[ironchef]

What's wrong with 9 to 5ing, learning more, and doing your own thing on your own time for a while. There's NOTHING wrong with that. Don't buy into the romantic notion that you have to give 110% to your startup or it's not worth doing. Pragmatism is ok. Pragmatism is not mediocrity. Don't confuse the two. There's a lot of hyperbole and rhetoric in the startup world. Don't buy into it. Plenty of startups have been launched (and done well) in people's "off time".

[fein]

I'm 26, work a 9-5, then do freelance work in my spare time.

It's heaven. I have 3 jobs right now, one of which is a full time salaried gig with benefits, and the other two are moderate contract positions that I work in my spare time.

There is no stagnation here. I code on easy stuff at work all day, then go home and explore technologies that a BigCo will never use. Down the road when looking for another job, there just won't be big roadblocks, just a massive list of code and projects completed.

[unreal37]

And there's got to be a middle ground, where you could earn some income reliably (freelancing part-time) without being a 9-5'er. 90% business, 10% working for someone else to pay the bills.

[niuzeta]

I am young, just out of university, had a passion for writing, did a major-cs-minor-literature.

Now I do 9 to 5, and write after work. Life is good for me and I am happy because I love my work and after-work.

The purist obsession that you need to be 100% devoted to something is beyond me, but like I said, I am happy and know that I am happy because I knew this would make me happy.

The OP has a different opinion of happiness, and it's his happiness, and I don't find it offensive.

[frenchy]

It's not so much his opinion of happiness, but his looking-down on other opinions of happiness.

[niuzeta]

exactly. that's why I'm rather unsettled by the article. However, I've seen a little too many of young-and-ambitious kinds that I've gotten used to them by now. Whether that's a good thing or bad is not for me, though.