"Engineers are particularly spoiled. They can take an arbitrary sabbatical from work..." <---> (on the about page) "...Currently a principal engineer at AppNexus on sabbatical..." ???
"AppNexus helps brands connect with consumers, empowering agencies and advertisers with a uniquely powerful approach to programmatic online advertising."
Thanks for working on Ad Tech, the very thing that powers this bubble by trading attention as a commodity. Other people work on silly startups, but this shit is akin to HFT.
So he's doing a real thing that provides real value to the web. And it's actually a sustainable business, to boot.
Lastly, there's absolutely no need to get so personal -- if his article offended you, discuss the article.
I usually keep that opinion to myself because it's not a popular one, but in this particular subthread we are not discussing the article, we are discussing the author who volunteered his "I am very hypocritical" comment.
Elsewhere in this comment thread I discuss the article.
1) In a thread where the author shows up and says "I am very hypocritical", standard rules like "discuss the article, not the author" do not apply. The author is fair game for discussion.
2) I don't usually crap on other peoples' industries, but not in this case, because (1).
That's ok. The internet would be better off without most junk websites, and the ones I like, I'm willing to pay for.
We're in enough of a media bubble already - there's so much media and so few trusted sources that its impossible to filter content anymore. Ads inject themselves after people's ability to filter burn out like a virus. Its not good for society.
Too many fall into the "Field of Dreams" fallacy thinking that if you build it, they will come. Most of the time it doesn't work like that.
If you're an engineer with a family here in SV, you cannot take a sabbatical. In most cases you need to get a job in a week or the rent will drive you to bankruptcy.
I don't get people who are so smart and yet simultaneously so stupid that they think spending $100,000 a year is normal.
Wake up, you're rich, you're just too stupid to realize you could be living at a much cheaper level.
I'm not defending this at all, as I think it's stupid, but they are not "rich". They are frankly just less screwed than other middle class folks.
You seriously think having double or probably triple from just one salary isn't rich?
And where exactly are all your caterers and cleaners and gardeners and nannies and baristas and tavern workers and shop people living and buying their food with their minimum wage in the bay area? Obviously they aren't remote working.
Perspective is a bitch.
First of all, cost of living varies widely from locality to locality. Making 90k a year in middle of nowhere Idaho or some other piece of flyover country is totally different than making 150k in an urban area like NYC or SF.
Saying: "welp, it's your fault your cost of living is so high, you should move 2 hours away to Sacramento, stupid" is not only incredibly naive, but borders on a level of ignorance that I haven't seen in quite some time.
...Especially when talking about perspective.
Just a friendly reminder:
1. There is another human being on the other side of the conversation.
2. Practice compassion when responding.
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[1] http://paulgraham.com/disagree.html
[2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graham's_Hierarchy_o...
There is nothing hypocritical about acknowledging one's self is spoiled.