I think the methodology of Koutnik's argument is defensible, but not necessarily reflective of the actual decision most people go through to work that 40th-80th

I think the methodology of Koutnik's argument is defensible, but not necessarily reflective of the actual decision most people go through to work that 40th-80th marginal hour. As others have noted, equity helps with recruiting...especially when the employer provides a handy "illustrative" table of how much that 0.5% slice will be worth, fully vested, at a variety of valuations. Once people sign the dotted line and are full-time employees, however, I think the following is a more accurate depiction of how people think through the "work over weekend" decision: - Will refusal get me fired or decrease my opportunities to work on things that are important to this company? - If so, how bad are those outcomes? If you haven't even hit your vesting cliff, leaving feels like it would be pretty bad -- both for the loss of shares and for how it'll look on your CV -- not gonna be fun fielding questions about why you left Wuzz.ly after only seven months when you're interviewing for either a new job or funding for your own venture. In addition to the gravitational effects on one's psyche of anticipating financial loss and unpleasant future conversations, there's something else at play: many young engineers (not all, but many) have never experienced anything approximating real, painful failure -- and are terrified of it. They've glided from top of their high school class to StanCalMIT Mellon, have been wooed by multiple employers at several points in their still-young lives, and have inferred from that experience that if a job doesn't work out, they've done something wrong. This aversion to "staining the white tuxedo", as Conan O'Brien once put it, ultimately holds back their potential.