> And for much of my 20s, I worked long hours anyway—but others benefited financially from whatever I did, not me. This is not true, unless Livingston was not

> And for much of my 20s, I worked long hours anyway—but others benefited financially from whatever I did, not me. This is not true, unless Livingston was not paid. An accurate statement would have been "I worked long hours anyway—but others benefited more financially from whatever I did." But guess what? This is true when you're an employee at a startup too. Founders, executives and investors will almost always have significantly more to gain than you, and their relationships with the company are going to be structured more favorably than yours is. So going to work at a startup is hardly a panacea for folks who can't live with the fact that somebody else is profiting from their labor. > And remember, working isn’t just about making money. It’s also a form of education. And at a startup, you learn a lot faster about how companies work and how to make a great product than at a big company. This isn't necessarily true. Lots of startups are chaotic and highly dysfunctional. And many don't produce great products. Depending on the type of startup you go to work for, you may exit the experience with a whole lot less in the way of transferable skills than you expect. > ...having to explain to crackpots why their mutual fund account went down that day. Tangent: I'm really surprised at what's coming out in some of the recent writings of people associated with YC. It's unfortunate that some folks who have money in mutual funds don't understand how they work, but the use of the word "crackpot" here is as unjustifiably contemptuous as claiming that "most people are very lazy"[1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8858942 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8858942