A former tech founder reflects on their late-1990s dot-com startup experience and the path not taken, exploring how chance encounters and life choices shape identity. Literary scholar Andrew H. Miller's book examines the philosophical weight of unlived lives and the inevitable narrowing of possibilities as individuals develop over time.
The stock market is showing warning signs similar to the dot-com bubble, with the Shiller CAPE ratio above 40 and the Buffett indicator at 237%, driven largely by artificial intelligence stocks that now comprise 40% of the S&P 500. However, historical analysis suggests markets can continue rising even after such warnings, though a significant crash could be more severe than the dot-com era given market concentration.