- I thought Google was too expensive at its IPO.
- "Cloud" seemed like marketing nonsense to me.
- I still think bitcoin is a scam.
On the plus side I did end up working for some tech companies that did very well. No complaints.
It's really hard (read as impossible) to predict the future. Efficient markets and all that. If it was clear that Google would go where it went then it'd be priced even higher. Even if you knew that "selling things online is the future" in 1992 it's not always clear how to act on that knowledge. You could have gone bust with pets.com or something.
Fast forward to today. What is today's Google? What is today's "cloud"? What is today's bitcoin? Someone is saying something about something, someone is right, many are wrong.
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Similar. Just along for the ride. It's still rewarding and can last a long time in good health. Hope you're enjoying it too!
Thanks. I wish the same for you.
In the end, all we have is memories of it all. Pretty much all of my good times couldn't have been bought - they had to be experienced.
One day I'll write a book about it all. Maybe that'll make me rich, lol ..
Honestly, this is like I am reading my bio.
I had several of these along the way (including having a proposal to create a company but I was too busy courting a girl - they sold it for around 100M€ and split in in three :))
I work in high tech (bleeding edge) and spend my time automating my home and writing open source (when not working). My wife, from time to time, mentions how much I could do and my son cannot understand why I do not want to go further up the company pyramid. But I am happy, I have all the money I need and can now sit in front of my screen answering to HN while keeping an eye on the dinner I am cooking.
So yeah, lots of lost opportunities but the partying was wild :)
And yeah, I am still ignoring bitcoins when the guys in my team are making money (but live on an emotional rollercoaster :))
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