from http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html: > You know from an early age that you'll have some sort of job, because everyone as

from http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html: > You know from an early age that you'll have some sort of job, because everyone asks what you're going to "be" when you grow up. What they don't tell you is that as a kid you're sitting on the shoulders of someone else who's treading water, and that starting working means you get thrown into the water on your own, and have to start treading water yourself or sink. "Being" something is incidental; the immediate problem is not to drown. > The relationship between work and money tends to dawn on you only gradually. At least it did for me. One's first thought tends to be simply "This sucks. I'm in debt. Plus I have to get up on monday and go to work." Gradually you realize that these two things are as tightly connected as only a market can make them. > So the most important advantage 24 year old founders have over 20 year old founders is that they know what they're trying to avoid. To the average undergrad the idea of getting rich translates into buying Ferraris, or being admired. To someone who has learned from experience about the relationship between money and work, it translates to something way more important: it means you get to opt out of the brutal equation that governs the lives of 99.9% of people. Getting rich means you can stop treading water. Paul Graham is popular because he points out that if you go to work for someone else, you're likely to have a decent lifestyle, but unlikely to ever be able to save enough money to be able to stop working and still live decently, because the principal beneficiary of your hard work and ingenuity will be your employer. Paul recommends that you start your own high-tech company and thereby drastically increase your chances to be free. This message is attractive to smart young men who value freedom. Ron Paul is popular because he points out that if you go to work in the United States, you're likely to have a decent lifestyle, but unlikely to ever be able to save enough money to be able to stop working and still live decently, because the principal beneficiary of your hard work and ingenuity will be your government. Government will take an increasingly large percentage of your income as you earn more and it will devalue the money you do manage to save. Furthermore it will tempt you to borrow money in order to make you indebted. All of three of these methods (income tax, inflation, and artificial easy credit) are designed to encourage you to work steadily for the government for life. Paul recommends that you fire your existing politician and elect someone who will end the income tax, inflation, and the federal reserve and thereby drastically increase your chances to be free. This message is attractive to smart young men who value freedom but also to a lot of other people who can't realistically found their own high-tech startup but still want to be free.