From the article: "Many engineers drop out of college or leave comfortable jobs at Google to join startups as early employees dreaming about huge upsides, fame, and romance of working for a startup."
I don't know many folks that drop out of college to work at a startup, that could be a sacrifice. But I do know plenty who dropped out of Big-Tech. If the startup fails, they can almost certainly get their cosy big-tech job back. So all their are giving up is a year or two salary differential for a few years in exchange for a lotto ticket. That isn't much of a sacrifice, it's more of a trade.
I don't know many folks that drop out of college to work at a startup, that could be a sacrifice. But I do know plenty who dropped out of Big-Tech. If the startup fails, they can almost certainly get their cosy big-tech job back. So all their are giving up is a year or two salary differential for a few years in exchange for a lotto ticket. That isn't much of a sacrifice, it's more of a trade.