[madaxe_again]

This is true, and it's still most readily manifested in the way that entrepreneurs are viewed and treated in this country - as crazy outcasts, who are best avoided, as you might catch the horrendous disease of independent thought.

[jarek]

This really isn't the case in London in my experience

See: the hundreds of people who attended Silicon Milkroundabout yesterday

[spacecowboy_lon]

Unfortuntly I think CP Snows two nations is still intact and its not the technical/sceintific side that has the whip hand - in the UK techies are regarded as greasy engineers not fit to press our nose against the window (to quote tom jones) to look at the other professions.

[madaxe_again]

That's the one. Same thing as causes my parents (and myself) to tell people that I'm unemployed, as it's easier to explain than "I run a successful startup with multi-million pound net profit" - as they then realise it's one of these technology things, and that puts me on the same rung as, say, a waste-water engineer. Actually, they're up a few rungs, as they deal with "real" things. Techies are all viewed as "the IT guy", and are there to be blamed for anything and everything, and to be belittled at every opportunity. "You wouldn't know what it's like to run a business!", says the guy who runs a pair of holiday lets, to the guy who employs 50 people and powers £1bn+ of commerce p.a.

Being involved in the web in the UK is akin to having social leprosy - the only other people who will accept you or even talk to you without peering down their noses at you are other people with leprosy - sorry - other web professionals.

This extends even to investors and VCs, as their view over here is that entrepreneurs/technologists are a necessary evil that you have to deal with as part of the process of making money by magic.

[spacecowboy_lon]

Quite I once took a call for my dad (who's an EE) from some one who wanted a house rewiring I had to tell him oh he's working as a consultant for London underground on the upgrade to the Tube's power systems.

Thers an story that the no2 at BT labs (the place that designed and built colossus) was asked what sort of cars he worked on :-(

[computerjunkie]

Disagree. As Jarek said, the siliconmilkroundabout event yesterday says the opposite. I attended yesterday and I was actually surprised by the energy and passion people have for their own products. Its really changed my perspective on start ups.

My biggest concern with start ups is the work/life balance. Putting in unnecessary hours and producing mediocre results doesn't sound so productive to me. I understand the occasional long night once in a blue moon but if it becomes a weekly or daily thing then you are immediately fall into sleep debt.