4 ms·
Considering this guy is running a finance/consulting parody website, I have to assume there's a measure of jealousy and regret that the website he is running do
by lmg643 13y ago
Considering this guy is running a finance/consulting parody website, I have to assume there's a measure of jealousy and regret that the website he is running does not have attractive enough characteristics to be let into Y Combinator, although he must swim in some of the same circles as these startups.
The main question I take away from reading this is how the average payout to a young college grad compares on wall street, to the elite VC/startup track, taking away the unquantifiable benefits and focusing on average hard dollars earned.
Of course - that's probably not the comparison to make. Most of PG's stuff was written for technical folks considering entry level technical jobs. I would guess that even considering survivorship bias, the average outcome for elite startup tracks versus entry level tech track is extremely good, considering the jobs it can lead to (would love to hear if otherwise).
It's a little harder to compare for the theoretical econ major from harvard contemplating a wall street track. wall street is not a normal business environment - oligopolistic, heavy regulatory protections - much more like joining a club earning economic rents off capital flows than a group doing much to change the world.
IMHO the main reason people work 100 hour weeks in finance is to prove they are willing to give up everything in their life to make it to the next rung - not because they are doing anything particularly noteworthy or unusual that demands intensive focus. from first hand experience, I've noted most M&A customers have sophisticated in house teams that can run the numbers plenty well on their own, which does raise the question what the six banks typically advising them are doing.
All I can say is - for the average econ major contemplating the future on wall street - it will be really interesting when Amazon (and/or others) decide to take on financial services. regulations can hold them off for a while, but as they eat the rest of the world, it's inevitable hungry eyes will aggressively turn to where the money is (literally) - only a matter of time I'm sure.
Plan accordingly, I say.
- allworknoplay 13y agoTo be clear (from the guy who submitted this), leveraged sellout was an incredibly popular blog that covered wall street from a junior insider's perspective for years. It was generally ironic, but as a friend of mine once asserted, irony is kind of like absolute value -- the more ironic you are about something the more seriously you take it, and it becomes difficult to distinguish the intensity of your irony from real belief at some point. A lot of people (like myself) are still subscribed to this blog, and a lot of people (unlike myself) are still subscribed to an unironic version of its world view.
- lmg643 13y agoi used to read the site. he was an outsider observing finance (the roomate of a bunch of bankers) who launched a popular website instead of following "the path". high point was the book, which came out in 2008 - worst possible timing - and did not sell. bad luck. the same site in 2012 would have been funded for millions ... get some guest authors ... maybe sell to gawker media / huff post / etc ... no book required. with regards to the content - if you take away the "irony" as cover for a legitimate argument, it's still an interesting question to contemplate. for the average econ major (but not CS major), with no edge in technology, compared to the safe average payouts available on wall street, it is probably a bad decision to pursue a tech startup ... which is what makes the parody work.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]