[marssaxman]

"There are so many ways to make a dent in the world", he says, but fails to suggest any.

So what if the startup thing isn't all it's cracked up to be? It's still better than the alternative. What else are you going to do? Go waste your time in a big corporation learning how to withstand endless, meaningless tedium?

If you're young you can probably afford to take some risk, so go take some risk! Take a shot at accomplishing something cool. The big boring corporations will always be there. If your startup experience sucks, so what? You're still better off than you'd have been if you'd spent the time playing small cog in a big machine.

[Zimahl]

There are plenty of small to medium sized business where you get to learn and have an impact. I tend to favor those - I have the autonomy to contribute without the overhead of 6 different managers.

[michaelochurch]

Honestly, my observation is that there's nothing out there that "gives you" that opportunity. You have to make it. Fight for it. Steal time if you must. The idealized university-like company that makes you more productive as a part of it than you would be with 100% freedom over your time is, at this point, an extreme rarity. The basic-research labs have been pretty much shut down.

The problem with shitty startups is that they mislead people into believing that they're opening so many doors that it's worth letting the networking and independent skill building (each of which should get 10 hours per week; ideally that's out-of-work but do it at the expense of your day job if necessary-- fire up a MOOC during a workday lull; diversify) go to slack. Then, they pass four years of 60-hour weeks only to find that the executive-level or research (everyone wants to be an executive or in R&D; either controlling others or free from control) roles promised them were given to new hires or don't exist, and they realize they've wasted 4 years of their lives.

The lesson isn't "never work for startups" because there are great startups and (obviously) awful big-company jobs. It's "don't believe the hype and let your networking and independent learning go to hell". You only go all-in as a founder, not as some subordinate employee. The latter is just stupid; but you see it all the time.

[roskilli]

I agree, the whole post seems to be written by someone writing a sad and sullen reflection of their last decade or two.

I think having a mix of both startups and high profile tech companies in one's CV is great backing to do your own startup, enter contracting or find yourself in a challenging and stimulating career job at your employer of choice.

I think the article makes some good points about potential bad eggs in the startup world but is not a balanced true representation of the landscape.