Also, such companies offer alternative roads to personal success, like climbing up the corporate ladder and getting wealthy with stock options. Probably not all bad, especially if you can identify with the corporation's vision and feel you're doing something useful.
Did you read the full article, including the para "At YC, we’ve often noticed a problem with founders that have spent a lot of time working at Google or Facebook."?
When people get used to a comfortable life, a predictable job, and a reputation of succeeding at whatever they do, it gets very hard to leave that behind
I think that there's a sampling bias here; in fact, that bias is even pointed out in the paragraph: > At YC, we’ve often noticed a problem with founders.... I.e., this is an observation about FAANG employees who become YC founders.
But the fact is, very few of those drive/motivated Google/Facebook employees leave and become YC founders. So this observation is an observation about a very small subset of the people who choose to stay at GoogleFacebook.
I know a lot of people at the FAANGs who are there because they are primarily motivated by technical and scientific problems. The FAANGs -- and esp their research divisions -- are exceptionally good places to work for people who get meaning and fulfillment from technical excellence.
Also, such companies offer alternative roads to personal success, like climbing up the corporate ladder and getting wealthy with stock options. Probably not all bad, especially if you can identify with the corporation's vision and feel you're doing something useful.