oh the people you meet
October 2nd, 2007 by Lawrence David
i love mit and the characters she breeds
for instance, i played tennis today with a skilled, but a little out of shape alum. a former student, he was also a member of the inaugural mit blackjack team. i thought at first he was referring to the teams in “bringing down the house”; he clarified, “no, those guys were cowboys — the 10th generation or so. they were just playing around. they weren’t there to make money.” badass.
in any case, he goes on to tell me stories about what it was like to work in a 1980s software startup, way before the internet bubble: “we used to write drivers and sell them for $50,000; today, they give the damn things away for free!” evidently, he must have sold a couple of drivers — after starting and selling “a couple of startups,” my new acquaintance retired sometime in his mid-30s. with a tennis court in his backyard.
note to self: look more seriously into entrepreneurship. any job that leads to a tennis court in the backyard is worth doing.
