[oinksoft]

It's fine to say that you feel differently from the author and that you have a thirst for glory, a taste for risk.

Suggesting that running your own business without ambitions of limitless growth ... that putting in a good work week, maintaining your own serious enterprise, and having a balanced life is akin to "retiring at 19"? I find that offensive and out of touch.

I'm not sure what death has to do with all of this. Those of us not at VC-funded startups aren't sitting around twiddling our thumbs. A "don't you know your time is running out?" stance usually implies "you're wasting your time."

Now, of course this is a startup website, so the most worthwhile thing you could be doing is building your startup, right? Shouldn't you spend all your time there? Well, it's also a "hacker" website, and there are ways to make your mark outside of the high-energy startup world. Look at that wonderful interview with the creator of Nginx yesterday -- there's a guy who was just working as a sysadmin, saw his own itch to scratch after a lot of work on Apache httpd, and his software has made a major impact. It probably provides much more value on the whole than do most startups.

[dmor]

The expected value of the authors approach is $0 (Why? because the whole expected value argument for a startup is about additional wealth beyond your salary + dent in universe potential), and it is settling to boot. It's offensive and waste of human potential.

People striving to be average shouldn't be offended when they're told the course they've chosen will never make them extraordinary. It is reality.

[oinksoft]

Indeed, if you view humans as resources (HR!), it's a terrible waste of potential. One less cow in the meat grinder, if you will. I don't measure my value by the thickness of my wallet or the growth of my assets.

And what of the open source technology example? Are those people striving to be average, settling, or wasting their potential? Are they not extraordinary? That's only one of countless world-changing pursuits not focused on growing a business like a tumor, which I've selected because it is quite relevant to this website's users.

[melanie_io]

So, under this reasoning, you are saying all bootstrapped entrepreneurs are average and a waste of life, simply because they choose to go it alone, and not take funding. Hmm, what was that? Something about man, made of out straw...

[dmor]

I'm saying the value will begin to go up as soon as the mindset isn't "30 hours and a good salary". "Expected value" of startups is all about how much money an exit gets you, not the salary you get along the way.

I think its awesome you are self-employed, but as far I am concerned it isn't a startup in the sense I think of them, geared for massive growth.

[sliverstorm]

This exemplifies what bothers me about pieces of the startup community. The focus on building something that can grow as fast as possible and be sold for as much money as possible- with lasting value and long-term prospects of the business not even on the radar. Sometimes it almost tastes like your garden variety scam.

I don't have a problem with growth, or with exits, but I'm not a fan of what I'll call the house-of-cards startup model.

[melanie_io]

Do you think that is a marker for success in life? A photo sharing app 'geared for massive growth'?

[pg]

That's essentially what Facebook is. I'm not sure what you mean by "a marker for success in life," but most people consider Mark Zuckerberg to be successful.

[dstorrs]

I consider Zuckerberg to be rich. As far as I can tell from his and FB's public-facing personas, he's a failure at the things that really matter -- integrity, positive impact on others, respect of peers for anything other than wealth acquisition.

[boise]

it is one marker of success. being utterly and fervently in love with one's work is another, and this may or may not coincide with massive growth. dmor is correct that life is short; given that "making a dent in the universe" is kind of relative (see this excellent piece on our small ness: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4674932) and some times more ego-driven than altruistic, I see no shame in optimizing for happiness in one's lifetime. For some people this may simply mean a decent salary (which may not be an "average" goal for some people), but this was not how I read this piece. The OP appears to have found her own way to do something she loves, profitably and within a short amount of time. This is fantastic. VCs may not want to fund her, and it doesn't look like she wants them to. pg points out businesses like this in his growth essay with no judgment. I wouldn't pass them either.

[jborden13]

One could argue that Facebook's success still remains to be seen. Yes, it captured the masses quickly - but its long term viability has yet to be solidified. It hasn't quite found its business model and the rapid declines of social networks have been well documented. See Myspace...