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I'm sure that you can die if you push yourself too hard and don't take care of your body. It's probably not as risky as flying into a war zone, but it's a risk

by pyre 14y ago

I'm sure that you can die if you push yourself too hard and don't take care of your body. It's probably not as risky as flying into a war zone, but it's a risk nonetheless.

mindcrime 14y ago
Yeah, but that's not exactly the same thing. We're all going to die from our bodies breaking down, old age, wear and tear, whatever, someday (car crashes, etc., aside, and assuming some of Ray Kurzweil's more fanciful ideas don't come to fruition soon). But something that stands to "kill you right now" is a bit of a different beast to most of us. And in that regard, Steve is exactly right... put the startup in context: No matter how stressful it is, or what's going on, it's till not life and death in the sense of how most people use that term. My own version of this comes from having been a volunteer firefighter for about a decade.. a period during which I had at least 3 experiences where I came very close to being seriously injured or killed (and was lucky enough to escape all 3 unscathed). I was also a 911 dispatcher during part of that same period, so I spent a lot of time up close and personal with literal "life and death" situations. When you've been there, it changes the way you look at the day in, day out stuff that goes on in business. Yeah, it's important... but it's never that important.
Jun8 14y ago
Absolutely true, here's a story from 2008: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25607064 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25607064
hopeless 14y ago
That's what I was going to say: it's not a mortal danger but we should not ignore the fact that plenty of people have committed suicide after the battling depression brought on by a failed/failing business.
mehulkar 14y ago
The difference is that in one you're pulling the metaphorical trigger on yourself and in the other someone else is.
- stickfigure 14y ago
  Some forms of death may be more romantic than others, but you're still dead.
chc 14y ago
That seems a bit like saying that eating a pie is dangerous because stabbing yourself with the fork can severely wound you. It's true, but since you aren't obligated to stab yourself with a fork when you eat pie, it seems odd to conflate the two. It's a bad decision all on its own.
snowwrestler 14y ago
One of the ways to avoid that fate is to maintain a sense of perspective, as the article author suggests.
stcredzero 14y ago
I recently met a young woman working in the Mission at a tech company in customer support. She has cancer, and she's waiting another month for her health insurance to kick in. The consequences of this stuff could actually be life and death. That said, the risk for most people is quite low.
rio517 14y ago
Yes! I knew a 22 year old developer who had a heart attack. He had a super unhealthy lifestyle, was overweight, ate crap, worked insane hours and was super stressed out. If he was 30 with those habits, he might have, indeed died.

by pyre 14y ago

I'm sure that you can die if you push yourself too hard and don't take care of your body. It's probably not as risky as flying into a war zone, but it's a risk nonetheless.

mindcrime 14y ago

Yeah, but that's not exactly the same thing. We're all going to die from our bodies breaking down, old age, wear and tear, whatever, someday (car crashes, etc., aside, and assuming some of Ray Kurzweil's more fanciful ideas don't come to fruition soon). But something that stands to "kill you right now" is a bit of a different beast to most of us. And in that regard, Steve is exactly right... put the startup in context: No matter how stressful it is, or what's going on, it's till not life and death in the sense of how most people use that term. My own version of this comes from having been a volunteer firefighter for about a decade.. a period during which I had at least 3 experiences where I came very close to being seriously injured or killed (and was lucky enough to escape all 3 unscathed). I was also a 911 dispatcher during part of that same period, so I spent a lot of time up close and personal with literal "life and death" situations. When you've been there, it changes the way you look at the day in, day out stuff that goes on in business. Yeah, it's important... but it's never that important.

Jun8 14y ago

Absolutely true, here's a story from 2008: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25607064 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25607064

hopeless 14y ago

That's what I was going to say: it's not a mortal danger but we should not ignore the fact that plenty of people have committed suicide after the battling depression brought on by a failed/failing business.

mehulkar 14y ago

The difference is that in one you're pulling the metaphorical trigger on yourself and in the other someone else is.

stickfigure 14y ago
Some forms of death may be more romantic than others, but you're still dead.

chc 14y ago

That seems a bit like saying that eating a pie is dangerous because stabbing yourself with the fork can severely wound you. It's true, but since you aren't obligated to stab yourself with a fork when you eat pie, it seems odd to conflate the two. It's a bad decision all on its own.

snowwrestler 14y ago

One of the ways to avoid that fate is to maintain a sense of perspective, as the article author suggests.

stcredzero 14y ago

I recently met a young woman working in the Mission at a tech company in customer support. She has cancer, and she's waiting another month for her health insurance to kick in. The consequences of this stuff could actually be life and death. That said, the risk for most people is quite low.

rio517 14y ago

Yes! I knew a 22 year old developer who had a heart attack. He had a super unhealthy lifestyle, was overweight, ate crap, worked insane hours and was super stressed out. If he was 30 with those habits, he might have, indeed died.