[aww_dang]

Agreed. I'm not advocating for a housing policy in this observation.

Waiting for housing policy to fit with your ideal of a just world isn't reasonable advice for everyone. There are things which for practical intents and purposes, are beyond our control. If you are looking for change, it is better to focus on the things within immediate control.

[camgunz]

Super agree, but I will say I have a hard time ignoring the feeling that more and more things that used to be in my control are now beyond it.

[aww_dang]

Isn't that one of the problems with the pessimistic lament at the top of this thread?

Conditions are rarely if ever static for extended periods of time. The entrepreneur must adapt to the opportunities presented. The popular idiom is, "Where one door closes, another opens".

The observation about 2008 housing prices was telling. A market can stay depressed for extended periods of time. Pessimists could have experienced that same market and missed the opportunity. When evaluating in hindsight the uncertainty of imperfect information inside the moment can be overlooked.

Not only are opportunities constantly changing, but each individual brings unique knowledge to any given situation. Therefore the opportunities in a given situation are differ from one individual to the next. From this point it is easy to see to the value of adaptation and innovation. The man in the article didn't just accept the world as it is, he thought out of the box and created solutions where others saw problems.

I agree that things have changed and that doors have been closed. Some of them may never open again in our lifetimes. Yet at the same time I feel optimistic. There are incredible opportunities all across the Internet. Many here have the technical skills to realize them, but they lack the entrepreneurial vision.

[camgunz]

I mean, we can keep restating our positions here:

aww_dang: there's always an opportunity somewhere

camgunz: that may be true, but it can also be true there are fewer opportunities, which I find worrying

aww_dang: but what does that matter if there's always one

camgunz: I think the total number of opportunities matters

aww_dang: I don't