I think I explained why in another thread (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=426341) - basically, I didn't know what to do next. So I figured doing something is better than doing nothing, and applied for jobs. We had maybe 6-12 failures, depending on how you count what a failure is. Is a great idea that turns out to not be feasible to implement a failure? How about a site that you launch that's kinda lame and nobody uses it? How bout misconceptions for what the UI should be?
Mostly, I see this as a chance to start fresh and rectify some of the mistakes I made last time. Going by http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html, we did #1 (eventually; had cofounders to start, but they all quit), #2, #8, #11, and #18. Well, now I'm out in Silicon Valley, fixing #2. I'm hoping to meet lots of cool people, increasing the pool for #1. Working at Google gives me a credential that seems quite valuable to investors, helping with #11. It also helps build my technical skills, to avoid #8. And it's sort of a career reset, so if I see a good opportunity, I can go after it, avoiding #18.
Besides, I had an idea for a project that could only be done with Google's resources. So instead of somehow finding $100M in venture capital and duplicating their infrastructure, why not join them as an employee? Yeah, it's not as financially remunerative, but they do have Founders Awards for people who make a significant difference to Google's bottom line, and the credibility of having launched a major product, even within a large corp, gives you a big boost when starting on your own.
However, I do plan to have a tribe of smart, fun, and motivated friends.
Have a billion, you can do a lot.
Have a tribe, you can do anything (including making a billion.)