Sometimes I love this business. Tonight is one of those nights. My grandfather (fishsi of SEW) and I are in New York City for the SES conference. He has been helping me with much of the math parts of the IR papers I'm so fond of reading lately, but today and tonight he's been helping me to understand a lot more about the function and politics of business in general.

Over dinner, Si pointed out an example to me of how politics in his business (chemical engineering) would often outweigh the best interests of both the workers and the company - including the executives themselves. As he explained how the incestuous nature of CEOs and boards of directors often creates a conflict of interest between a company's long-term strategy and its current practices, I though to myself how thankful I am to be part of a small, nimble company.

I can't think of a time when our executives (myself and my boss) have acted against the interests of the company for personal reasons, and for most of us in this industry, that is the case. The Internet, overall, is a fresh enough field that the regulatory and standards bodies are still run by passionate, dedicated people fighting not for their own self-interests, but the betterment of the web overall (the W3C would be an excellent example of this).

We're, all of us, lucky to be in such a position, and it would be in our interests not to forget how priveleged we are to be able to work at something we love.

BTW - Tomorrow night, I'll be blogging on the sessions Si & I attend at SES.