I was reading Salon’s article on dotcom layoff horror stories and feeling pretty smug. I mean, I’m in a great company that pays me well and hasn’t done anything but grow and succeed for the entire time I’ve been there. Those poor people out in Silicon Valley, I thought. What waste and excess and screwups. And then I read the phrase: “a liberal arts major who got a groovy job just out of college and then lost it all of a sudden and gosh doesn’t that really suck.” And the smug feeling disappeared. That’s me. That could be me. I just happened to be very, very lucky with my choice. And the stories that follow are so… tragic. I don’t think that’s hyperbole. A lot of people define their lives by their jobs, and the way that they lost them was really ham-handed and brutal. There but for the grace of God…