[jzachary]

Ok, but knowledge of sub-prime lending == personal spending discipline, or it should. He writes about sub-prime loans and other "financial innovations", yet he fell for them hook-line-sinker. If you know what's going on in the world, you should know how you fit and how to maneuver within it.

[nostrademons]

There is a very big difference between knowing something and being able to act on it. By reading this forum, you undoubtedly know a whole a lot about entrepreneurship. Are you rich yet?

[jzachary]

I don't write articles on entrepreneurship and technology startups, either, if that is what you are trying to say. I don't purport to be an expert on entrepreneurship through articles from an authoritative sources like the NY Times. It's a matter of credibility when someone who supposedly understands how a system works falls victim to that system by his/her own actions or greed. If PG did a startup tomorrow, attracted funding, and then burned through it by buying Aeron chairs and Nerf toys, how much would you believe in his credibility as a writer then? I would be a bit more cautious.

[nostrademons]

Would you believe Evan Williams when he writes about startups? He did his "10 rules for webstartups" (http://evhead.com/2005/11/ten-rules-for-web-startups.asp) and then broke all of them with Odeo, which, not surprisingly, failed.

[randallsquared]

Month after month, he was more aware than most how many people were gambling and (apparently) winning, and he thought that if they could do it, why not him? Turns out that it caught up with all of them, of course, but that must not have seemed immediately inevitable at the time.

[bwd]

This is pretty much what happened to the investment banks and GSEs too.

[look_lookatme]

He knows now.