I have read that book; Its definition of a startup was affiliate marketing or selling courses on selling. There was few examples of real businesses like Coffeeshops or a Photographer but I don't think we consider those startups.
I got into programming because of my love of video games. Unfortunately/Luckily, I couldn't get a job in game industry immediately out of college. As I started reading online forum about game dev, I realized almost every corporate game developer complained about it. I was no longer thinking making video games as one of the best job in the world.
I understand when you are sole developer or owner of the studio who is burning midnight oil. I have done that on some of my projects. But I could never understand how people would give up their lives to make someone else's dream come true for average compensation.
I still love video games but now I try to play good indie games and hardly ever play anything from big studios.
For me symptom were extremely severe over several weeks. In end, I could quit coffee for good.
Recently, I had some stomach troubles and doctor told me to cutback or completely stop drinking coffee to help stomach heal.
I decided to go cold turkey. Figured it would speed up recovery. A bad mistake. Headaches and irritation was easy to control and disappeared within couple of days. But my body is so dependent on caffeine. I had constipation, I could not motivate myself to go workout in evenings, I felt the world was moving at different pace than me. I just felt all sorts of wrong and I keep on thinking it was just a pace it pass soon.
Finally, I could not take it. Went back to drinking as much coffee as I needand life is great now.
"but now I realize that there is a large group of people out there who simply don't care about food that much."
This. I used to be a member of this group. In college and early twenties, I had friends who didn't care about food.
Now most of my friends only focus seems to be food, how to eat it properly, how much to eat, where to eat, what is healthy. It is frustrating sometimes but it is hard to find friends in mid 30s who are into playing sports, bars, pool, and video games as much as me.
I am not sure that genetics & weight have that a big effect on weight but a lot of people use it to justify their weight.
I say this based on my observation and because today I find out I am at risk of obesity (based on this study), yet I slightly overweight.
In my personal circle, I have a lot of overweight friends and like hanging out with them. Some of them are always talking about losing weight, 10K steps, and other diet fads. And some have given up, I guess.
But sometimes it is difficult to eat/hangout with them. Overweight friends who want to lose weight will want to go to healthy restaurant. Then they will get footlong sub with every possible thing at counter. Oh and of course, diet soda and chips. How does it make any sense? I have to bite my lips to stay quiet.
And then other overweight friends/arrogant normal-weight friends, who will only want to eat buffets. And make fun of you if you don't get second refill. Apparently, you have to eat a lot to proof you are a man.
My biggest problem with food is people's obsession with talking about it. I can't help but feel that people make it such a huge deal about how much/little/what people eat that we're creating food issues in children that might otherwise not have it.
I am glad that finally Amazon's work environment is finally getting exposure. We had a few colleagues who worked for Amazon and they called it a sweatshop of IT world. Because of them, I have turned down recruiters from Amazon many times and stopped my friends from applying there.
Hopefully, Amazon will change their workplace policies now or suffer stock price decline when smart people stop applying there.
