Privatisation was awful from the traveller's point of view having to figure out which company to deal with. It would have been much better to micro-privatise each train - selling off the dining car franchise to a commercial operator or allowing a commercial company to add a coach to a train for a given fee.

In work life as in the rest of life there is a mid-career crisis thing where you plateau and realize this is likely the best you will ever do. Crazy things can happen or you may float until there's a downturn and/or layoff but likely at some point the same old same old may appear to be a friendly shore you would not mind landing back on to finish your career. A side hustle can be a good way to do something you feel passionate about.

Been there after the dot com bust - in my case I eventually got hired by a startup where I aced the brain teasers and 6 months there gave me the tech stack to get hired at a big company that carried me through to retirement. Six months of 996 may be the price to get back on the ladder.

Was laid off in 2001 during the dotcom bust. Was self-unemployed buying and selling used docking stations and power adapters until 2007 when I aced a job interview for a small start up after mostly giving up the job search. Six months at the startup gave me experience in an in-demand tech stack that landed me a job at a large tech company that saw me through to retirement 10 years later. If I had it to do over right now I would be creating something with AI as my own business - probably not very lucrative but good experience that might get you hired someplace.

What are your favorite few RSS feeds?