I’m a news junky and have been since college. Recently I’m finding the damage of paying attention to the news far outweighs the benefits.
For the past two weeks I made a concerted effort not to read or watch the news. By this past Friday night I had reached my most optimistic outlook in years. The companies I helped take to market in 2008 are performing beyond my wildest expectations. Earlier in the week Xobni raised a $7 million Series B round and that evening Dropbox had been awarded runner up for best startup in 2008.
My H1 2009 workload is quickly filling up with fantastic group of well-funded startups. And most important – I’m really having fun helping startups figure out how to drive massive customer adoption. Through it all, I’ve managed to spend more time with my kids than at any other time in their lives.
What could possibly screw up this optimistic mood? The news. I woke up Saturday morning and decided to check in while I drank my coffee. Big mistake. After a few minutes of gloomy economic reporting, murders, and war I felt the pessimism creeping in. Then I picked up the remote and turned it off.
I decided I’d give it a break for 6 months. I’ll bet that I won’t even know there is a recession if I don’t watch the news. On July 11th I’ll check back in and see if there is any sign of the recovery that economists are predicting in H2 2009.
Andrew Chen
Brant Cooper
Dave McClure
Eric Ries
Jamie Siminoff
Steve Blank
Sean,You’re definitely on to something. I too am a news junkie, and I do like feeling informed and up to date. Yet at the same time, whenever I go away and cut myself off from the news for a few days (as I did on vacation two weeks ago), I realize that all of the stories I missed while I was away were really rather unimportant.