Was scratching my head at the claim that both tech and startups being uncool and non-conformist until he mentioned he went to Yale and it made sense. I can see

Was scratching my head at the claim that both tech and startups being uncool and non-conformist until he mentioned he went to Yale and it made sense. I can see tech being uncool for Ivy League/tier-1 university students who, particularly in the aughts, were tracking into consulting and finance. That was "cool"/"conformist". But these takes aren't relevant to you if you're not part of that elite milieu. In the aughts, after only attending community college for a while, I started my tech career; specifically in early stage startups. And, to be honest, I felt more like a square than a non-conformist. For me it was pretty simple: I liked programming computers. The easiest places to get hired to program computers were early stage startups. Early stage startups give you a bunch of personal latitude towards programming. When I was young, this freedom made up for the downsides (lower pay, inexperienced business operators, employment volatility, etc)