Comment by jjmaxwell4 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jjmaxwell4 | Hacker News Reader

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Can't things change quite a bit between these years? When your in school, you're broke. Its not weird to eat ramen and work all the time.

But by the time your 22, maybe you got an internship at a cool company, and they're offering you 80k a year. Your getting used to a decent standard of living. Maybe you get recruited by Wall Street and the dangle 140k under your nose. You take the job, and get locked in with the "golden handcuffs". Now your comfortable, and you meet a cute girl, who wants a guy with a steady job, so you never start the company.

Maybe this guy was never really meant to be an entrepreneur; maybe he wanted that comfortable life all along. But when he was 19 he was ready to go.

> There's no rush. Someone who can start a successful startup at 19 can do it as well or better at 22.

I think there is a better chance that he won't start the startup at 22, cause he got a high paying job, and doesn't want to downgrade from his standard of living.

I don't think YC really wants to fund people who would give up on a start up, just because of a 140k/year job. Start ups seem to be a lot of work, and you'd need to be really dedicated to succeed.

In my opinion, people dropping out of school for YC shouldn't be doing it because they see an alternative opportunity - they should be doing it for a variety of other reasons. The mental calculation should not be "I could do a start up and make money now, or I could do 3 more years of school and make 140k/year comfortably." It should be along the lines of, "I know I'll succeed, and I can't wait to do it."

Your right you gotta be dedicated, I just think some of this dedication erodes as you evolve into your mid-20's. People settle and get a little less hungry.

I didn't downvote you, but I don't agree. Age is not a gating factor. You can be hungry at any age.

I think you're both right. There is a strong tendency for people to get comfortable and less hungry as they age. But there's no reason this can't be resisted. Indeed, I've done that myself. :)

Much as I'd like to believe this, I was recently having a discussion with a neuroscience researcher where he talked about this natural phenomenon they've observed. Infants are on this side of the line craving novelty and mastery while aged folks are on the opposite end with comfort and familiarity. Everyone else lies sequentially in between.

That made a lot of sense to me. No doubt we can override it but...this kind of predisposition does place restrictions that one may not otherwise account for.

Plus, what better time than NOW!

I say this as I study for midterms

There is nothing special about the mid-20s that makes you less hungry, biologically. It's just cultural: in our culture, it's typical to be settled into a way of life by your 20s or 30s. That doesn't put up a real roadblock unless you let it. The research you're talking about wouldn't, I'm guessing, contradict this.

Well I was more focusing on the effect than the cause since this is a cause in the current context (i.e. lack of 'hunger').

But yeah, most of it IS probably driven by culture. That said, I'm sure there are some biological intricacies too. Something like x years after puberty your brain starts to want more of the same things - something that would definitely help in establishing a stable lifestyle and child rearing.

Absolutely agree.

In my 20's I was completely certain that I would be successful without hard work as I was smart & talented. After a decade of that imagined success not materialising I am far hungrier, more determined and working harder now than I have ever been before.

Same here. At 29 I've finally internalized the reality that nothing valuable comes easily. Dreams and goals don't accomplish themselves.

Right now, I'm working my ass off to do a software craftsmanship apprenticeship. It has taken time to develop the maturity to be content to focus on what I need to do today and not worry about when, where, and how the hard work will pay off.

If anyone's in the startup business solely because they think they will make a bunch of money they will find out very quickly that they should be going for the plushy job instead.

the people willing to drop out and try to succeed on their own are also willing to fail, over and over again (dropping out of school being a pretty big failure in itself), until we get it right. i don't think people should be naive and think that they are going to find success out of the gate just because they want to succeed on their own.

Better idea: Drop out of high school to go to college. Then start your business at 19 after graduating.

And how, exactly, are you going to get into college without a high-school diploma?

It's really not that difficult. For formality's sake you could pick up a GED, but I think most colleges don't have a HS diploma as a strict requirement and would waive it if they did (assuming some evidence you're ready).

EDIT: I speak for the USA only.

USA: I got into collage at 14 by just taking an entrance exam, never needed a GED. No one will stop you form going to collage, you just need to pass exams.

Another data point: I started college in the US at 14 as well without a GED or high school diploma. There weren't really any safe-guards to prevent this.

I know a guy who started Oxford at 15, so it's apparently possible in the UK as well.

He calls it one of the greatest mistakes of his life, though, so it sounds like mileage may vary.

Care to share why he thinks that way?

Maybe because you are younger than all of your peers and you end up missing out many things because of it.

I totally understand him, I also felt the same way. But now I am on a good track in life so I would not call it a mistake. We all take different paths.

You could probably drop out, get a GED, go to community college for 2 years, and then transfer to the school that'll give you a 4 year degree.

With that said, I think some states have different rules in terms of what age you're allowed to drop out at. For example, Illinois requires students to be 17 years of age (and receive parental consent, of course) to drop out. At that point you're better off just finishing high school. even if you want to rapidly track into college.

I applied for early admission to UNM. I applied fairly late (I don't remember if there was an explicit deadline, but if so I was before it) and hadn't heard back by the first day of my senior year of high school. I called the admissions office at lunch from the high school, and they said, "Sorry to have not gotten back to you in time. You've got good letters of recommendation and you already have six credit hours at UNM with a 4.0 GPA. We're going to admit you."

I told people at the high school goodbye, left before the end of the day, and never went back to that fucking place.

That's how I did it. Your mileage may vary.

Aside from what others have suggested, I went to a college called Simon's Rock which accepts mostly high school sophomores. I don't have a single close friend who didn't get into college without a high school diploma.

And before you ask, our admissions are close to 100%, and our academics are some of the best in the country.

Hey, fellow SRCer! (does that acronym still apply?)

Lots of colleges have early admission. I met all the qualifications to go to college after my junior year of high school, without a HS diploma, but I didn't find that out until my Senior year.

Was pretty pissed off at my guidance counselor for not telling me!

> But by the time your 22 [...] Your getting used to a decent standard of living.

Get off my lawn!

Seriously, though, from my late-30s-with-a-young-family perspective, if being 22 with a girlfriend and an internship is enough to stop you chasing your dreams, then they weren't really your dreams after all.

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