This story sounds not too different from a story a typical programmer would write about 5-7 years ago working for a company like Electronic Arts. The pay would

This story sounds not too different from a story a typical programmer would write about 5-7 years ago working for a company like Electronic Arts. The pay would be MEH. The bonus would come in only post launch, and it's all based on the success of the game (no matter how you worked, if the game is shit, it won't matter). And somehow everyone was convinced this was the right way to go about things. This is/was also frequently true of startups. In fact my founder did this sort of working binges. You may say "BUT she owns the company" and I say "yeah, but at the same time the chances of a big exit (we didn't get a Instagram exit) are really really small, not to mention the failure rate. I also worked full time and had a startup on the site (which failed) for like 6 months. And somehow I convinced myself it was all worth it. I think the moral of this story is: No matter the industry... ITS NOT WORTH IT!