Startup doesn't equate to "awesome work environment" but for some reason people think it does, which ignores a large part of human evolution and psychology. Th

Startup doesn't equate to "awesome work environment" but for some reason people think it does, which ignores a large part of human evolution and psychology. The nice thing about startups is the freedom from legacy and the small program size-- at least in theory. The reality is that multi-programmer single programs ultimately end up with one "blazer" and N-1 chumps who keep up with the blazer's changes. You have to do Unix philosophy small-program development or else almost no one is getting the one Startup Perk that actually matters: high productivity. I would rather be in a corporate R&D lab (if they still existed) than a typical startup. I am fine with upper-middle-class financial mediocrity, but don't make me do mediocre shit. Without having a fundamental sense of how to build an innovative company, all these startups are doing is cargo-culting the trappings of culture. Bingo. I am 29 years old and have already had the experience of getting career-fucking health problems from too much time in an open-plan office. I don't give the square root of a fuck about foosball tables and other diversions. At 8:30, I am at home with my wife, not playing XBox with co-workers. From my perspective, videogames peaked during Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, and Terranigma. Valve figured it out and focused on the one Perk actually worth giving a shit about: autonomy.