Abe, however, is saying no. “What—you guys want to leave a sure thing?” he keeps asking us. “You think Microsoft’s going to shrink, or are you nuts?”

“That’s not the point, Abe.”

“What is the point, then?”

“One-Point-Oh,” I said.

“What?” replied Abe.

“Being One-Point-Oh. The first to do something cool or new.”

“And so in order to be ‘One-Point-Oh’ you’d forfeit all of this—” (Abe fumbles for le mot juste, and expands arms widely to showcase a filthy living room covered with Domino’s boxes, junk mail solicitations, Apple hard hats, three Federal Express baseball caps, and Nerf Gatling guns) “—security? How do you know you’re not just trading places … coding like fuck every day except with a palm tree outside the window instead of a cedar?”