The Fall of Japan

Guest Post: T.S. Muffin Man The 1980s and 90s were decades of extreme contrast. The asset price bubble, and its attendant greed, excess and hubris, lasted from 1987 until spring 1991. The following years represent a long period of relative economic decline, inept handling by government, a steady evaporation of confidence by business and voter alike, and increasing cases of bankruptcy and…

I am trying to like Quora. Or at least understand it. The tech blogs are all over Quora and the writers love it and I keep getting notified people are following me on Quora and Quora Quora Quora!

So I spent some time on it, posed a question (a somewhat serious one -- I'm actually curious), and did some browsing, whereupon I found this: 

What was it like in Silicon Valley after the bubble burst in the early 2000s?

It was glorious.

First: It was rad to be rid of the awkward execy-techy douches slumming it in the after-hours, slamming down kamikazes and sicking up rich foods moments later. I loved moving into a decent place with (relatively) affordable rent. Oh, and driving across the bridge from East to West Bay in less than an hour.

I didn't dig the layoffs, all of my developer and designer and IT friends getting the boot. One guy thought he was going to have to go back to school, because the burst bubble left such a glut of people like him. Funny shit, looking back.

Me? I was technically in publishing. We had some layoffs, kept selling a small amount of books and software, got jerked around by the founder who had no vision beyond his old-man ego. Same old, really -- the only changes I experienced were affordable rents, some drops in prices for food and drink, less run ins with execy-techy douches, et cetera.

Quora's all right. Most people posting in the above thread have a take. Most of them lived lives in technology and "suffered" when the bubble popped. I like Quora for letting people tell stories and give their perspectives without having to launch a blog or Twitter account about them. Just dump your soul into Quora, if you feel the need.

But Quora's not the next Twitter, or Facebook, or anything of the sort.