
Sabbaticals - soundsop
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000076.html
======
harpastum
"This time I'm pretty convinced that when I go back to work I want to work in
a real startup, as a founder."

Later that year, Fog Creek Software was born. Pretty interesting to read his
thoughts at the beginnings of entrepreneurship.

~~~
JacobAldridge
Yes - my initial thought was 'Sabbatical - what will that mean for his
business and (more importantly to me) his writing?"

Realising it was a March 2000 article, I'm now interested in a follow up. Did
his start-up shift his 4-years-on 1-year-off work strategy because of
finances, or because he was more energised to keep at it for longer?

And how did his perception of _"billions of not-very-smart venture dollars out
there...good salaries...and the chance of having a "liquidity event"_ change
in the 12 months after this was written?

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babyshake
"I didn't have a boyfriend; everybody I knew was from Microsoft."

Is this a typo?

~~~
dhotson
Nope, that is correct. Joel is gay.

~~~
jgrahamc
Personal information (which mentions his boyfriend) is here:
<http://joel.spolsky.com/>

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ojbyrne
The logical conclusion to be drawn from the second paragraph of that piece is
that "college kids and UNIX weenies" were RIGHT!

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jaxn
"I've gradually come to realize that there is nothing really risky about
starting a company these days. There are billions of not-very-smart venture
dollars out there looking for somebody to spend; [snip] working at 4 startups
over a 10 year period, there is a fantanstic chance that you will make a big
buttload of moolah."

Ahhhh. Remember those days?

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hedgehog
I think Joel's got the right idea. After about five years at a startup (that
grew up a bit) I quit in January 2008. Just a couple weeks ago I signed on
with a pre-funding company in SF. Most of the interval was spent hacking on my
own projects and traveling. It's been one of the best years of my life and I'd
recommend it to other readers.

