I don't believe in all of this web-stock madness; I know the game is rigged in favor of the VCs. My father, an accountant and small-time real-estate investor, gave me good middle-class advice when he warned me about the market: it's a crap shoot and you should put in only what you are prepared to lose. But there is no escaping one's guts. The air around me is drunken with greed. The rocketing technology stocks create a force field of desire. I am as intoxicated as I was in those fiber optic nights at Infusion, but crazier. I see the startup boys making millions. Why shouldn't I get into the game of betting on technology riches?

[...]

I call Clara Basile, my longtime friend and financial adviser [...] "Do you know what the profit margins are in the grocery business? Three percent, maybe four. Would you buy Safeway?"