Brian Dear has a great post on the infectious greed permeating the Web 2.0 crowd. It reminds me of something Tom Wolfe or even Michael Lewis would write. But instead of the big swinging dicks in Liar's Poker who were greedy, take-no-prisoners bond traders, the characters in this story are greedy nerds looking to flip their toy company for a quick buck even if it means having to explain to their employees that the whole change-the-world vision thing they were pitched to get them to work crazy hours was, in the end, just a gimmick.
One of the problems with flipping companies is that acquisitions almost always are much worse for the employees than they are for the management of a company. Because after all, the 4 years that employees have to put in to get their options vested typically get revested at the time of acquistion for another 4 years, meaning in the worst case 8 years in total vesting time. I have met only a few people, and I have met and know many, who after working for an exciting start-up that was subsequently acquired, did not feel the change-the-world adrenaline-filled sense of anything-is-possible come to a screeching halt, only to be replaced by a morbid feeling that life was too short to stick around at a larger, bureaucratic company to recoup the capital that they had worked so hard to earn. For the few who do end up sticking around, those last 4 years generally tend to be very bitter and unhappy times.
Whether or not Brian's observations are fair in their characterizations, there is no doubt that the many of the ideas coming out of the Web 2.0 community are going to have a huge impact on the future of the Web.
