Since I left the [tech][1] [industry][2] just before the bubble burst, I’ve been sitting on the sidelines, working on my own projects here and there, keeping my skills up-to-date and taking the time to find my own focus.
[1]: http://headhunter.net/
[2]: http://dev.ptreesolutions.com/arcadus/choose.html
I watched as post-bubble startups tried and failed, watched as friends frantically tried to change jobs ahead of mergers and acquisitions that meant they’d lose anyway, and I watched the simultaneous rise of HR’s expectations in a tech employee and fall in salary for those same tech employees.
I didn’t want to be a part of that mess. I made a few half-hearted attempts to apply to tech jobs after I moved to Boston, ended up running the only profitable part (the service arm) of a [dying– for the second time around– computer store][3], before ejecting completely and working in the hotel industry for a while.
[3]: http://www.macworld.com/news/2002/06/03/computertown/index.php
But my plan has always been to watch and wait, to keep myself ready and able to jump back in when the industry got itself back in order. I’m starting to see signs of that now, thankfully, as I watch from my vantage point here in Maui: the Ruby on Rails revolution, “Web 2.0″, the ubiquity of feeds/syndication… and to be honest, the heady excitement is back. Not so frothy and mindless as the first rise of the Internet Web, but more joyful, more earnest, a little more mature– like the adult who rediscovers a beloved activity from his youth.
_This_ is the part of the work that I loved. It’s time to get back up off the bench and start playing the game once again!
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