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There's an incredibly important climax: "[T]he real disillusionment isn’t the discovery that you’re unlikely to become a billionaire; it’s the realization that
by mattlutze 13y ago
There's an incredibly important climax:
"[T]he real disillusionment isn’t the discovery that you’re unlikely to become a billionaire; it’s the realization that your feeling of autonomy is a fantasy, and that the vast majority of you have been set up to fail by design."
The story is a sober, measured portrait of the purpose of the SF millstone. It's told through the weight of the exhausted angst in two entrepreneurs, but its a message to the masses dreaming of a glamor that masks the new face of corporate R&D. While not novel, the important lessons and insights need to be told more than once, and this is a well-written telling.
- chetanahuja 13y agoOnce again, I'm struck by the sheer weight of cynicism here. Having worked at companies big and small, startups and behemoths, and now having founded my own startup, the feeling of autonomy, owning your own destiny, is very very real. That is not to say that many startups don't go down in flames and cause pain to founders and employees. But the implication that all founders are naive fools being somehow scammed into this lifestyle is patently false (and offensive to me, but I don't expect anybody to care about that part)
- mattlutze 13y agoThe article's audience, I would contend, is not founders or 1st engineers but is the collection of folks that idealize the start-up industry without understanding the economies of it. That you feel insulted by the thesis suggests you're squarely in the former set.