I don&#x27;t need to have empathy, I have memory. I&#x27;ve been easily as poor as she was.<p>I lived a year and a half in Washington DC on $1000 per month.  My living budget for working on the startup in SF was barely more than that.<p>I don&#x27;t really care to be lectured about stress either.  Living in SF and trying to do a startup was the most stressful part of my life, and at one point my doctor told me if I didn&#x27;t get out I was going to die at 30.  I was the sole technical founder of a startup, and I happened to have severe tendinitis in my forearms, which I had to work through.  I didn&#x27;t have enough money to actually get treatment or go to physical therapy, either.