New York, I'm all in.

Or alternatively, taking the Kenya option off the table.

That's right. You heard it here first. After two arduous months pounding the pavements, I've decided to take the plunge and stay in New York despite the continued job uncertainty. Looking back on when I arrived, I assumed that it would be difficult for me to break into the startup world here. After all, I haven't lived in the US for over two years, and I haven't worked in New York since the summer of 2008. A long time ago. But in the weeks since, I've gotten to speak with a number of exceptional companies, and to my great surprise, they've all been happy to meet me. But the largest moral of the story is that timing has played a much bigger role than I anticipated. No one seems to argue my qualifications or credentials – whether or not they need a product manager at that given moment is a thornier issue. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense. I've picked a role for myself where there's one of me to every five to ten engineers. Startups only need a PM at a very specific point in their life cycles. So after a great deal of thought and soul searching, I've finally decided to stay and see how it plays out.

It's Official: We're Living in the Future

A few days ago, while an old friend was visiting NY, I made the trek up to the Upper East Side to visit him at his brother's place. It was wonderful to meet his family, especially his very new little nephew. I don't see very many babies these days, so seeing how the little guy interacted with his grandmother made me remark to myself, "Wow, we're really living in the future." When I was growing up, cell phones didn't exist, and email was a largely unused technology. If a family member lived a long distance away, you got to see them a few times a year. The only middle ground was an expensive long distance phone call.