On: Ask YC: Why would someone leave his/her cushy job to join a startup?

[edw519]

So you're saying I shouldn't leave the cushy job I hate to do what I really want with the one live I have because there's a possibility of failure?

[tptacek → edw519]

No, I'm saying that when you leave the job you hate, you should consider options other than the one least likely to succeed. And I'm saying "consider", not "do", and I consider that an antidote to your flowery evangelism --- no offense intended, the world needs both flowery evangelists and cynical assholes.

[ericb → tptacek]

Your counter-argument has merit, but I'd like to add that, at least in my case, failure adds a small amount of regret, but not trying adds TONS.

[webwright → ericb]

Brilliantly put.

[0x28aa1f185a6b4 → ericb]

I have experienced tons of regret from putting too much into a dying startup. It is more than possible.

[edw519 → tptacek]

Cool.

I've been accused of many things, but "flowery evangelism"? lol More data to support the argument that creativity can come from misery. I was using language to try to convey the level of misery I have endured in "cushy" jobs.

You are absolutely right about the odds. But I don't care. I am aware of them, but at a certain point, I just put them in the back of my mind and plow on. In my case, keeping those odds in background just makes me work that much harder.

The world also needs both illogical achievers and comfortable conformists.

[tptacek → edw519]

Hey, I hear you; I'm 3 years into the last company I founded, and the only BigCo I've ever worked for bought the 10 person startup I had been working at. I see the attraction. But startup life has also kicked the shit out of me for almost 15 years.

[petercooper → tptacek]

People are not logic-driven automatons. We do things because feel it "from the gut" or simply because we like the sound of something. We don't make all of our decisions in a calculated, mathematical way.

Humanity would not be as advanced as it is if people worked in the way you suggest. We wouldn't have landed on the moon, made it to the South Pole and, I suspect, have barely made it out of the cave..

[tptacek → petercooper]

What does this even mean? Plenty of advancements have come from large companies, well-run and not.

[petercooper → tptacek]

I was talking, like you, about personal decisions. Admittedly I should probably have used "thought" rather than "worked" in my last line, as it perhaps implied working in a corporation limits risk, which isn't true.

You said "I'm saying that when you leave the job you hate, you should consider options other than the one least likely to succeed."

You are talking about a personal decision. My comment was about why people do not rely entirely on logic for personal decisions (and why they shouldn't), not about the contribution of corporations to society.