Of course, if I had decided years earlier to just become an expert in health policy, or whatever, I could have started in quickly at the bottom of the media totem pole and risen more or less swiftly toward the top, earning some sort of income instead of piling up debt.

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Local TV rights fees for individual teams also continue to soar, especially in larger markets as media companies see the 162-games schedule as the key tent-pole to any regional sports network.

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Add to that the fact that Internet companies with a lot more sex appeal than LinkedIn -- including Facebook, Groupon, Pandora, Yelp and Zynga (makers of FarmVille) -- are all likely to go public within the next year, and you have LinkedIn taking the pole position in what will be a tidal wave of social media companies entering the public markets.

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