The Driving Crooner dot com, baby!

Lesson: not every start up should/can make sense to every person...but every start up MUST MAKE MONEY!

The driving crooner dot com is like a tiny, frothy start-up in the following ways:

...is just as stupid, ridiculous and frothy as the thing itself. And the righteous vitriol only makes the Founder double-down to "prove them wrong"! So the Founder gets paranoid...

...because their beautiful dream is very fragile. Many things – things outside the Founder's control! – have line up just right...

...for it all to work. But the Founder persists.

So go ahead. Ask them why they're doing it. You will hear an incredible story.

(thank u https://ithinkyoushouldquote.me/ for the memes)

Calico cut pants dot com!

Lesson: Making something? Easy. Maintaining it? Oof.

Before I became a software engineer whenever someone showed me something they made online – if it didn't look like total shit, I was impressed.

Now? I'm impressed if you made it 6+ months ago and it still works.

I have a graveyard of personal projects that I deployed and abandoned. I don't apologize for taking them down, because part of the point for all of them was to experiment. But also...before I actually deployed things myself I didn't really appreciate what a pain in the neck keeping something online can be.

When Connor O'Malley says he's in over his head, I believe him!

Mars Restaurant (one with Tim Heidecker where monster at space restaurant insults people and he freaks out when its directed at him and his date)

Lesson: Its easier to be mean online than in real life

Something I have been doing recently on bluesky:

(Also want to say: NOT TRYING TO CLAIM THE MORAL HIGH GROUND! I often post without thinking. I certainly sometimes like things that are mean. I am bad at bluesky. And 99.999% of cases I don't care how anyone posts. But...)

recent example 'liking' then 'unliking': Casey Newton calling Ed Zitron 'Temu Kara Swisher'

(NOTE: I misremembered this! In my memory Casey posted this himself but it looks like he didn't, he just said it in an interview. I bet I'm remembering liking and unliking commentary on the event (still works I think)).

To get all pedantic about it:

If Casey Newton, myself, and Ed Zitron were standing around at a bar and Casey said, "Ed, you're like Temu Kara Swisher":

I would say:

If I were hanging with Casey Newton at a bar (btw Casey DM me, let's hang) and he said, "Ed Zitron is like Temu Kara Swisher":

I would say:

If I were hanging with Ed Zitron at a bar and he said "Casey Newton called me Temu Kara Swisher!"

I would say: