MM is doing the wrong startup. He should be writing more and I bet he will have a decent size audience. Although i think he mostly likes to be on the opposite side just for the hell of it, i still like to read his post and sure knows how to defend his views by backing them with data. MM is sure making or writing "something people want": controversy.
Thanks, I've been told that a lot lately. I kinda like keeping it as a hobby though. Not sure it would be as fun full time. I already took one hobby and made a living from it and it ruined that.
I don't set out to play devil's advocate. I just don't find it interesting to write about the things that I agree with everyone else on. I won't bother with an article on how the music industry should give up DRM, for example, because it wouldn't be anything thought provoking to anybody anymore. Hell, even the record companies seem to have figured that out by now.
And I don't have much perspective on programming. I couldn't write anything of use on the merits of RDBMSes vs. SimpleDB (though I appreciate some of the articles from people who can). But I feel like I have a pretty good perspective on people and how they use the internet.
