[junwonapp]

"Want to get to point X? Visit point Y first!"

Just go to point X directly. Too many people shy away from their dreams and delay, because they want to learn first, practice first, and get ready before the real adventure. You will never deplete "more things to learn". You are only depleting your lifetime. And no matter how close working at a startup is to working on a startup, it will never be as close to it as itself.

If you need to save up some money or take care of any other blockers first for your own safety, fine. If there is a great company working on a great problem that you are excited by, great. But if you want to start a new company, then working at a startup is not a practice for starting a new startup. It is a practice for working at a startup and a practice for wasting another day of your life not living the way you really want to live.

[hnuser52395]

The reality requires balance. For example, in university courses, prerequisites are required and enforced for good reason.

People try all the time to learn calculus with a weak foundation in precalculus, and they really struggle unnecessary. People also try to learn physics with a weak foundation in mathematics, with similar results. I would argue that the same is true for software development. You can develop bad habits (e.g. not using a style guide at all) by not doing initial prep work first first.

I agree that some people put things off indefinitely and end up in "tutorial hell," and for them it's better to err to going right to doing. But it's not always the case, and sometimes educational opportunities (e.g. getting work experience before starting a company) can really increase your skills.

[ignoramous]

> The reality requires balance.

Agreed.

> ...university courses, prerequisites are required and enforced for good reason.

Perhaps, but see also this article and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32497780

> I would argue that the same is true for software development.

One can learn best practices without having to work at a startup / tech shop / MANGA. Besides, software development isn't the only skill required, there's likely a lot to learn but not enough time. With most upstarts, timing is more crucial than most other learnable factors, because you can never rollback time.

[m463]

I like this idea. It might be like the best exercise for sport x is to play sport x.

And if you fail, you already worked at a startup (by founding it)