Why Paul Graham Says a Startup Job Is Better Than a Big Company

Startups nowadays are often Ponzi schemes in favour of the founders. Most startups don't make employees rich; in fact it's usually worse than an established company in terms of conditions and salary. We are far from the idealised startups from the early 2000s.

Now it can be an interesting experience (if you don't burn out, which is frequent). Most of the time you will be on your own technically (or surrounded by inexperienced people), which means that you get to touch a lot of stuff, but at the same time you don't get much (if any) mentoring.

My advice would be to join a startup early in your career (at a point where you are ready to sacrifice the working conditions in favour of an interesting experience). Maybe a couple years in an established company right after graduating would make sense though, to see a functioning company before going into the chaos of a startup.

Getting older, there is probably fewer reasons to join a startup (unless you found it and go for the Ponzi in your favour, that is).

> "You need people willing to jump in and build the future, and startups inherently self-select for this,"

Of course he would say this, as a VC.

Tobacco companies claim that smoking is perfectly fine for your health!

I love that when they make this statement, they're linking to Twitter:

> Working for big companies might be "safer," the investor shared on X ...

Where Twitter, in the news:

Elon Musk says he’s cut about 80% of Twitter’s staff https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/tech/elon-musk-bbc-interview-...

That is great subtle dig at the "safety" of working for big companies.

"Machine That Eats Idiots 'Requires More Sacrifices', Says Machine Operator"