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Comment by mattmaroon | Hacker News Reader

I definitely agree having been through it. It wouldn't be worth doing very much without the moving.

I don't see family as much of an excuse. Can you really not get away for three months? It's not that long.

Of course anyone can get away for three months. I, however, simply don't want to leave my family for that long. I completely understand that some, perhaps many/most people, wouldn't give it a second thought. But that is just not how I choose to live my life at this point in time. I think it is a very personal question.

Also, I don't see why it is so black or white. A couple nights a week is more on the line for me, and that still seems like a significant amount of face-to-face time. When you add to that online community tools (which I presume exist), I would guess a dedicated person could go along way into complete integration into the group.

I agree. To join YC in summer '07, I moved with my wife and a set of two-year-old twins to Cambridge from Vancouver for four months.

We had great memories of Cambridge and thought it was worth it.

Not all families can just pick up and move for four months without significant consequences, e.g. the loss of spouse's job.

But many families can get by with one of the parents being out of town for the better part of three months.

"I don't see family as much of an excuse."

For me, it's not an excuse, it is a reason. And I can't think of a better one.

On the raw happiness scale, my family has a better ROI than anything else I've done. Including founding three startups.

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