In The Crowd

Goodbye, BlogSpot

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 00:32:00 -0700

Kids, I know this may come as a shock to you, but...I'm abandoning Blogger and shacking up with Wordpress.com. We've been growing apart for some time now, and I had to find a free hosted blog that can meet more of my needs. I hope you'll understand. Please update your bookmarks and feeds to http://alicia.wordpress.com/.

I'd hoped to wait to do this until domain mapping was available at wordpress.com, but the one-two punch of not being able to post most of the weekend and the disdain heaped upon Blogger in the past week has convinced me to go ahead with the move a little early. So yes, it's possible I'll be making a similar request later (though alicia.wordpress.com should still work even after the next change). It was beautifully simple to import everything, I think it took about two clicks and maybe one full minute. I'm feeling right at home over there already.

If you want to start your own wordpress.com blog, you can download Flock and all that wordpressy goodness is built right in. Mmmmm, goodness.

Plasma car

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 16:30:00 -0700

The SFMoMA store catalog came in the mail today, and in amongst the jewelry and ceramics was this fascinating thing called a Plasma Car. Not only is it swoopy looking and super modern, but it operates without pedals or batteries. I don't have kids, so this was the first time I'd ever seen it and I was fascinated. How does it work?

As luck would have it, the very first link that comes up on a search of "plasma car" is the University of Toronto's Physics of the Plasma Car page. Man, when a search works like that it is such a joy. Not only does it have a fairly dry explanation on the main page, but links to a quicktime movie of the car in action, and best of all, a link to a Discovery Channel clip with an explanation in plain everyday language for those of us who may not remember high school physics. The video on the Discovery channel page didn't work for me but the audio came through just fine, if you get it to work on a pc let me know.

Now I just need them to make one in a slightly larger size...

Laid low

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 16:31:00 -0700

I've been fighting this verdammte illness for weeks now, which has really taken a toll. I've been tetchy and miserable, and I can't seem to get anything done. I even ditched out on the techcrunch party last night, which by all accounts was a great time. I'm kicking myself now of course, but I had trouble arranging transportation and then they closed registration so in my reduced state I just gave up. At least I didn't have to make small talk with a bunch of VIP CEO NPD VCs.

Oooh, that last sentence was vicious. Which is exactly how I've been acting lately. My apologies to anyone unfortunate enough to come into contact with me in the last couple of weeks, I hope to return to my usual ~~sunny~~ ~~optimistic~~ self soon.

Trolling for charity

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 01:06:00 -0700

Matt Haughey on what may be the finest fundraising idea ever conceived: paying to shut people up. Personally I have nothing against either of these guys, we gravitate towards different topics so I rarely see the sparks fly. But I think it's a fun and original idea and I'm all for it, as is most of the community.

BrainJams

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 15:53:00 -0700

If you're reading this now then you probably also read my post about the Web 2.1 BrainJam event. As it turns out, I wasn't the only one interested in creating an ongoing series. Thanks to Chris, BrainJams has a new site, including the obligatory blog and wiki, and about ten of us met at his home on Friday to try to hammer out what exactly we're trying to accomplish here. It's early days yet, but at least initially we're focusing on trying to connect those without a technical bent with the tools and knowledgeable people to accomplish their goals.

This has actually been something I've been interested in for a long time, so it's especially gratifying to be involved with a group working towards that goal. It's exciting to see the light go on in someone's eyes when they first grasp what's possible. For example, just last night my roommate was saying that what she wanted instead of social networking sites like Friendster, MySpace or Tribe was something that focused exclusively on forming networks between independent, strong-willed women (especially those working in the non-profit sector). An informal community but not a random one, built on shared experiences and goals. So I showed her Ning, and she's in the process of building her own. She doesn't have any technical knowledge at all, but she doesn't need it. She just needed to know where to find the tools that exist to help her.

Right now, my first goal is to find people skilled in mediation, conflict resolution and moderating discussions to train the BrainJams team. An important component of what we hope to accomplish is small group discussions between people of different disciplines, and having a number of us with the skills to keep the discussions on track would help tremendously. If you have connections in this area or know those who do, please get in touch. I'll be working both online and offline (gasp!) to find people with the necessary skills who may be interested in helping out, but I'd appreciate any help you can offer.

Oh, Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 11:48:00 -0700

Thank you for once again giving me what I've wanted.

Now how about older shows at a low, low bargain rate?

BART does something right

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:50:00 -0700

The beast has finally crawled out of its cave. Metblogs reports that BART will offer 24 hour service ~~starting~~ October 14th - 16th. I predict much rejoicing amongst the single women of SF, since 70%* of straight boys live outside the city. Not to mention all the cool shows at the Paramount or the Greek we can go to now that our coach no longer turns into a pumpkin at midnight. Of course, this means an influx of bridge-and-tunnelers showing up in town as well, but $10 says they never make it out of North Beach.

*approximation based on observed statistics

ADDENDUM: Crap! In my excitement I failed to actually read the post. Looks like we have two days of beastly goodness before the door slams shut again. Cross your fingers and hope that bridge construction is delayed.

Time flies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 9 Oct 2005 12:43:00 -0700

Has it only been three days since I decided to rejoin civilization? My brain is stuffed, and it feels like I haven't been home in weeks.

The party on Thursday was packed, which considering the open bar was not a surprise. A very friendly crowd, despite all the suits, and plenty of by-now-familiar faces. I left while it was still in full swing, but not before hearing from Irina about the Under The Radar conference she's organizing.

The Web 2.1 BrainJam was just what I'd hoped it would be: participatory, democratic, idea-focused, more like a salon than a conference. It was a dramatic contrast to everything I've heard about O'Reilly's Web2.0, summed up by Susan Mernit. Sure there were people there to promote their projects, but not so single-mindedly that they didn't join in when the conversation shifted away. My only regret is that it was too short, so that we just got past introductions and into the substance of the discussion. So I've nominated myself to help Chris coordinate more of these. If you're in the area and would like to come, let me know. I'm hoping that next time we can focus less on what is happening now with social software and more on what we're hoping to achieve in years to come. Too often we all get distracted by what is newly possible or fashionable or looks lucrative and I'd personally like to see more long-term vision come out of this. But that's just me and what I'm thinking now, the nice thing about the BrainJam is that there is room for us all to get something different out of it and be exposed to other points of view.

Last night I made another last-minute choice to head over to the geek dinner after seeing it mentioned on JD Lasica's blog. I had no idea how I'd recognize anyone, and the place was packed with sailors and tourists, so it was a relief to see Robert Scoble at the bar in his "Caution! A-List Blogger" shirt for easy ID. It was too noisy and crowded to talk to many people, and call me naive but I was hoping for some actual geeking out. Instead it was pretty evenly split between people catching up with old friends and internet acquaintances and those ferociously networking. Luckily I was surrounded by exceptions to the rule, so even though I didn't get up to any geekery at least I had a nice chat in amongst the chaos.

Technorati Tags: Web2.1BrainJam

Webtastic!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 6 Oct 2005 20:30:00 -0700

I am missing Web 2.0 this week, which doesn't bother me like it should. Partly because its purpose seems to be clueing in the corporate world as to how they can take advantage of up-and-coming technologies, as opposed to an event like Webzine which is geared towards individuals. Partly too because my schmoozing muscles are atrophied after months of disuse, and I've always been more of a team player than a self promoter. And as Ted Rheingold points out, real innovation happens in bedrooms and garages, not $$$ conferences. But most of all, because at any large event all the good stuff happens on the fringes. Last night I unfortunately missed Merlin's undoubtedly great Web 1.0 Summit, which is what I get for taking a break from my obsessive reading of local blogs. Tonight I am inviting myself to the Colors Of Web 2.0 party, and tomorrow is Web 2.1. 10% better at 10% of the cost, so there you are. If you know of any other related events I'd be interested in, or have access to the Web 2.0 wiki you would like to share, please let me know. Otherwise my next web-related event will the Digital City panel on Monday.

The final, actual, Webzine roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 6 Oct 2005 20:04:00 -0700

The thing about perfectionism is that it can really get in your way when not operating under a deadline. Also, finding inspiration tends to get me out of the house and not farting around on the internet all day. Luckily for me bloggers will blog, which means that by waiting a few ~~days~~ weeks I find most of my Webzine-roundup already done for me. As Willam Henry, Duke of Gloucester once said, "Scribble, scribble, scribble, eh Mr. Gibbon?"

The offical website once again is here, and it looks like the podcasts have been added now if you're interested. The schedule is here, and all the photos you could want (and then some) are here. Talks and workshops I actually made it to, in order were: 1. Jacob Appelbaum's talk, 2. Rich Media Tools Workshop, 3. Intro to Digital Photography and Photoblogging, 4. Blog Warez Dance Off, 5. Hacking Gadgets And Electronics, 6. The Saturday Afterparty, 7. Video Blogging Panel, 8. You Are The Media: Videoblogging 101, 9. Around The Corner: Neighborhood Blogging, 10. Jonas Luster's talk, and 11. Selling Out: Making Money Doing What You Love. Whew!

General thoughts from Sean Bonner.

Justin Watt liveblogged the whole thing, hitting many of the same workshops I did. It's a great overview, as is Tara Hunt's. Tara and I spent some time hanging out together at Saturday's afterparty, and I'd like to nominate her for Coolest Canuck. As I suspected, the afterparty was really where it was at. I met more people in the four hours at that party than the whole rest of the weekend put together. I even posed with Ms. Webzine and got hit by the kissing bandit.

Brian Shields on Jacob Appelbaum, which was the first talk I caught Saturday. It was very interesting and a good way to kick off the weekend with its focus on creating alternative media, but also very sad and touching. Brian also blogged about the rich media workshop, and both these write ups are unusually thorough. I attended all the rich media talks and workshops I could after being inspired by this workshop that I really just stumbled onto, so it really set the tone of the weekend for me. I felt that fireANT, the video aggregator and Our Media, the Internet Archive front-end, were the stars of the show.

Jay Allen from sixapart, Matt Mullenweg of Wordpress, and Jason Goldman from Blogger showed off their stuff at the Blog Warez Dance Off, which was interesting but too short and crammed into a tiny space. I sat on the floor behind the presenters, so I apologize to any of them if they felt their ass was being scrutinized (and I have nothing but good things to say about the asses in question). I use Blogger now but I managed to score a Wordpress.com account too, which I'll be playing with (thanks Matt!).

The gadget hacking presentation by Phillip Torrone was too short to do much more than skim over some of cool stuff in Make, but fun nevertheless. Plus he brought a bunch of free copies, so I can flip through them at my leisure.

On Sunday I was pretty tired after the party, but the videoblogging panel was interesting if only to see how the technology is being used in practice. Markus Sandy's workshop on actually making a videoblog likewise helped a great deal in putting the pieces into place. If you'd like to do this at home, check out Freevlog for a great tutorial.

I never expected the Selling Out panel to be as great as it was, but it was actually really interesting. The founders of LiveJournal, Hot or Not, CafePress, StickerNation and Fucked Company all talked about how they started their companies and what it took to make a living off them. To sum up, not much. Every single one of them found that the money came as a result of the idea, and almost by accident. Even the most capitalistic of the sites, CafePress, was started more as a curiosity than a business. As Maheesh Jain explained, he and his partner saw the mugs, mouse pads and t-shirts that were offered at photo processing places and decided to see if there was demand for that on the web. They put up a very basic site with no idea how to actually make any of the stuff or access to any equipment. Within a week the orders were coming in and he actually headed to the mall to ask the guys at the photo processors how they did it, bought identical equipment and stuck it in his partner's garage. In a month it was popular enough they had to rent office space. There were similar stories all across the panel, and all the panelists warned everyone away from throwing money at your site (your own or VC) in an attempt to grow fast and get rich quick. All these sites grew along with their user base, and all on the basis of a single good idea.

So if anyone comes up with that One Good Idea, let me know.

Early reports

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 23:06:00 -0700

I'm still trying to process everything I saw at Webzine 2005 this weekend. I'm groggily combing through notes and trying to match names and faces to blogs and software so please bear with me, I will talk about everything in far more detail than you could possibly want very soon. For now suffice it to say that I had a great time and learned more than I expected to. Even better, I found the inspiration I was looking for. Let's just hope I can hang onto it long enough to get things moving.

In completely unrelated news, I couldn't help but read this post over on the best city planning blog ever (yes, I really am nerdy enough to have a favorite). I haven't been blogging much about my Google Maps obsession recently, mostly because others have been doing a better job of keeping up with the constant stream of new cool stuff. But one maphack you might have heard of is Seattle's Bus Monster, which shows current locations off all busses on a route and their ETA. It's a tough call deciding which is better, Bus Monster or SF's real time traffic and NextBus systems. I'll have to give the edge to Seattle for now due to the seamless integration of bus and traffic data, but when those shelter signs show up in my neighborhood I think SF will take the crown.

This weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 12:48:00 -0700

It's looking like I may have to eat crow and go to Webzine this weekend after all. Against all expectations, their schedule looks really interesting. The workshops in particular have caught my eye.

Unfortunately that means missing the How Berkeley Can You Be parade, as well as the famous Folsom Street Fair, the RESFEST digital film fest (which I did catch part of last year), and the Fallfest food & wine show.

Have I mentioned recently how much I love this city?

Shiny new things

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 7 Sep 2005 12:44:00 -0700

The recent announcements of first Google Talk and now the iPod nano have prompted me to say something. Despite the joking about my curmudgeonliness, I'm actually just as prone to excitement about shiny newness as anyone. My first reaction today in seeing the nano was "It comes in black! It's tiny! It has color!". But that lasted about 20 seconds.

Here's a little secret about me: I'm not really a Californian. I've lived here since I was two, but I was born a Yankee and in many ways I'm still one. That word implies certain qualities like thriftiness, a taste for minimalism, and a propensity to speak your mind but hold your emotions in check. I've tempered the thriftiness a bit, though I still can't understand why anyone would throw away their plastic grocery bags and then buy brand-new trash bags, or not just re-label a file folder, or people who don't know how to darn a hole or fix a hem or use one teabag to make two cups of tea. The point is, the old Yankee adage "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without" is well ingrained in my subconscious. If I'm going to spend money (or time) I expect to receive value in return. And value is most definitely not defined as "more stuff" (minimalism, remember?), it is defined as "something I will get a lot of use out of".

Which often puts me at odds with consumer culture in general, and the tech world in particular. I have tough standards. I don't automatically install upgrades or new beta releases because generally it's a waste of my time, hard drive space and/or money. That goes double for beta products that require hours of combing forums for hints before they might start working as intended (hint: working products not yet entirely fleshed out or with minor glitches are in beta, getting users to find the bugs in your basic code is called alpha). Both Apple and Google are usually very good at producing high-value lean, useful and durable products and for that reason both rank high on my list of favorite companies, right up there with Trader Joe's and Honda.

Not these releases though. I have yet to find anything I'd want Google Talk to do that iChat doesn't already, so for those of you who have sent me invitations thanks but no thanks. When they have an application that functions as both an IM and IRC client seamlessly, so that you can be having an IM chat with one person and invite a third to participate in that same window, then I will pay attention. When I have the ability to be logged in under multiple usernames simultaneously and to have my friend see responses as coming from my firstnamemiddleinitiallastname account and some random five dollar n00b see responses as coming from my anonymoususername account at the same time, then I'll consider switching. My 3rd generation iPod (purchased used) is still functioning just fine thankyouverymuch, and unless it dies I won't be replacing it anytime soon. What the majority of Apple's existing customers actually want is more storage (80GB or more) and videocast support. The nano is not a bad product, but it should be called Shuffle Deluxe. It targets the same market, though I suppose you could add in those who have bought the Shuffle but are frustrated by its limitations.

I find it admirable that Google and Apple (especially Google) both let their developers run with their imaginations a bit. It's certainly better than the focus group inspired mediocrity that's seen so often in other industries. But guess what? While they were busy working on these projects, people are mumbling their frustrations with Google, and buying extra hard drives to stash their growing music & video collections. Focus, people. F-o-c-u-s.

Katrina

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 15:58:00 -0700

I can't stop watching the news or reading obsessively about the hurricane damage. They are now beginning to evacute everyone from the city, even those in shelters. They're advising parents who already evacuated to enroll their children in the local schools, since it will be months before they can move home. FEMA is establishing a permanent office in New Orleans, and predicts that clean up will take so long that some people will spend their entire career working only on the damage caused by Katrina. It is being called the greatest natural disaster in the history of the nation.

Now would be a good time to donate or, if like me you have more time than money, to volunteer.

This is Swifty

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 23:53:00 -0700

His previous owner baptized him, but I think Swifty and I will be spending many happy hours together. He just needs some accessories...oh hey look. Craigslist provides.

Tidal etchings

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 13:44:00 -0700

woodland

I've posted some of my grandfather's photographs over at flickr. He would have hated the idea, he was paranoid about people stealing or devaluing his work which is why the scans are all low res. But he isn't around anymore to say no and I wanted to share them. They are hauntingly beautiful, maybe someday I'll inherit a print.

Proposal submitted

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 17:00:00 -0700

I sent this today to the folks over at Webzine. My career as professional curmudgeon has begun! It's one of skills passed down through the generations in my family, as many of you know. Wish me luck.

Every day I see the same crop of blogs promoting the same brand of whiz-bang boosterism. It reminds me of 1998, only the soundtrack has changed. Am I the only one who's read any Sinclair Lewis?

You need a contrarian viewpoint, just to balance things out. Web conferences are universally venues for software developers or content creators to promote their work or their philosophy of the web. No one ever calls bullshit, or asks questions like "is LiveJournal's best feature that fact that it segregates the diarists from the rest of the world?"* or "are blogs increasing the sum total of ignorance and stupidity in the world?"

I'm available to stick a wrench in the promotional machine for the low, low price of enough beer to get me tipsy. And maybe a couple of cigarettes, if I haven't quit again.

*Shoshes excluded.

New links

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 13:55:00 -0700

It occurs to me, as I look at my two newest del.icio.us links, that there is a business opportunity here.

Let's see...affordable American Apparel screenprinted t-shirts, no set up fee, no shipping charge, no minimum.

And a de-luxxxe craft store with free set up, picture hosting, shopping cart, and minimal fees.

Now if only I could draw.

Lingua tonsoria

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 19:28:00 -0700

I like to think I'm a good communicator. After all, for years I have made a living off my ability to use words to persuade people. I understand people, and I find it easy to get them to understand and listen to me.

Except hair stylists.

Do you remember the Cone Of Silence from the TV show Get Smart? I'm convinced there's a reason it looked like a giant clear salon hairdryer. It's as if common English words have completely different meanings when speaking to your stylist. Consider this handy chart:

What I say	What they hear	What I mean
I want a change	Just a trim, please	I'm bored, surprise me
Something really different	I fear change	Nothing is too radical
I like to experiment with it	I wear a ponytail sometimes	Weird is good
I want longer layers all over	No layers	Not a short crop
I was growing it out	I'm wishy-washy	No helmet hair
I like the wispy bits	Ignore me, I'm babbling	Longer near the ears
I like her hair	I wish I were her age	Look! Like THAT!
See, what I'm trying to do...	Wah wah, wah wah wah waaah	You are an idiot

Meet the new 'do, same as the old 'do.

Movies! Movies! Movies!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 9 Aug 2005 16:28:00 -0700

One of the advantages of living in a town too artsy for its own good is that there are always a lot of movies to see. However, this week a couple of especially nostalgia-inducing things have come to my attention.

Number one: The Goonies! Everyone else I know considers this movie to be one of their most cherished childhood memories. So they're always horrified when I admit I've never seen it (or A Christmas Story, but that's a different post). It doesn't help that I keep getting it confused with Gremlins, which I did see multiple times. Happily, tomorrow night not only will I finally see it, but I will see it for free, on a big screen (okay, the side of a house) with free popcorn and BYO adult beverages.

Number two: My love of action films is no secret, and I have already discussed the special place I have in my heart for Bullitt. So this is just...how shall I put it? FUCKING AWESOME. If someone with a car (and here I'm thinking either a Safety Yellow hatchback or perhaps a killer Mustang) would like to participate in this with me I would be very, very happy. Be sure to check out their other events on that page too, because it will blow your tiny little minds.

Local character

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 5 Aug 2005 16:19:00 -0700

Last week, while returning some shoes I bought online to Nordstrom, I saw something that made me kick myself for not bringing a camera. It was two elderly women twins in matching sailor suits and wigs. Imagine how excited I was today to find a picture of them online! No sailor suits, but you'll just have to use your imagination. Now that I know their names, I'll be sure to say hi next time I run into them.

SOLD!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 3 Aug 2005 21:59:00 -0700

Ich bin endlich Autofrei.

This afternoon at 3:30 I signed away all liability to and ownership of my car in exchange for a tidy sum of money. It's taken a month to get to this point and I'm really glad it's over. In fact, I felt a huge wave of relief as I walked away from the DMV. No more waking up in panic at 6 am when the street sweeper goes by, wondering if I remembered to move my car. No more paying insurance, or registration, or gas, or oil changes, or tune ups. No more cringing when my roommates leave the house, knowing they have to shuffle three cars to get out of the garage. No more giant metal albatross.

Also, did I mention the fat wad of cash?

Disappointing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:21:00 -0700

I headed over to 111 Minna last night for the EFF Blogger's Rights event. I'd been warned that 111 is populated primarily by the see-and-be seen crowd, by the considerably more low-key House Of Shields crew. This turned out to be pretty true, there was a high ratio of wine & cocktails to beer and clusters of attractively dressed people gossiping about other clusters of attractively dressed people. However, the subject matter did drag out a few conspiracy theorists, privacy obsessives, and other awkward, pale and otherwise endearing geeks. I even I spotted (in the wild!) that rarest of birds, the unix guru. I have a soft spot in my heart for those rotund, shaggy, sock and sandal wearers, dating back to my babysitter who printed out ASCII Snoopys on the UCSB mainframes to entertain me while he did some kind of ARPANET research. But that's enough of that cred-enhancing digression.

There's a good review of the event over at Metroblogging SF, where I've posted a comment. Put briefly, it was a waste of everyone's time. I genuinely believe that EFF is doing valuable work, but the event last night was more of a cheerleading effort for bloggers than a substantive discussion. The only useful information given (for those who didn't already know) was several people commenting on the existence and mission of chillingeffects.org, the clearing house of internet-related ceast and desist letters. Apart from that tidbit, it was just another opportunity for the incestuous knot of higher profile bloggers to talk about themselves and their friends. Which is fine with me if they want to do that on their blogs, but less fine when it takes over a supposedly informational discussion.

Give the people what I want

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 15:25:00 -0700

C'mon, all the cool kids are doing it.

Crisis or natural evolution?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:26:00 -0700

There's a post today over at Futuretense about thirtysomething women ditching their jobs. My situation was pretty much what she describes except that I was not at all passionate about the theory (and I didn't have a cat). I just decided that marketing was eating my soul and I needed to stop manipulating people for a living.

However, I've also noticed a lot of people checking out of their jobs recently and taking time off or switching to something less lucrative but more rewarding. I'm not convinced this willingness to take a leap into the unknown is specifically age-related. I would not have left my job a few years ago simply because there was such a slim chance of finding something else, and I'm sure that many older corporate drones are just as burned out but not in a position to leave. I'd bet it has more to do with where we are career-wise and in our personal lives than with our actual age. Think about it:

You've accomplished enough to be taken seriously and to have developed a set of skills, but not so much that you get to call the shots.
You've been doing the same thing for the same people a while, trying to build up those skills and look stable to potential new employers.
You finally make enough that leaving your job won't leave you destitute.
You're still single and childless and therefore mobile.
The economy is strong enough that you have a decent chance of either making it on your own or finding work elsewhere.

Who wouldn't leave? Well, if you have a family or a mortgage you'd be less willing to gamble with your finances. If you're in a higher position and have more control over your own work there's less incentive to leave. But for the rest of us in the classic burn out situation of responsibility-without-power, there is no better time to go.

And yes I'm talking to you, David.