Air quality has already been reported to be improving. You have 70-90% decrease in plane and vehicle traffic. Less boat traffic too, so water quality will improve. The earth is healing itself. ;-)
Public school is designed to teach a broad array of fundamental skills to a large audience. It's also an educational complex (industrial complex) in itself - a lot of people make a living in the public school space. Not just the visible people like your teachers or office staff, but custodians and district administrators, organizations and unions behind the scenes and all the logistics chains that sell all the goods the school consume. It's crazy huge and won't easily be changed which is why it doesn't change.
Even with that said, It's not designed for autodidacts. However, you should take away from school the skills on HOW TO LEARN. Then use those skills to teach yourself whatever you want. Public school serves as a base or platform, ie not the education to be achieved but the platform you use to then achieve want you want to learn.
It might also seem trivial that public school repeats or overlaps a lot of the same topics year over year, but this is to improve your comprehension. Think of it like watching your favorite movie, each time you watch it you notice something different. Each time you read, write, solve an equation, etc, you are increasing your efficiency and/or effectiveness to do those things better the next time, and next time, ad infinitum for life.
Fast forward both of the above, you're now in your career and able to out think, out maneuver your coworkers. If you start a business, you now can out think and out maneuver your competitors. It's far easier to change yourself by getting the skills you want out of school, then necessarily changing the school to give you those things.
Set goals, polish your lense, and put in the work - it all pays off later.
Very true comment, "self-select themselves out", ie enterprise sales people want to make money, usually immediately, and not have to desperately work hard to close. If people aren't already BUYING, you have to be SELLING - these aren't the same thing. Most successful enterprise sales people are given a pipeline and simply facilitate the buying process - most are not hard closing.
1. You'll want to become much more visible, attend networking events and hone in on the right person. Don't just talk to irrelevant people, asks questions to filter out the wrong people, politely exchange cards and keep it moving - get to the right person and then have the lengthy conversation. BUT BE PREPARED, have a 20-30 second demo video ready on your phone, nail down your elevator pitch, etc and sell them on wanting to sell your product.
2. Demo your product at events, demo days, venture capital or investment events, contests, etc so that you get eye balls on your product. The person you want is either in the audience and will find you, or you'll get an even better unforeseen opportunity.
BUT all of this will take much longer than you think. Good luck!
Your project is worthless (in USD) without users and a base for a company to make money off that user base. You're too close to the code - It's an undemonstrated idea.
As in all things software, it's always more of a people issue. For PM software to be successful in an organization, you need someone in a position of authority to be the champion or directly supporting the champion that drives the team usage.
If he's American and you're not, or english is his first language and your's is not, it's probably a cultural thing and the chemistry is lost in translation. He's just "busting balls" "busting chops" or making fun of you because he wants you to make fun of him. Just make fun of him - find some common ground.
The pessimism, he wants someone to commiserate with, ie share complaints with. You should complain about something with him ie your girlfriend/wife, your mom, friend, commute to work, finding a parking spot, traffic, etc - just about anything. You'll see him listen to you complaint and become more friendly to you.
Give it a shot, sounds like your already in a bad place so you have nothing to lose. Hopefully this helps - good luck.
There are continuing education courses designed for full time working professionals that could be relevant. NYU has a bunch. I am sure other institutions that are physically closer to your friends location offer a combination of online and in person courses. Some are certificates, some not.
I would also recommend books on devops and various methodologies (agile, etc that are in vogue now), your friend should also get a list of all the software the team might be using to manage their work (bug tracking, issues, roadmap planning, etc) and get trained on them by those software companies or their certified partners.
I could have written this exactly - lived it. Combine that with the crappy economy of 10-12 years ago, vomit.
Kids, you think you're dreaming now. Just imagine how much you'll be regretting later. Just quit your job, take some time traveling then go find another job. You'll feel better eventually.
Marta, You're looking outside yourself for too many answers.
Just live life and have experiences with the thought that "I'm going to let life teach me about myself". You don't need more schooling but you do need to put in work at hobbies, a job (you don't need to love the first thing that comes around. There's always another job), personal relationships on all levels (friendly, acquaintance and intimate).
If the above is too ethereal for you, find solace that everyone's lost at 25 (and many are beyond that). You just don't have enough time in to LIFE. Keep doing things until you find the VERY FEW that cause you to find yourself.
Cash is king - keep your savings in the account. We're really overdue for a rebalancing of the economy and you want the cash at that time. That is a gaurantee. This startup, where it could succeed will more likely not go public.
Keep your current job or get a job that pays you better, but hold on to your CASH!
To steal a Chicago quote, "we don't want nobody that nobody sent." Your solutions are nothing because you're nobody. Sorry, but you're trying to tech your way through with out having an invisible hand behind you. That includes but is not limited to a network of people IN the industry you're trying to help, which gets you strategic partnerships, funding, etc INTO the solution. If other people don't believe in you or can't make money WITH you, your solutions really wont get anywhere.
Before you read another start up book or more effort in to another idea, read books on psychology. Also, try getting a job in an industry one of your solutions is targeting - that might help you become somebody rather than nobody.
If you have a family, wife/kid(s), etc, and you're looking for "balance", maybe the compensation isn't worth it. But maybe you have a mortgage and having the income is very important regardless of how hard you're working. Doesn't sound like you have the above pressure, because you'd probably would have never taken a job in a startup in the first place.
You're single (maybe not) but renting an apartment, saving a little money while you work... get the hell out. 70 hours a week is only worth it if you have equity or are well compensated, which you said you are neither. Also doesn't sound like you're working on something you personally believe in, otherwise you wouldn't lodge your question in the first place.