20 Oct NYC and the Wall Street woes
I’m here in NYC for a media event for Madcap Logic, yet another showcase for this remarkable product for kids (forgive the shameless promotion) and I can’t help comparing the mood here in this great city to how we felt in the technology industry in 2001. I remember calling my boss one day to give him the bad news – over a million dollars worth of contracts had been cancelled in one day in just one of the branches that I managed. The news got worse from there and by mid-2002 I was laying off people right and left. And I heard the same things then, people with paychecks well into the six figures were living month to month with huge mortgages and no savings.
I can’t compare the financial crisis to the technology bubble bursting. I’m sure that the situation now is much worse in terms of impact to the economy. But I remember how it felt. And I see the same look in people’s eyes here that I saw at all those pink slip parties not so long ago. And I just want to hug them. So many of us have found lives with probably less money, but a great deal more meaning as a result of the tech bubble bursting. And maybe, if they’re lucky, some of these people will experience the same.