Why I'm still scribbling for a living

Tue, 14 Mar 2000 17:00:00 +0000

You know, I thought about it. I did. I really did. After seeing myself portrayed in the newspaper where I worked as an end-of-millennium Internet stock slut, it occurred to me: I could really cash in on all the hard work I'd done for the San Jose Mercury News. I could turn the tables on my tormentors by taking a job at a dot-com; hell, I could start my own firm. I might be good at it; I'd almost certainly get a villa in the south of France and the chance to return to doing something I love: sitting around doing nothing.

Last summer, for far too long a period, the intricate details of my professional and financial life were on display for all to read. That's because I made $9,000 buying and selling some stock.

I bought the shares when a friend of many years put me on a "friends and family list" -- a chance to buy stock during his company's initial public offering; he'd included me because, well, he, his wife and I are friends. I never wrote about my friend. I had no plans to write about my friend. But, as a notebook-carrying chronicler of Silicon Valley's social, economic and political life, I knew I had an obligation to tell my editors and give them the chance to advise me against the purchase if they thought it was unethical.

Salon.com > Chris Nolan

Why I'm still scribbling for a living