>I remember a number of dotcom vets saying that their bubble was different because they really believed a revolution was happening. Just how openly was it (the bubble) discussed in your case?
Huh. that's the opposite of my perception. The kids today actually believe it; most of the folks cynically pointing out that it's a bubble around building mostly-useless CRUD apps are people who are old enough to remember the first time around, (people who are older than these new bubble companies usually hire.) Of course, it depends on where you are; Facebook... Everyone I know at facebook actually believes the company line. Like disturbingly so. At yahoo? everyone knows it's bullshit, and the good people get themselves into interesting technical positions where others can't bother them too much. (I am... honestly not sure that the Facebook approach is better for the company. If your employees can't see the problems with your company, they can't fix them.)
(Google, while I don't think it's as bad as facebook, has a similar problem; I've seriously had otherwise intelligent Engineers tell me that ads are good for consumers. Not that well-targeted text ads are less-bad than annoying pop-unders, Not that ads pay for good things, but that the ads themselves, when done right, were actually a net positive for the consumer. Yeah.)
From my limited experience? there was a real day-trader mentality in the '90s; I I remember a bunch of my (technical) co-workers would carry around pager-like devices that had the stock price for the company. (this was in the era of the 32MB rio MP3 player, and of file transfers over the parallel interface.) There was much discussion on when to sell (and how much to sell) when your stock options were above water, and much bitching and moaning when they weren't. Probably almost as much discussion as about what fancy car to buy with the winnings. (come to think of it, I only remember the stock pagers when I was on the east coast, so it's possible that in silicon valley there was more faith.)
Of course, this was the very end of that boom, too, and this was 1/3rd of my life ago, so 1997 and 1999 kinda blend together. I could be talking mostly about 1999, so it's possible that there was confidence among the workers until very nearly the end, and I just didn't notice.
As a sidenote (and possible useful bit of advice for youngsters who are employable now, but are concerned about after the crash) In '99, I chose to go for a prestigious job over a job with options. Obviously, it was the right choice; I still brag about that job, while the options would have been toilet paper long before I vested.
Huh. that's the opposite of my perception. The kids today actually believe it; most of the folks cynically pointing out that it's a bubble around building mostly-useless CRUD apps are people who are old enough to remember the first time around, (people who are older than these new bubble companies usually hire.) Of course, it depends on where you are; Facebook... Everyone I know at facebook actually believes the company line. Like disturbingly so. At yahoo? everyone knows it's bullshit, and the good people get themselves into interesting technical positions where others can't bother them too much. (I am... honestly not sure that the Facebook approach is better for the company. If your employees can't see the problems with your company, they can't fix them.)
(Google, while I don't think it's as bad as facebook, has a similar problem; I've seriously had otherwise intelligent Engineers tell me that ads are good for consumers. Not that well-targeted text ads are less-bad than annoying pop-unders, Not that ads pay for good things, but that the ads themselves, when done right, were actually a net positive for the consumer. Yeah.)
From my limited experience? there was a real day-trader mentality in the '90s; I I remember a bunch of my (technical) co-workers would carry around pager-like devices that had the stock price for the company. (this was in the era of the 32MB rio MP3 player, and of file transfers over the parallel interface.) There was much discussion on when to sell (and how much to sell) when your stock options were above water, and much bitching and moaning when they weren't. Probably almost as much discussion as about what fancy car to buy with the winnings. (come to think of it, I only remember the stock pagers when I was on the east coast, so it's possible that in silicon valley there was more faith.)
Of course, this was the very end of that boom, too, and this was 1/3rd of my life ago, so 1997 and 1999 kinda blend together. I could be talking mostly about 1999, so it's possible that there was confidence among the workers until very nearly the end, and I just didn't notice.
As a sidenote (and possible useful bit of advice for youngsters who are employable now, but are concerned about after the crash) In '99, I chose to go for a prestigious job over a job with options. Obviously, it was the right choice; I still brag about that job, while the options would have been toilet paper long before I vested.