The Great Startup Game

The 4 Hour Workweek: Vive la revolucion!

I want more life, %$#@&! - Roy Batty

Back in the 1980s, I read an essay on what the author called "the acceleration phenomenon" of modern life.  This was about two decades ago, pre-Internet, pre-cellphone, and pre-Blackberry, and already he was lamenting the rapidly shrinking amount of time we had for non-money-making activities such as leisure and quiet reflection.

Oh, if he only knew what life would be like by 1997 let alone 2007! Things have gotten far worse since then. I read The World is Flat when it first came out in 2005 and it left me rather depressed. Friedman was telling us that we  needed to start running faster than ever just to stand still and not slide backwards economically. While reading it I thought to myself "enough is enough."  Our lives have been hijacked by large multinationals and 24/7 global markets which have no incentive to leave us time to be human.

To be honest, I have been waiting for the backlash to kick in for a good decade now and The 4 Hour Workweek appears to be the opening shot in this emerging battle.  Let's hope that the power pendulum starts to swing back from the multinationals to the little guy and gal who wants to have a life.

Do you want a way out of the cube farm and rat race? Then read Timothy Ferriss's book.  He has used his system to create large blocks of uninterrupted time to do what he really wants to do. In other words, he's made time to live. This book is a guerrilla warfare manual for regaining control of your life.

Vive la revolucion!

Destroying Your Career Before it Starts

This is my nominee for the knucklehead of the year:

The 'Bla Bla Bla' E-Mail Heard Around the World

(Feb. 19) - Two weeks ago, newly minted young Boston attorney Dianna Abdala e-mailed a prospective employer, William Korman.

"The pay you are offering would neither fulfill me nor support the lifestyle I am living," she wrote, turning down his job offer.

Korman was not happy.

"You had two interviews, were offered and accepted the job (indeed, you had a definite start date)."

He'd already ordered her stationery and business cards, and set up her office computer and was amazed she conveyed her second thoughts by e-mail.

"It smacks of immaturity and is quite unprofessional," he wrote.

Abdala's response? "A real lawyer would have put the contract into writing and not exercised any such reliance until he did so," she wrote.

"This is a very small legal community," Korman responded. "Do you really want to start pissing off more experienced lawyers at this early stage of your career?"

Abdala finally answered, "Bla bla bla."

An ordinary office spat? Nope. Korman forwarded the exchange to a friend … and it spread throughout the Boston legal community -- and then to the Boston Globe, to the International Herald Tribune, to ABC News' "Nightline."

It was the "bla bla bla" heard round the world.

Well, they are always hiring at Mickey D's.