Yet another article from Joel that's a thinly-veiled ad for FogBugz... antiquated bug tracking soft.

Recently, a friend of a friend introduced me to a young man who is developing some interesting software. REALLY interesting stuff. During the demo I was floored at how much more advanced it was than anything currently on the web. The young man's presentation panache was second to none as well. You see, he went to his website on MY MacBook demonstrating at once his confidence in his virtual world platform's ability to run in arbitrary browsers, AND the fact that it supports MacOSX without stating it! Who IS this kid!?!? I thought.

I am ashamed to say that I was shocked. Oh the software he described was straight forward enough. Though admittedly my eyes did glaze over during his explanation of some of the algorithms behind his system. This type of minutia was NOT something I needed to know. A simple "This demos our booty physics" engine is fine, I get it.

What REALLY got me, yes even SHOCKED me, was the fact that all of this was coming from a person who, if I saw he and his friends on the street, would probably have prompted me to double check my car locks. Maybe that is a little bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea. How does a black kid, t-shirt, necklace, sweatpants and all, understand these technologies so well? Now before you call me racist, realize that this kid had been shopping around a LOT. Even so, I am the ONLY person, so far, to have invited him to give a presentation. At least I gave him a chance, and I am ecstatic that I did!

As I have too much respect for a lot of people on these boards to sport with your intellect any longer than necessary I will come to the point. Though, being so intelligent, I am certain that for many of you I have already made it. How does this young man, with intelligence, ambition, and persistence, become successful in our society if "a company should be able to hire or fire whomever they like for whatever reason"? Attitudes like that are what leave him, and others like him, on the outside looking in most of the time now. I believe that we live in a society with a color-blind ideal. I also believe that MANY young men, like the young man in my story, suffer due to our failure to live up to it.

As do women.

As do the aged.

I've noticed "Made In California" as well, and it's an interesting choice of words for Apple.

It brings to mind PG's counter-example of the iPod to the "Squalor of the man-made bits of America" (in his Made In USA essay). When I lived in Europe, I noticed that general stereotypes of the "USA" differed dramatically from impressions of "LA", "San Francisco", "New York", "California".

When you say "USA", people around the world often think of an economic and military juggernaut. If you say "California", they often think "surfers, technology, Ahnold, the Golden Gate Bridge," and so forth. Various cities in the US also have their own international reputations.

It's pretty clear that the rest of the world has very negative and very positive impressions of the United States, and these can be triggered by how you present yourself. Perhaps Apple is trying to grab a more positive reaction by claiming California rather than the USA? When Bush refused to ratify the Kyoto treaty, there was some talk in England about boycotting US products (pretty hopeless idea there, but it shows the anger). California did raise its international brand by bucking that trend.

I expect the US will regain some of its stature once the current administration is gone, but even if/when it does, I'd expect more local branding. Cities compete with each other more than countries do. What does it even mean to say it was "Made in the USA" anymore? If it's made in Seattle, Sydney, or Barcelona, it isn't made in San Francisco. We may be moving toward a world economy where that's the only thing that actually matters.

This may be an unpopular idea, but I think a company should be able to hire or fire whomever they like for whatever reason. This is best for both the company and the employee - clearly in the case noted in the article, the employee who was fired was having a hard time in the Google culture, so why would he want to continue in the environment? Life seems too short for that.

Fortunately I still have all 3 points of mine.

To get to the interview stage:

Good college +2

Done with schooling +3

Single Founder -5

No Hackers on Team -4

Mention Lisp +2

Mention Smalltalk +2

Mention Python +1

Zero Hackers Willing to Relocate -5

Past or Recent TechCrunch Coverage +2

Past or Recent Mainstream Coverage +2

Google search finds many top blogs or major news sources linking to current or past project +3

Team of hackers previously founded a web startup +1

Team of non-hackers previously founded a web startup +2

Not drinking age -3

Average age 23 to 26 +4

Average age 30 to 35 -1

Average age 36 to 45 -2

Average age older than 45 -10

Knows idea should be a web app +3

Short and sweet application +3

Estimated scores for some companies at the time of application: Xobni 12 (MIT hackers), Auctomatic 13 (No hackers at time of application), Justin.tv 25 (Lots of pluses, no negations)

I'd say at 10 you have a good chance at an interview, at 13-15 an excellent chance. This is derived from Paul's writings, speeches, videos, and comments.

The actual idea doesn't matter because Paul will either tell you he likes it or recommend changing it during the interview. If you're not done with college, now is the time to say you will focus on the project instead.

Again, this is just a rough guide and I have zero qualifications to even write this. After the interview, only your execution matters.

Can you repeat the question, a little slower this time.

I'd always recommend an apartment for a small startup with little money. Even if you don't live in it, I'd recommend getting an apartment as an office. Apartments are cheaper and nicer to work in. The only advantages of offices are that the can hold more people (not an issue for a young startup) and that they seem more professional. But having a good product is more important than seeming professional, and you're more likely to get one if you work in a good place.

I don't want my children to find out the amount of bullshit I can take. Thats one of the reasons I am considering dropping.

At the time of this posting, and including me (22 + BSEE) and the OP, here are some stats:

Sample Size: 88

Max: 62

Min: 18

Mean: 27.3

Median: 25.5

StdDev: 8.17

I excluded some outliers based on claims I believed to be false or silly (4 yo w/ laptop and 87 w/ high school)

Pretty interesting stats. Disclaimer ripped from slashdot:

"This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane."

Try living elsewhere, then you'll see how much California rocks in comparison.

I grew up in San Diego, never appreciated it fully until I left.