It’s pretty late, and I’m typing on my old tactile switch keyboard while thinking (well, I’ve been thinking) about my future. I feel like my perspective on my ideal future has changed a lot since I started school (which is crazy, considering it has only been a bit more than two years).

What I first pictured for myself was the life of a successful entrepreneur with lots of control, money, and influence. All I needed to do was to be extremely good at what I do (which happens to be programming), get a really great job first, and then build a startup that blows up, makes me a lot of money, becomes a big business, and gives me influence. I could do the things I want with maximum freedom and live my life without monetary limits, and so on. I didn’t really choose to run a business because it had any specific appeal to me; I mostly chose it because it seemed like the most surefire way to achieve the goals I had in mind.