Just days before I quit a great job as a statistician and went on a country-wide road trip with the hopes of becoming a professional writer, Netflix almost derailed the whole thing. On LinkedIn.com to accept a connection, I saw a posting for Director of Analytics at Netflix. This was basically my “dream job”. Based on my previous 10 yeras of analytics work, I was perfectly qualified for it. It was in the bay area, a place I'd always wanted to live. More than anything I was salivating over the amount of access to “movie data” that would have been at my fingertips, nay my occupation! Like someone buying a Powerball ticket, I was already assuming that victory would be mine.

But I had other fish to fry at the time, and this only served as the “last temptation of Reed.” What I saw in the aftermath of my endeavor was a lot of publishers saying my book was a good idea-and-they'd-like-to-read-it-when-it-comes-out-but-no-we-won't-be-putting-it-out-sorry-best-of-luck, and Netflix continuing to struggle with their analytics programs.

It's OK. I later moved to Argentina, met my wife there and now I've just moved to Switzerland. I absolutely cannot complain about anything. But I still can't help feeling like back in 2007 Netflix and I passed like two ships on a foggy night - an unrequited match made with SAS code.

(I realize I am oversharing here, sorry to hijack the post.)

It wasn't much of a post to hijack. I encourage all readers to outdo the post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Reed.