[bpyne]

Yes, startups are the wild, wild, west. I spent from 1994-97 in startups. I loved the lack of bureaucracy. But we spent too much time in firefighting mode. Through trial-and-error I found medium-small organizations in the non-profit world my best fit.

Early on I had a senior guy mentoring me on a project involving a tool called PowerBuilder. He chose a design that didn't fit the problem-space well but it fit the "PowerBuilder Best Practices" so he implemented it. The performance was abominable and he should have known it would be: he too was a smart guy. But he had a hard time seeing "big picture" design.