I’ll be blunt: I’m not sure how I got here. Six months ago I was finishing up my film degree at SF State, imagining a future in directing music videos and commercials. Upon finishing school, I breathed a sigh of relief and then realized that I was completely burnt out both creatively and in terms of studying film and filmmaking, and that I probably needed some time to sit back and consider what I was doing and what that piece of nice paper with the stamp and Arnold’s signature really means.

Really, though, I’ve always had ideas bouncing around in my head for new products and services and new ways to do things and… “Why can’t this or that be more efficient?” type of questions. I’ve been into web design since I was twelve years old, though I’ll be the first to admit that it’s at a “don’t quit your day job” skill level.

A few weeks after I graduated, I went to my local public library (the very small Pacifica/Sharp Park library) and started getting books on management, marketing, politics, and small business. All of a sudden, narrative fiction isn’t as interesting to me as real possibilities in my own life. It’s about Gates and Google, not Gondry and Gatsby.

I’d like to think that maybe all of us doing this kind of thing have similar ideas and similar ways of thinking - obviously there’s financial success as a motivating factor, the idea of running a company, living that dream, etc… But it doesn’t end there. The truly successful products and services are created by those who know that something can be done better and won’t rest until they’ve at least given it their best shot.

Of course, not everyone is in it to create something useful, and that’s where part of the bubble comes from - those who think that success equals ‘get in, make product, cash out, spend the rest of your days in a yacht’ or whatever… those people are crowding up the market, sucking the oxygen away from those who live and breathe with a true passion for innovation.

What am I saying? Nothing new, I’m sure. But up until very recently I was a casual, outside observer to all of this. Now, I have to pay attention every time Alex and Jessica mention web sites, new Web 2.0 ventures, services, people, etc. I have to spend time on every web site we either plan to compete with or work with, trying to figure out why it works or why it doesn’t.

I’ll try to post regularly on this blog with my relatively newbie-esque analysis and thoughts. Feel free to leave a comment suggesting books to read or web sites to visit or synonyms for words I use too often.

Aaron Nemoyten may or may not make Alex regret giving him a writing position at startupism.