UPDATE: More of My Business Lessons
interview, with transcript, by Infovores
, who borrows his pseudonym for a Tyler Cowen book, talks with me about my first book, which was advice about starting an Internet business, written right after the dotcom crash. He calls his podcast Time Well Spent, a title borrowed from Razib Khan. I recommend the interview, especially because you can read a transcript.
I get to talk about some of my experience as an entrepreneur.
if you'd asked me in 1994 what the home buying experience was gonna look like in 1999, I would have said that we would have almost no transaction costs, consumers would have lots of knowledge about mortgages, there are not going to be real estate agents anymore. I'm not the only one who ever came up with that idea, but that was in my mind and so it took awhile for reality to set in with me.
…part of the first mover advantage that maybe you don't appreciate—you make your mistakes early, and then you just sit and watch other people make those same mistakes and throw even more money at it.
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.