On March 29th, 2005, O.J. attorney Johnnie Cochran died. Moments later, the Slope of Hope was born. I don’t believe for a minute this was an accident.
Today is Slope of Hope’s 17th birthday. Every year, when I do some version of this post, I ask myself how long will I keep doing this? When will I simply decide to stop? And I simply refuse to believe Slope will ever stop, as long as I am alive. I can picture myself on my death bed feebly typing out the words NEW POST just before I expire. Hopefully, that moment is a long way off.
Consider how different the world was when Slope began:
- There was no such thing as a smart phone. The phones that people had could make calls and send text, and people absolutely hated them. It would be years before even the very first version of the iPhone would go on sale.
- George W. Bush was still in his first Presidential term.
- Hurricane Katrine, five months after Slope started, would hit my home state of Louisiana (prompting this bit of idiocy).
- A house cost 297,000 on average, and gas was 3.18 a gallon.
- The hottest movie was Revenge of the Sith (the third of the dreadful Star Wars prequels)
- A new company called YouTube was started.
- Microsoft introduced a new gaming console called the Xbox 360
As for Slope, some of you are new here, and some of you have been here for years. We have lost a number of close friends to death. Hell, this site has been around so long, some babies born in Slope’s early days might actually be using the site by now.
Slope, over this tremendous timespan, has grown from a throwaway little blog that I figured wouldn’t survive a week into a feature-rich, content-soaked financial website about which I am tremendously proud. I have been here longer than I was even at my startup Prophet.net!
And my message to you remains the same as always: I am glad you’re here, and I hope you keep coming as long as I keep the torch alight.
