Wow. I guess we'll never know the full facts, but I didn't think that was a move which the Josh Topolsky I thought I knew from Engaget/ThisIsMyNext/Verge podcasts would have made.
Just goes to show: you never really know people. Or, of course, that every man has his price ;)
Unless there's going to be a techie Bloomberg podcast - I'll miss Josh's work.
@TheVerge: hopefully you can now put all this behind you, and crank it into second gear. There's still so much potential in what you have.
I dunno; my takeaway is Josh is probably a raging asshole. Imagine if you where an employee recruited into verge, and the ceo bails for a high salary. The ceo of a startup should go down with the ship.
About the only useful part of this response is: I feel for you. I understand what you're going through, and I'm going to try and convince you to stick with it.
The rest of this: well, take it or leave it.
Sounds like you've managed to coincide two bad things in one go: a bad place in your career, and a bad place in your relationship. You've ended up with a double-whammy, so it's hit you hard.
From (limited) experience, I'd say let the relationship thing sort itself out. I know how it feels now: and it'll take 6 months before you wake up and go through the day, and then realise that you didn't think about it all day. That's when you know you're over it. Until then, just accept it. There are no shortcuts.
Meanwhile, focus on the job. It's the thing you CAN change. If you don't like it, change it. Maybe, even if it's "ok"... change it anyway. You need something that will distract, excite and occupy you for the next 6 months.
That's what I did anyway (also from the UK, also sporting a beard and feeding a cat). Change the career if you need to, because it's easier. Go and do something that makes you happy, for short-term (and long-term) happiness. The rest will sort itself out.
The double-whammy is certainly a good way of putting it. The new job (literally the next working day after the breakup) was specifically tailored on my previous shared vision. So even if it was the best job in the world it was going to be an uphill battle.
The job is "ok". Its good money, the idea and product is not based on fiction. I'm uncertain if its just my outlook on the job at the moment or the job itself. Either way, I take on board your sentiment of it being the one thing I CAN change. Maybe when I'm a little further down the line I'll consider something not solely based on the money?
"There are no shortcuts."
Really valid right now. I thought I could muscle my way through this but I can't.
Additionally, there are many alternatives to freelancer. Before you go build another one, go try out the ones that are out there and see if any of them cover these pain points.
It is not as simple as creating a website. If you want to create a good environment for both coders and buyers you will need lawyers and a good support team. What I'm saying is that you will need to invest a lot of money in something that can be easily crushed (or bought) by the competition.
There are similar (some of them better) alternatives, the problem is that once you have a good history/reputation on one of these sites you can't transfer this to another one. You start from zero.
I kinda dig oDesk. I got many decent clients off it. I was shooting for small, very short term projects - the kind that can be done within a day - so YMMV.
This very site's monthly freelancer thread is also worth checking out. I got a few decent leads out of it.
It wasn't a very constructive OP! I've watched it about 10 times though. Is that "except in Nebraska" at the end? Is that a tax/sales restriction thing? (I'm not US based)
Just goes to show: you never really know people. Or, of course, that every man has his price ;)
Unless there's going to be a techie Bloomberg podcast - I'll miss Josh's work.
@TheVerge: hopefully you can now put all this behind you, and crank it into second gear. There's still so much potential in what you have.