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Is it really so crazy that people might care about more things than money when considering what to work on? If I were given the opportunity to go back in time

Is it really so crazy that people might care about more things than money when considering what to work on? If I were given the opportunity to go back in time and work at Bell Labs or Xerox PARC, I would probably do so even if paid no money at all. This seems rational to me, both in terms of how much knowledge I could accumulate and just the self-actualization of working on such interesting problems. I imagine the calculation for early employees at start-ups is similar.

ssorallen 7y ago
A mission and a reasonable distribution of equity with fair terms do not need to be mutually exclusive, that's how I read the original comment. If the C-levels are still getting massive chunks of equity with tiny strike prices while you get 0.01% and a 90-day post-termination exercise window and a massive AMT bill, then this talk of a "mission" is vacuous and likely a diversion from the fact that you as the employee are being under-compensated.
sp527 7y ago
Saying that a VC-funded startup can provide the same experience as Bell Labs or Xerox Parc is a tremendous false equivalency. Some exceptions might resemble those R&D behemoths. Most will not because VC - with its attendant growth expectations - is antithetical to “tinkering” (a great word another commenter here used). And good luck picking the exceptions as a potential employee when every such startup has a reality distortion field. I can assure you you’re more likely to end up somewhere run by an Elizabeth Holmes type, who can sell you a compelling narrative that will ultimately flatline. Employees have no window into the reality of a startup from the outside. Very often they don’t get to see that much more on the inside either.
est31 7y ago
Where do former Bell labs people like Yossi Matias, Sean Quinlan, Sean Dorward, Rob Pike or Ken Thompson work now? Hint: It's not a no-name startup. This gives you a list of the subset tracked by Wikidata: https://query.wikidata.org/#SELECT%20%3Fhuman%20%3Femployers%20%3FemployersLabel%20%3Fgiven_nameLabel%20%3Ffamily_nameLabel%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%3Fhuman%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ5%3B%0A%20%20%20%20wdt%3AP108%20wd%3AQ217365%3B%0A%20%20%20%20wdt%3AP108%20%3Femployers%3B%0A%20%20%20%20wdt%3AP735%20%3Fgiven_name.%0A%20%20%3Fhuman%20wdt%3AP734%20%3Ffamily_name.%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22%5BAUTO_LANGUAGE%5D%2Cfr%2Car%2Cbe%2Cbg%2Cbn%2Cca%2Ccs%2Cda%2Cde%2Cel%2Cen%2Ces%2Cet%2Cfa%2Cfi%2Che%2Chi%2Chu%2Chy%2Cid%2Cit%2Cja%2Cjv%2Cko%2Cnb%2Cnl%2Ceo%2Cpa%2Cpl%2Cpt%2Cro%2Cru%2Csh%2Csk%2Csr%2Csv%2Csw%2Cte%2Cth%2Ctr%2Cuk%2Cyue%2Cvec%2Cvi%2Czh%22.%20%7D%0A%7D https://query.wikidata.org/#SELECT%20%3Fhuman%20%3Femployers... A bit of processing gives stats on how often each employer appears: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/est31/d299c473c694700144b8e1323071889f/raw/3f14117ed275437728aaa323b4923c85888d51e6/gistfile1.txt https://gist.githubusercontent.com/est31/d299c473c694700144b...

ssorallen 7y ago

A mission and a reasonable distribution of equity with fair terms do not need to be mutually exclusive, that's how I read the original comment. If the C-levels are still getting massive chunks of equity with tiny strike prices while you get 0.01% and a 90-day post-termination exercise window and a massive AMT bill, then this talk of a "mission" is vacuous and likely a diversion from the fact that you as the employee are being under-compensated.

sp527 7y ago

Saying that a VC-funded startup can provide the same experience as Bell Labs or Xerox Parc is a tremendous false equivalency. Some exceptions might resemble those R&D behemoths. Most will not because VC - with its attendant growth expectations - is antithetical to “tinkering” (a great word another commenter here used). And good luck picking the exceptions as a potential employee when every such startup has a reality distortion field. I can assure you you’re more likely to end up somewhere run by an Elizabeth Holmes type, who can sell you a compelling narrative that will ultimately flatline. Employees have no window into the reality of a startup from the outside. Very often they don’t get to see that much more on the inside either.

est31 7y ago

Where do former Bell labs people like Yossi Matias, Sean Quinlan, Sean Dorward, Rob Pike or Ken Thompson work now? Hint: It's not a no-name startup. This gives you a list of the subset tracked by Wikidata: https://query.wikidata.org/#SELECT%20%3Fhuman%20%3Femployers%20%3FemployersLabel%20%3Fgiven_nameLabel%20%3Ffamily_nameLabel%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%20%20%3Fhuman%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ5%3B%0A%20%20%20%20wdt%3AP108%20wd%3AQ217365%3B%0A%20%20%20%20wdt%3AP108%20%3Femployers%3B%0A%20%20%20%20wdt%3AP735%20%3Fgiven_name.%0A%20%20%3Fhuman%20wdt%3AP734%20%3Ffamily_name.%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22%5BAUTO_LANGUAGE%5D%2Cfr%2Car%2Cbe%2Cbg%2Cbn%2Cca%2Ccs%2Cda%2Cde%2Cel%2Cen%2Ces%2Cet%2Cfa%2Cfi%2Che%2Chi%2Chu%2Chy%2Cid%2Cit%2Cja%2Cjv%2Cko%2Cnb%2Cnl%2Ceo%2Cpa%2Cpl%2Cpt%2Cro%2Cru%2Csh%2Csk%2Csr%2Csv%2Csw%2Cte%2Cth%2Ctr%2Cuk%2Cyue%2Cvec%2Cvi%2Czh%22.%20%7D%0A%7D https://query.wikidata.org/#SELECT%20%3Fhuman%20%3Femployers... A bit of processing gives stats on how often each employer appears: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/est31/d299c473c694700144b8e1323071889f/raw/3f14117ed275437728aaa323b4923c85888d51e6/gistfile1.txt https://gist.githubusercontent.com/est31/d299c473c694700144b...