[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.