Clearly what's missing is MORE ARROWS: http://i44.tinypic.com/zilyqo.gif

It's always been crazy to quit your job for a startup. But craziness and brilliance are only separated by success.

It is even crazier if your 6-figure salary starts with 9 instead of 1.

Here's a choice quote, just so you know where he's coming from philosophically:

"If the product kills someone with a salary of $50,000 per year and 20 working years remaining, that is approximately $1 million in liability. [...] Punitive damages must be eliminated."

Somehow, I'm just having a hard time believing that the challenges we face are due to businesses not investing because they're afraid of transit union strikes, or businesses not building products because of our failure to adopt a Rand-ian strategy for valuing human life.

1) Get a modem, 56k will do. Connect to the internet with it.

2) VNC a windows machine somewhere.

3) Understand in a new and wonderful way why this is a terrible idea.

Public economic policy is a hard problem, and with all Respect to Philip there are a couple of points from the list of promises to business managers that are somewhat contradictory.

1) world's lowest percentage of GDP (among developed nations) spent on government; only with a low spend will investors have faith that taxes will stay low - This has the consequence of bad infrastructure, an uneducated workforce, less investment in basic sciense which lays the ground for innovation and high-tech industries, etc. A country like Sweden has a high percentage of GDP spent on government, and yet it has managed to create companies such as Saab, Ikea, Ericsson, Electrolux, Hasselblad, Hennez and Maurtitz, Mysql, Volvo, etc.

2) corporate governance that relieves investors from worry that profits will be siphoned off by management - This is one of those things that sound easy but turn out to be extremely hard. History shows that when you try to protect investors from fraud, mismanagement, etc. all you get is more red tape and, bigger government and make things harder for small companies. Sarbannes Oxley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act) was an attempt to solve this very problem and it turned out to be a disaster.

3) world's best school system and best educated workers - America has a long way to go here. The problem is that it takes many years to get educated workers: You start in kindergarten and get educated workers 15 years later. Besides empirical studies show that a good education system requires considerable public investment, and thus a larger percentage of GDP spent on government.

4) world's cheapest transportation system and one that is virtually free from uncertainty caused by congestion - again this requires substantial public investment, and is a long term commitment. You will have to spend a good amount of GDP on infrastructure and will only reap the rewards after a decade.

I have to admit that this reads a bit like when you hear politicians talk about technology - it is apparent that their understanding of the domain is not very deep.

The title should be "if you fear change, you will hate Windows 7". Holy shit, no Run command (which barely anybody uses) and no default Desktop icons (which are just superfluous next to the start menu)?! WHATEVER WILL I DO!??!

It's people like this Jason character, who feel all change is either (a) bad or (b) simply for the sake of change, who completely hinder innovation. If he wants Windows to "not change anything" then he should keep using XP and stop trying to provide any sort of analysis of something he is so entirely biased against.

At least the author of the actual article gave some relevant information.

So, let's get this straight.

1. It is fair for Facebook to ask for usernames and passwords to Gmail, Hotmail, et. al. to provide functionality to their users.

2. It is unfair for Power.com to ask for Facebook usernames and passwords to provide functionality to their users.

The difference between a shrub and a redwood seedling. A startup is a company that is just passing through small.

Who's Hiring? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=375410

Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=250704

How I Turned Down $300,000 from Microsoft to go Full-Time on GitHub http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=338286

I'm out, baby http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=300960

Start a side project, says GitHub founder http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=282158

Balsamiq hits $100,000 in revenue http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=364254