Title: I work at a startup in silicon valley. Most of my colleagues spend a lot of hours at the office--usually at least 12hr days. I know most of these people (including myself) could make substantially more money working at a more established company and that our options are unlikely to be worth more than the salary we will have &quot;sacrificed&quot; by the time an exit opportunity comes along. Now, the reason I&#x27;m at a startup is to learn about doing a startup. But I think most of my peers have zero entrepreneurial ambition. There&#x27;s also a shortage of engineering talent. So.. why are you breaking your back working on someone else&#x27;s dream (and potential fortune) when the incentives (as far as I can tell) don&#x27;t warrant it? If you love hacking, why not keep bank hours at the office and work on your own projects outside of that? I used to buy into the myth that bigger companies that pay proper salaries are like working for some soul-destroying 1960s IBM corporate mediocrity. But now I have friends at bigger companies--the difference seems to be that they have unlimited resources, big annual bonuses, nicer office furniture and less pressure. Otherwise we work on very similar things. Maybe you like to &quot;stay hungry&quot;... well, why not do your own startup instead of staying hungry working on something that will make a handful of people (not including yourself) very rich? I apologize if this comes across as confrontational--that&#x27;s not my intention. I&#x27;m more just kind of baffled, and I assume I&#x27;m missing something, hence the ask. Thanks.
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