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Honestly, that boils down to how you frame and perceive (and teach)risk more than anything else. If they perceive stability in a $100k job and perceive startup

Honestly, that boils down to how you frame and perceive (and teach)risk more than anything else. If they perceive stability in a $100k job and perceive startups as risking that opportunity, they will be afraid...it has nothing to do with where they came from. Edit: Also, if you really think about it...those kids are already breaking the rules by learning to code and not accepting their upbringing as determining their fate. They are breaking all sorts of cultural rules.

GuiA 10y ago
When you're the first in your family to go to college, and that for your entire life your reality was mom and older brother working multiple jobs to feed 3 generations under the same roof and yet you still went hungry at the end of the month and regularly got the power cut, well yes you don't perceive taking risks the same way as Paul Graham does. If you want to come to our workshops and talk to these young adults about how to frame and perceive risk, please do get in touch.
- davemel37 10y ago
  Paul Graham said he started viaweb because he didn't want to be poor anymore. I guess poor can be relative. I dont know PG personally and I don't know the young adults you teach, so I can only speak in generalities, but the scenario you painted can just as easily mint a determined person who takes all sorts of risks because, "What do they have to lose?!" I guess what I'm trying to say is that only a fraction of people are entrepreneurs and those people usually have certain ways to view the world that the majority of people don't...So, when you observe this fear in your prodigies, maybe that fear is about proportionate to the general population and while the specific fear might be different, the willingness to view the world in away that allows risk taking in entreprenuership might have nothing to do with specific backgrounds but rather specific personalities and perspectives.

GuiA 10y ago

When you're the first in your family to go to college, and that for your entire life your reality was mom and older brother working multiple jobs to feed 3 generations under the same roof and yet you still went hungry at the end of the month and regularly got the power cut, well yes you don't perceive taking risks the same way as Paul Graham does. If you want to come to our workshops and talk to these young adults about how to frame and perceive risk, please do get in touch.

davemel37 10y ago
Paul Graham said he started viaweb because he didn't want to be poor anymore. I guess poor can be relative. I dont know PG personally and I don't know the young adults you teach, so I can only speak in generalities, but the scenario you painted can just as easily mint a determined person who takes all sorts of risks because, "What do they have to lose?!" I guess what I'm trying to say is that only a fraction of people are entrepreneurs and those people usually have certain ways to view the world that the majority of people don't...So, when you observe this fear in your prodigies, maybe that fear is about proportionate to the general population and while the specific fear might be different, the willingness to view the world in away that allows risk taking in entreprenuership might have nothing to do with specific backgrounds but rather specific personalities and perspectives.