what (or where) is the edge?

Back when I was in campus, I used to project into the future; The picture that I saw there was very rosy. Young graduate in Computer Science. How many of those are there around huh? You must forgive my (former) naivete; I look back in retrospect and laugh at myself.

In my dreams, a couple of months even before I place my last exam paper on the table for marking, huge corporations would be knocking down my doors with offers. Beautiful head-hunter ladies from these corporations would try to persuade me to accept a slightly lower salary for the post. I even had a magic number: 120 big ones. I would see myself, cruising in a black imprezza, heading towards the leafy suburbs west of chiromo ....

It is a dream that evaporates quickly. A phenomenon called reality slaps you very hard in the face and you wake up to a stark reality. The reality was a small office near Haile Selassie avenue (you folks know the place). Not that I am not grateful, I am very much. After starting out with an inhumane salary of out 10,000 per month, I kept telling myself that this is just a pass-time. Time to hit the big time was just around the corner.

Eventually I moved from Haile Selassie. The money inched up a very tiny step. As I got caught up in a merry-go-round of jobs with miniscule salaries, another dream took shape in my head; I would develop a revolutionary software that would make me rich and quickly.

Now I ask myself - which revolutionary software was I going to make? It now seems that all good software has been made. Ever heard the expression "if you are not on the edge, you are taking too much space?". There is a nice thought. In a particular search for the "edge", people and companies are doing ridiculous stuff. How about a program that has moods huh? Intuit is trying something along those lines. My whole problem is that I want to wake up rich one day. Very silly.

There is no edge ladies and gentlemen. If there is an edge, then all we do is blunt it (and get hurt in the process) for another person to occupy it. That, is a very noble undertaking.