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> and starting your career in your 20s without an inherently marketable skill is terrifying for most people

Not as terrifying as starting your career in your 40s without an inherently marketable skill because 20s and 30s were spent playing video games...

But you get some points for being mature because you're no longer the type to get drunk on weeknights and call in sick to work. This isn't always deserved though.

>Men seem more likely to do this than women because of the societal pressures on them to get a job and run the rat race of dating and climbing a nonexistent corporate ladder.

Women also have more options.

Like marry into money? If that's your point, it's not going to be valid much longer the way things are going, with women dominating more and more of the middle- and upper-middle-class jobs (glass ceiling problem notwithstanding).

I love how the first conclusion you jump to is "marrying into money". Really? You know that there are plenty of single-earner households outside of SF/SV, NYC, and the other tech hubs, right? (That aren't rich, if that needs to be stressed).

>If that's your point, it's not going to be valid much longer the way things are going, with women dominating more and more of the middle- and upper-middle-class jobs (glass ceiling problem notwithstanding).

White and Asian women*

Step out of your HN bubble for a moment, and try to think about the existence of groups that you don't normally acknowledge. It's "not going to be valid much longer" just because things are changing in the immediate regions that you typically spend time reading about. There's the rest of the country and even the world to take into consideration too.

I think the social penalty of a young man dropping out is lower than a young women because their perceived social value is much lower. It is a lower height to fall from.

The social penalty is called opportunity cost in Economic terms. These men generally don't have big social networks that could have gotten them jobs in the first place, so there isn't much lost when they isolate themselves.

For women, losing their social network is losing a large chunk of their safety net (if they aren't receiving welfare otherwise), so it's almost unfathomable for them to do so of their own accord.

> Men seem more likely to do this than women because of the societal pressures on them to get a job and run the rat race of dating and climbing a nonexistent corporate ladder.

And perhaps because "taking care of themselves" pressure on women is much, much higher.