Ask HN: Why Settle Down? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why Settle Down?

5 pointsQuantumGuy12 comments

I have been on this site for about 6 months now and been a lurker longer. I keep seeing posts about getting hired at startups and posts about freelancing for this or that.Why do people with great programming skills,design skills,etc settle down with a company? If you have great programming ability why not just create apps your whole life or just start startups and bolt? I personally don't like the idea of being tied down(I am about to 19yrs old) so maybe I am not getting something. Can someone please explain why people settle down?

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Perhaps every story is different in some way, but there will be common themes running through them all. I almost feel like your question is really "why might I want to settle down when I'm loving what I'm doing right now?"

Here's the thing though: you don't have to settle down and there's no reason why you should if you don't want to. If you feel better running your own show and make it work, continue doing that.

I'm completely unsold on working on someone else's ideas rather than my own, and I'm not really a fan of being a little worker bee in someone else's business either -- it feels deeply unsatisfying for me. Perhaps this is just how I'm wired up (and, without meaning to mangle Ben Franklin's words), I value freedom over job security. I just can't get excited about the idea of "settling down" with a company.

Try to do what makes you happy if at all possible. If you end up in a situation that's no longer making you happy, work to change it. Bonus points if you can choose the option that makes for the better story.

I am of a similar age(just turned 20) so I do understand your sentiment. However I think what you miss is that in a work environment that is a proper fit the company does not tie you down but rather empowers your ability to do what you want to do. If you have ever seen a work environment where there is a high level of skill, everyone fully believes in what the company is doing, and everyone is pulling in the same direction it really is something incredible.

If what your goal is is to be able to pick up whenever you want, move where ever you want, change what your doing on the drop of a hat then ya joining a company doesn't make sense. But I would argue then you're using programming as a means to a type of lifestyle. I would much rather commit to an idea and team that I believe in and make something special happen.

If your on the same page as the company you are working for then having more man hours, capital, resources and connections made available by the company can only help you do what you want to do better and faster.

If you're 19 everything's still new and exciting. After the novelty wears off, stability and predictability acquire greater value (not least since they free up your mind from day-to-day uncertainties). Same way people have a lot of casual/brief realtionships when they're younger but tend to settle down with a long-term partner later.

Funny, I am often curious from the opposite tack and wonder why some people want to do serial project or freelance work and never join a firm.

Thinking up apps and launching prototypes is fun, sure -- but it's also the easy part if you're a little creative. The hard -- and valuable -- part is growing it into a business, successfully scaling it, building a company, and all that goes with those things.

I think if you looked on average at people who "just start startups and bolt" vs. people who help build startups beyond their first phases, the latter tend to participate more in the equity upside. I can't imagine the appeal of being the former.

To the OP -- you don't actually say why you don't like the idea of being tied down. Can you elaborate?

I like being able to come and go as I please. That's why.

This might seem like a useless comment but trust me, you will not understand this right now no matter how much we try and explain to you. You are 19. When you are 10 years older, you will get some idea. All I will say is that settling down is not necessarily a bad thing and it does not just mean that you settled for less. It is just about priority in life but like I said, at 19 it is very difficult to understand this. I cannot even tell you what I used to think like at 19 about life and settling down

Also. As you advance in your career working at a larger company can provide unique challenges that a smaller company cannot.

For example, Amazon's suggestion feature is a brilliant implementation of K-means (or something like it). The small group of developers that implemented it probably got to face unique and intellectually difficult challenges that not many other people have had to face. Sure, I can imagine how they did it, but I didn't do it.

One person's small company is another's large.

The freelance life is fun until you have kids around, you start to value security and predictability a bit more when a family depends on you i guess

If you can start startups and bolt, or any other freelance work and still pay the bills, do that for sure. People settle down mostly to pay the bills. Social stuff you can get at meetups nowadays, for a wide range of topics, in a more casual setting than work of course.

You're 19. A lot is going to change in the next 3, 6, 10 years. And you're going to learn a lot along the way.

Enjoy where you are right now and every moment as it happens.

There are social reasons for working for a company. For some people it's nice to be part of a group. If that doesn't matter to you then don't worry about it.

One reason in the U.S.: Health care insurance. All the more so if you have a family.

Individual insurance in the U.S. is a recipe for disaster. (It may not befall you, but the odds are far greater than miniscule that it may. And as you get older, individual insurance -- or no insurance -- becomes increasingly risky, along with the likelihood that you will have a family including dependents.)

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