[JakeAl]

I created an online fan forum for The X-Files back in 1993 on the Delphi vax-based network as the web was starting to emerge. I created ASCII art of logos and stuff since it was a text-based menu-driven system. Newscorp bought the company and their marketing managers started asking me to create ASCII art for them. It turned out my fan forum was the biggest on the service with 25,000 members (that was a lot back then.) This got the attention of executives who wanted to use this new digital medium to market their properties not just for FOX Broadcasting but TV Guide, Harper Collins, FOX Film, FX Cable Network, etc. They decided to create a web-based online service to do it and hired me away from my job as a lab researcher working on gene therapy and moved me to Los Angeles to create and run the official X-Files web site. They liked me because I knew the tech and what fans wanted. I basically invented what was then the TV/film marketing web site. All I really did was assess what marketing resources were available and figure out a way to put them online. I was literally the first person to put TV show trailers online Not film trailers, just TV. No one thought anyone cared enough about T shows to download a 1.4MB 320x240 TV spot over 14400bps. Crazy times. I spent $1000 on the video capture card to digitize tv spots on VHS tapes they sent me. This was when the Pentium 90 had just come out. They never followed through creating the web-based online service for Newscorp, but since I had created a web site and online community with millions of users I ended up managing all of the web sites for the television network (and coded most of them) and even worked on sites like FOX Sports when it first came out and became the goto guy on the FOX lot when it came to online content and understanding what the fans wanted out of web sites. I moved on to create and work on ecommerce sites during the dot com boom, later worked on the original Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 and created the mod tools (the classic/good ones), worked for Sony Pictures Imageworks Interactive ultimately Sony PlayStation where I managed the production on all of the PS1 Classics available for digital download as well as some less notable stuff. That was my last full time job. Today I can't get a fulltime or even freelance job to save my life, despite nearly three decades of experience managing technology initiatives and software production that generated tens of millions in revenue. Entertainment is a different beast, you age out if you aren't an executive, and other industries don't seem to care about transferrable skills unless you're an individual contributor (programmer).

[KingFelix]

That's a rad story!!! I want to believe!

What are you working on now? Are you still a huge x files fan?

[JakeAl]

Technically I've been unemployed for 9 years. When I say I can't get a job to save my life, I mean that literally. Today I'm looking for a full time job as a manager of software product design and development or production in other industries and burning through my retirement savings.

I do some software design and development on the side to try and keep up with all the changing tech but nothing I can invest a lot of time in if it's not going to earn me a living wage. I taught myself technical analysis and watch a stock chart all day between sending out resumes and teach people online what I know about reading stock charts and how the markets actually work to try and keep people from losing money unnecessarily. It makes me feel useful and keeps me a active as a coach and mentor.

I'm still a fan of the show. It was innovative and we wouldn't have Vince Gilligan and Breaking Bad let alone mythologies and serials the way we do now if it wasn't for The X-Files.

[soulofmischief]

You've had some awesome experiences. X-Files rules, and there's few things more satisfying than running a fan community like that. Running forums as a kid is also what got me into design and engineering, and greatly influenced my approach to networking and building relationships.

It sounds to me like you need to stop trying to conform to a market not optimized for your skill set, and instead start a company or consultancy which makes full use of it. Numerous possibilities come to mind based on the experiences you've listed, if you want to bounce around ideas drop me a line.

[JakeAl]

I did some consulting and tried starting my own company but I don't have the resources (co-founders, money, programming skills) and the market is dramatically different today.

Funding until 2020 was chasing the next big thing, (VR/AR/XR, Crypto, Metaverse, NFT, now AI) and after 2020 the US has been in an economic death spiral due to our debt to GDP ratio so there's a lot of competition for a lot less money and more and more the products are just infrastructure as markets are contracting. Even my peers who still have their own companies are fighting over or collaborating on/for scraps tossed to them by the giants like Amazon, Google or Microsoft.

It's a much longer nuanced discussion but the summary is if I had the resources I could create and build something great but we are no longer in an economy where large investment takes large risks to create a better/revolutionary version of Facebook or Twitter or the digital advertising industry that doesn't rely on antiquated or exploitive business models (sunken costs). That's not to say there aren't opportunities and I don't have killer revolutionary ideas, there's just a lot of barriers to entry. No one can afford the risk these days. It's something I've struggled with since before even Facebook existed.