Was a pleasure to do this interview! One thing I would clarify is that while Razib also uses the phrase Time Well Spent, I believe my co-blogger Sotonye Jack arrived at that name independently. He cites “In Search of Lost Time” by Proust as his inspiration in the about page.
Now, that is funny! I bought my new home in 1998, which incidentally is what prevented me from losing much money in the Dot.com crash- I used all of my assets outside the retirement accounts for the large down-payment, but there were definitely fees involved! I didn't even use the internet to search for the house or land, nor search for the mortgage lender.
It was the same in Connecticut where I lived at the time. During the height of the housing mania, I considered selling and renting (this would have been around 2006) since the exact same kind of houses (same builder) I lived in were going for 60% more than I paid just 10 years earlier, but I didn't. When the Great Recession hit, I lost my job in the Summer of 2009, but decided to hang on to the house, which I had already paid off, because prices were at a nadir at that point. I eventually ended up selling in 2014 after the market had recovered quite a bit, but I think, on balance, I should have sold in 2009 anyway- property taxes, maintenance etc. ate any real difference I actually realized by waiting the extra 5 years (I was still living in it half of the year).
I take exception to your accusation. We had $250,000 in revenue per month. Monthly expenses were in the neighborhood of $100,000. We were not like the VC-backed non-profits.
We sold to a company that went IPO because we were scared of how they or some other dotcom could compete against us with all the money they got from the capital markets. We did well with the sale in 1999, even though because a lot of the proceeds that we got were locked up in stock my line is "We were paid in a combination of cash and stock. The cash retained its value." Had we kept plugging away at our business instead of selling, our wealth would have ended up close to the same five years later. But no regrets.
Was a pleasure to do this interview! One thing I would clarify is that while Razib also uses the phrase Time Well Spent, I believe my co-blogger Sotonye Jack arrived at that name independently. He cites “In Search of Lost Time” by Proust as his inspiration in the about page.
https://sotonye.substack.com/about
Now, that is funny! I bought my new home in 1998, which incidentally is what prevented me from losing much money in the Dot.com crash- I used all of my assets outside the retirement accounts for the large down-payment, but there were definitely fees involved! I didn't even use the internet to search for the house or land, nor search for the mortgage lender.
It was the same in Connecticut where I lived at the time. During the height of the housing mania, I considered selling and renting (this would have been around 2006) since the exact same kind of houses (same builder) I lived in were going for 60% more than I paid just 10 years earlier, but I didn't. When the Great Recession hit, I lost my job in the Summer of 2009, but decided to hang on to the house, which I had already paid off, because prices were at a nadir at that point. I eventually ended up selling in 2014 after the market had recovered quite a bit, but I think, on balance, I should have sold in 2009 anyway- property taxes, maintenance etc. ate any real difference I actually realized by waiting the extra 5 years (I was still living in it half of the year).
I take exception to your accusation. We had $250,000 in revenue per month. Monthly expenses were in the neighborhood of $100,000. We were not like the VC-backed non-profits.
We sold to a company that went IPO because we were scared of how they or some other dotcom could compete against us with all the money they got from the capital markets. We did well with the sale in 1999, even though because a lot of the proceeds that we got were locked up in stock my line is "We were paid in a combination of cash and stock. The cash retained its value." Had we kept plugging away at our business instead of selling, our wealth would have ended up close to the same five years later. But no regrets.