The sad thing is that's exactly what it was like. Both my brother and I, and my sis-in-law worked in dot.coms. They did in the 90s through the 00s, I did in 2006. It was like that - just like that.
I remember at the Game Development/Distribution company that I was working with in 2007, my cubical mate turned to me at one point and asked if I felt like I was in my first job out of high school or if I was in high school doing some weird ass internship. There was no privacy, people were playing games most of the time, no one followed procedures, and it was as if the company was flying by the seat of its pants or making it up as it went along. The administrative staff came and went daily.
My brother's company was similar - he was constantly playing Dad to a bunch of adult children. At one point he attempted to give the company to his employees - have them run it and then eventually buy him out. But it didn't work - because they were a bit like Cameron's employees - kids playing work. They didn't know how to do anything other than code or create. No other skills. My brother didn't really like coding that much, and was very good at sales, and developing, he wan idea guy. My brother was kind of like the Joe character - good looking, charismatic, 6'5, and could piss people off. Except far more together than Joe. And sis-in-law is a lot like the Donna character. But they were surrounded by goofballs. And had maybe a Gordon/Cameron who was more interested in having a blast.
I watched them start with gaming in the 1990s - with a telephone game, and move into doing complicated network and website design for major businesses. Go after the Angel Investors - which was a nightmare. Try to sell my parents on their game plan. Etc. Halt Catch Fire really depicts what it is like for the uber-talented little guy trying to succeed. And how sexist and toxic that world is. I went to one of the lower level tech conventions in the late 1990s early 00s when working for evil library reference company. I was there as content licensing rep for Wilson, also looking at various systems. It's very hard to stand out.
There's a lot of Jobs, Gates, Bestzos out there - with just as good an idea, but they never find the right contacts and connections. Reminds me of getting published. You can write an amazing book, have loads of talent, and never get a foothold. Or you can write a horribly written book, have a mediocre amount of talent, and become a best-seller. I mean look at 50 Shades of Grey? Or Twilight? Two of the worst books ever published. Instant best-sellers.
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I remember at the Game Development/Distribution company that I was working with in 2007, my cubical mate turned to me at one point and asked if I felt like I was in my first job out of high school or if I was in high school doing some weird ass internship. There was no privacy, people were playing games most of the time, no one followed procedures, and it was as if the company was flying by the seat of its pants or making it up as it went along. The administrative staff came and went daily.
My brother's company was similar - he was constantly playing Dad to a bunch of adult children. At one point he attempted to give the company to his employees - have them run it and then eventually buy him out. But it didn't work - because they were a bit like Cameron's employees - kids playing work. They didn't know how to do anything other than code or create. No other skills. My brother didn't really like coding that much, and was very good at sales, and developing, he wan idea guy. My brother was kind of like the Joe character - good looking, charismatic, 6'5, and could piss people off. Except far more together than Joe. And sis-in-law is a lot like the Donna character. But they were surrounded by goofballs. And had maybe a Gordon/Cameron who was more interested in having a blast.
I watched them start with gaming in the 1990s - with a telephone game, and move into doing complicated network and website design for major businesses. Go after the Angel Investors - which was a nightmare. Try to sell my parents on their game plan. Etc.
Halt Catch Fire really depicts what it is like for the uber-talented little guy trying to succeed. And how sexist and toxic that world is. I went to one of the lower level tech conventions in the late 1990s early 00s when working for evil library reference company. I was there as content licensing rep for Wilson, also looking at various systems. It's very hard to stand out.
There's a lot of Jobs, Gates, Bestzos out there - with just as good an idea, but they never find the right contacts and connections. Reminds me of getting published. You can write an amazing book, have loads of talent, and never get a foothold. Or you can write a horribly written book, have a mediocre amount of talent, and become a best-seller.
I mean look at 50 Shades of Grey? Or Twilight? Two of the worst books ever published.
Instant best-sellers.