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(You work at Google if I remember correctly, right?) Your situation with your employer might be more uncommon throughout the rest of the world as you think. Si

by edanm 14y ago

(You work at Google if I remember correctly, right?) Your situation with your employer might be more uncommon throughout the rest of the world as you think. Silicon Valley has a huge shortage of good hackers, but the rest of the world isn't quite as programmer friendly as all that. It's still very good for programmers, but not as good as some posts would have you believe. In any case, you are of course correct that there is no single "best" vehicle for hackers to become wealthy. But 5 years ago, starting a startup was the only way I knew about or considered seriously. The same is true of some friends today. I'm just happy the word is out that: a) startups fail, a LOT, and b) there are other ways of making large sums of money, including just being a highly-compensated employee.

nostrademons 14y ago
I suspect that that's because startups are the mostly highly-visible and well-publicized path to riches. The other ones are private, and usually if people don't have to reveal their wealth, they don't. I also think that this phenomena of people making a lot of money through non-startup means isn't new, it's that publicity of it is. I have a friend whose dad worked for Wells Fargo in the 70s and then struck off as an independent computer consultant for big enterprises in the 80s and 90s. I asked her how much she thought he made when she was growing up, and she was like "Somewhere between $300-500K/year." And now that all eyes are on Wall Street, people are realizing that fund managers have made multi-millions a year since at least the 1980s. In hindsight, I also think about some of my family friends who owned local businesses - muffler shops, auto-body repair - and they had nice houses and vacation cottages and boats and expensive cars too, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were making in the multi-hundred-K to few millions per year. It just takes The Millionaire Next Door for people to realize that. (Yes, I work at Google. My path is perhaps uncommon, but still very achievable for a lot of people, and I don't think that refutes my overall point.)

by edanm 14y ago

nostrademons 14y ago

I suspect that that's because startups are the mostly highly-visible and well-publicized path to riches. The other ones are private, and usually if people don't have to reveal their wealth, they don't. I also think that this phenomena of people making a lot of money through non-startup means isn't new, it's that publicity of it is. I have a friend whose dad worked for Wells Fargo in the 70s and then struck off as an independent computer consultant for big enterprises in the 80s and 90s. I asked her how much she thought he made when she was growing up, and she was like "Somewhere between $300-500K/year." And now that all eyes are on Wall Street, people are realizing that fund managers have made multi-millions a year since at least the 1980s. In hindsight, I also think about some of my family friends who owned local businesses - muffler shops, auto-body repair - and they had nice houses and vacation cottages and boats and expensive cars too, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were making in the multi-hundred-K to few millions per year. It just takes The Millionaire Next Door for people to realize that. (Yes, I work at Google. My path is perhaps uncommon, but still very achievable for a lot of people, and I don't think that refutes my overall point.)