An understandable response, but if I'm 3 months away from owning stock in a company that will surely go public, it would have been irresponsible of me to quit the job before the hours I'd put in had vested. Had the company not chosen to enact a cliff, I would have gladly walked away with what I'd had accrued up to that point.
The bad guy here was not meant to be the employer, though I can see where you'd get that impression. It's a statement against the lack of control that is inherent to most work environments, and a brief waxing on the effect that has on a person's ability to build great stuff.
I'm not a lazy person. I enjoy working, and I have at least a little bit to show for it. So the email was an exploration of why this ceases to be the case when I've spent a certain amount of time working for someone other than myself. The only feasible conclusion that I've come to is what I wrote.
A part of the issue here is that most design schools require a Masters degree from their teaching staff, which flies in the face of working with talent in new media fields.
I spoke with the Chair of the design department at a decent school about this recently, and they basically had no intention of changing their policies on this.
As a graphic designer, I hope to be an exception to this observation. Just give me a few years.
On a less personal note, it's pretty rare that you will find a designer who is also interested in tech startups or business in general. As someone who spends an inordinate amount of time reading industry blogs and such, you simply don't see that much cross over between the two. Which is surprising considering how business-minded a good designer has to be, both in the way they understand and interpret their client's problems, and in the inevitable challenges that come with running your own shop.
"A site created by the GNAA, which opens windows of 6 shock sites that fly around so you cannot close them. It also plays really loud sounds of a guy saying "HEY EVERYBODY IM LOOKING AT GAY PORNO", a few minutes after, sounds become more loud and screams and a Jews.WMV (which is gay porn video) windows open really quickly, they may crash your computer if too many of them opens."
Good lord. Thanks for the heads-up and the clarification.