you, personally, can have a good outcome from working at a startup even if it means that you don't get rich. I agree in theory, but it's actually much harder t

you, personally, can have a good outcome from working at a startup even if it means that you don't get rich. I agree in theory, but it's actually much harder to ensure a career-long pipeline of interesting work than it is to just get rich. Culture isn't stable, especially in VC-istan. So, I would argue that even if you have an interesting job in VC-istan (say, machine learning in an R&D-like environment while your company is flush with cash and management is atypically non-obnoxious) you have a small likelihood of keeping it that way, and you're better off just cashing out if you can. If you can't because you didn't negotiate a decent equity package or because you're a founder who got ruined by VCs, then you lost. VC-istan is all about money. You think your CEO wouldn't make you (not just you; the whole company) do boring work if that's what the market wanted? Of course he would. (Maybe he should; that's another debate.) Personally, I refuse to do boring work unless I am getting the outsized payout. If you're working for money, which 90+ percent of people are because they have no other choice, and you aren't making enough money to buy your freedom and own your life instead of renting it from one boss or the next, then you lost. You will be judged as a failure and your credibility will go to zero. I hate that it is this way, but there is no point of sugarcoating it. I'd rather expose reality for what it is, incite some anger, and get to work fixing the fucker. There's really no better place to do that -- right now -- than at a startup company doing something you believe. Big companies are stable gigs, but designed mostly to keep you in your place (don't make waves, labor unit!) What makes you think startups are different? That you aren't seen as a resource to be exploited? If you work at a closed-allocation startup with MBA culture and VPs of NTWTFK (Non-Techincal-Who-The-Fuck-Knows) out-earning programmers, you get all the negatives of startups and big companies but none of the upsides of either. Here's how to handle the nonsense in the startup world: own your life. If you're a programmer in this world, you're privileged to live in one of the most favorable labor markets in human history. Try changing jobs a few times. The "job hopper" stigma is real because there are out-of-touch pre-dementia patients who still believe that it's a sign of poor character rather than bad luck amid the new reality. When you're 25, no one cares if you have a 6-monther. Try it when you're 35, though.