[deanmoriarty]

I am in a similar predicament and heavily conflicted. Mid 30s, at FAANG, making ~$1M/yr liquid for the past few years, a net worth of ~$5M liquid in Vanguard ETFs, and have an offer for a very popular AI "startup" you all know, and I am not able to understand if the risk (illiquidity of my offer) and quality of life hit (longer hours, worse commute, higher stress) are worth the tradeoff.

On one hand, I am thinking that I really have no choice other than joining the opportunity presented in front of me, life in tech is either a constant uncomfortable growth and grind or I'll be left behind, there is really no "let's keep my current situation constant in my relatively cushy role".

On the other hand, I am so tempted to not disrupt my life until an external force does it for me (layoff etc) because things are, relatively speaking, going well for me.

Finally, since you mentioned seed etc, I would never, right now, start my own thing, but that's just me and my current circumstances.

[VirusNewbie]

damn, very impressive. As I was reading your post I think the only thing that could tempt me away from a 1M a year job might be an offer from OpenAI, and sure enough it sounds like you have that option.

>"and quality of life hit (longer hours, worse commute, higher stress) are worth the tradeoff."

Looking back, the hours I put in were never the largest factor in my happiness, it's always been having a cool boss, having interesting problems to solve and having engaged coworkers that mattered most. YMMV.

"there is really no "let's keep my current situation constant in my relatively cushy role".

I don't know if that's true, if you're willing to take a (huge) pay cut. There are probably a ton of small companies that would take for a modest salary and some stock options that may or may not pay off, even if you were going to put in 30 hours a week or something.