HN is certainly full of plenty of disclosures and comments about that pitfalls of startups and success. (And things like what you just said above as if you are going to tell people to drop out of college or something..) But yet people will always focus on what they want to see, just like in a casino, which is the winners (that's why the machines make noise). On HN, TC etc. the bells are always ringing and the effect is quite clear. And obviously in the traditional media as well. Everybody wants to be a superstar. And thinks they can be a superstar or should have been a superstar. People apologetically talk about how they have chosen to be happy instead with their little "lifestyle" business and every now and then people acknowledge that that's ok.
This is really no different than what happens in any industry which is a pyramid. Entertainment, sports as two examples.
People have to take reality into account when making life decisions. But I can see how difficult that is now that there are more examples that younger people can see of people their age being great successes.
Added: "great successes" meaning the typical trappings of success even if that means just getting funded or even picked for YC.
It's really interesting how people corner themselves into false dichotomies.
Why limit yourself to one thing when you can have it all? Why not go to college, get your degree, then go all in with a startup?
No one says you can't go to a state school if money is your concern. Additionally, I would say actual classroom learning accounted for just about half of what I enjoyed from college. The other half was just meeting all sorts of people with different interests, girls, partying, etc. Different strokes, I guess.
Dropping out has come to mean you will never get a degree because most people only consider college in the first place because they perceive a workplace advantage to having a degree. When they get out into the real world and realize they can live comfortably without one, there is little reason to go back. Someone who loves learning and is in college for reasons not related to future employment is not likely to leave over an idea in the first place.
Because of that, the number of people who leave and then go back is significantly small. Though I think you make good points anyway.
HN is certainly full of plenty of disclosures and comments about that pitfalls of startups and success. (And things like what you just said above as if you are going to tell people to drop out of college or something..) But yet people will always focus on what they want to see, just like in a casino, which is the winners (that's why the machines make noise). On HN, TC etc. the bells are always ringing and the effect is quite clear. And obviously in the traditional media as well. Everybody wants to be a superstar. And thinks they can be a superstar or should have been a superstar. People apologetically talk about how they have chosen to be happy instead with their little "lifestyle" business and every now and then people acknowledge that that's ok.
This is really no different than what happens in any industry which is a pyramid. Entertainment, sports as two examples.
People have to take reality into account when making life decisions. But I can see how difficult that is now that there are more examples that younger people can see of people their age being great successes.
Added: "great successes" meaning the typical trappings of success even if that means just getting funded or even picked for YC.