Exactly right, glory to the makers I say. I graduated college in 2003 with a business degree from CMU and 10K in debt. I played poker professionally for about

Exactly right, glory to the makers I say. I graduated college in 2003 with a business degree from CMU and 10K in debt. I played poker professionally for about a year, then went to work for an ad agency for 18 months, then worked for a start-up doing marketing for 18 months. At the start-up, I learned that you can work really hard at marketing, spin your wheels with all sorts brochures and websites and conference speaking and presos, and not do a bit of good. That's a scary thought - that you might just be useless, or at least that your job is only a multiplier to the people actually building the thing. The start-up marketing experience (and living with two software developers) made me start to worry and yearn for change. As the start-up I worked for began crumbling in 2007, and I began to get whiffs of pending financial meltdown in early 2008, I made the switch to making software, instead of making brochures. And that was either a very smart or very lucky choice, because if I had tried to find a new marketing job, I'm not sure where I'd be today. But making software sure does pay OK, and having people use your software sure feels a lot better than having people NOT read your brochures.