entombed in the shrine of zeroes and ones

If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.

       — Reid Hoffman

Hoffman's quote is the bizarro version of "Perfect is the enemy of good."  It is a deep exercise in bullshitting oneself and everyone around.  If you ship something embarrassing, you've set your standard.  That's who you are.  Don't laugh it off, and for fuck's sake don't spin it as an inspirational quote.  Have some fucking dignity.

BOOTS ON THE GROUND SEXY STOMPY BOOTS CRUSHING SMALL ANIMALS FLOORING ACCELERATOR PEDALS MADE FOR WALKING FOR KNOCKING FOR GREAT JUSTICE ! !

Q: What's the only thing that keeps us safe today from vampires and zombies?

A: The blood-brain barrier.

Don't get the Devil a hairpiece, or there'll be hell toupée.

So Chris Jones brought this smug little tip list to my attention and, lo, did my gorge rise.  Find here my response:

1. The "cool" perks are being phased out
   If you're sucker enough to go to a start-up because of the "cool" perks, then i guess you're shallow enough to believe that phasing out flashy crap is a bad sign.
2. You stop trying to explain to your family and friends what your company does
   The assumption that your family and friends are "laymen" that need special translating skills is obscenely condescending.
3. The job description you were hired for no longer fits what you do
   Is that a bad thing?  Then maybe talk to your boss about it.  A good company reëvaluates a contributor's role whenever necessary.  Things change.  Are you adjusting?  Do you want to adjust?
4. You keep hearing "that's bullshit" in your head during the quarterly company pep talk
   Nothing special about start-ups in this regard.  And if your start-up has "quarterly pep talks", you're already in trouble.
5. You realize that your degree got you here, but you're not using it
   So fucking what?  There are tons of people in tech who have degrees that are unrelated to their job.  Many of them are happy with their work.  We already know that college doesn't do a good job at preparing you for the working world.  Stop deluding yourself.
6. Your angel investors become, well, demonic
   Finally, unreserved agreement.  I saw it happen at gBox 5 years ago.  I could not leave quickly enough.  VC can also be unwelcomely and destructively meddlesome (that was at Visible Path).
7. You increasingly compare your life to the movie Office Space
   If this is happening at a start-up, you're utterly fucked.
8. You increase your blog and web comic consumption, and your performance doesn't suffer
   Don't blame the start-up for your own suck-ass attitude.
9. Grad school – any grad school – suddenly sounds appealing
   It's not merely about being bored.  Maybe you've just had an epiphany about a change of direction.  Again, this is a personal thing, not a start-up thing.
10. The CEO defers going public for "another couple of years"
    Your company is massively fucked and you don't even know how bad it is.
11. You stop recommending friends for positions at the company
    Huge red flag, but again, not start-up specific.
12. Your job title is increasingly disproportionate to the amount of responsibility you have
    This is just a re-run of 3.  You might be fucked; you might simply be suffering from not having your voice heard.  Find out.
13. The company overpromises and underdelivers
    See 10.
14. Your move to full-time from contract keeps getting delayed
    See 10.
15. Your company is no longer a start-up
    Guess what, you nincompoop: successful businesses are run by grownups. Stop trying to chase the eternal perfect start-up so you can keep being an overpaid adolescent. You want career growth; start-ups want to become a real company, too, either on their own merits or by getting acquired by a real company. Making it to the next level doesn't mean you can't keep going to work on your scooter.

Hot damn, my old Netflix graveyard shift buddy is here.  I knew that the odds of seeing someone here that i know were good.

In my efforts to find a new job, i've signed up for an AWS Bootcamp class, because THE CLOUD is one of the New Hotnesses that i lack.

So far, i am dismayed by the difficulty some of the people in this Intermediate class are having with finding stuff on a page, following instructions, and figuring stuff out.

The Millbrae transit station has this circle of tilework in the middle of the lobby.  It's polished to a glossy finish, as you can see, and surrounded by ugly pylons because... i don't know.  I'd guess that it's so smooth that people slip on it, so instead of finding an attractive way to reduce, eliminate, or secure traffic, the attractive slabs are instead marred by yellow caution tape.

There's more than a few things at work that echo this.