I think this also alludes to his talent more than simply his burnout. For him, physics came naturally and he enjoyed. He happened to get a Nobel Prize while doing what he did for fun.
We should all follow our natural tendencies in order to do what we want. Whenever you fight it, it creates a cognitive dissonance within you that makes you feel depressed and unworthy sometimes.
Tim Ferriss' blog post is absolutely ludicrous. He is clearly playing on the dreams of dupes who want fast money with little effort or skill involved in the process.
The only reason Tim Ferriss posted it is to play on the proverbial "market trend" of hawking self-help books to wannabe techies after the announcement of the Instagram deal.
I always have to think as the proverbial conniving "gangsta" about stuff like this. If you had a way to make $1 billion by getting yourself a secure $3 billion loan that could easily be paid off by another company you have influence in, would you do it?
It's common sense. The thing is, I think it was a good buy, similar to Google and YouTube.
Re-implementation means that they would be second or third to market. You have to be first in a new category, and Instagram defined the mobile/social sharing space.
I love the game of "Go" -- it's so strategic and it's particularly difficult when you're playing against a human. The mobile app I have for it is okay, but not great, probably due to the issues regarding algorithmic complexity. In fact, I like it a bit more than chess.
I thought Ron was a total bully. Doesn't he threaten shareholders and makes them bend to his will all the time? I don't know a lot about him, but I heard he's tough to deal with.
This is an absolute joke. We need to heed YCombinator and "kill" Hollywood. Make Silicon Valley and S.F. the new entertainment and creative centers of America.
> This is completely false; Internet companies are regulated by the DMCA, which provides them safe harbor from private lawsuits related to copyright infringement
Look, I don't want to get in an argument but the DMCA is a joke. You know it and I know it. If it really worked, do you really think these idiot music/film companies would try to pass SOPA? The DMCA is supposed to protect IP and it doesn't work.
The internet is one of the least-regulated industries in the United States. Pardon me for saying "unregulated" - but ti basically is. Also, sales taxes are the exception to the rule right now. Last time I checked -- that's a whole lot of freedom.
I pride myself on seeing things the way they are and I know -- Congress is like a legal protection racket. If you actually want to do something, the big players need to pay the protection money. Hollywood execs paid $91M in lobbying for SOPA. How much more was paid in other methods of political support as well?
Our (consumer internet) industry needs to step to the plate. We make a lot of money but want to pretend we're somehow immune from the idiocy of Washington -- we're not. Reid Hoffman, Jack Dorsey and Sergey Brin need to wake up and realize that writing a letter to Congress isn't going to change anything...
Money is the only form of communication that matters in politics.
This is a shakedown by Members of Congress, plain and simple. Internet companies have made billions of dollars in an unregulated market but have not paid off Congressmen/Senators through campaign contributions, lobbyists, creation of significant PACs, 527 committees -- things which all appeal to a politician's self-interest. Hollywood has outspent internet companies, paid hundreds of millions of dollars through direct and indirect campaign financing and actually gives a demonic benefit to the greedy politicians by essentially paying them off.
If internet companies want to do anything, I think they should get off their butts and outspend the heck out the idiotic music/movie industry so politicians can see there is a monetary return from internet companies. To be naive and think that SOPA will go away because of its inherent stupidity is wrong. You have to fight.
You have to take action and battle for protection of the internet. You need to pay Congress the "protection money" in this sickening game of soft-extortion. Understand that Congress has power, and can exercise it either way, as long as you appeal to the politicians' self-interest.
Burnout is very real, happened to me before. You need the vacation time to decompress. The thing is, you can't take vacation time when you're leading a startup.
Most of the people I know started coding before 14 years of age. I think it's difficult for older people to learn simply because older people don't have the time to commit to coding, since there are other obligations, like work, etc.
The engineers need to take back the company and run it.