[Bahamut]

I seriously thought about taking one of the big $ offers and doing just that. I had left a startup within the past few weeks then, and was seriously burnt out of 60-80 hour weeks, heavy dose of blame abuse, & product cycles where a sales person could never say no to a customer request.

I ended up taking an offer less than half as much as the top end, but mostly for non-monetary reasons. I came to the conclusion that money wasn't vitally important to me beyond a healthy amount to live comfortably & pay off my debts, and I wanted the flexibility to leave work early, not live in constant pressure to have stories done yesterday, and in general live a more normal life with actual vacation I could take without guilt. It also gave me more freedom to explore software development at my own desire, as there is always more to learn and improve on.

I may start a company in the future, or enter the grind again, but for now I'm happier spending time with friends and enjoying the fruits of my labor. I'm a bit wary of immature startups now though, since many of them are their own brand of mental torture due to large oversights in managing people capital.