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That's not for free. Doing work for free means "I will do this for you and get nothing in return." All I'm saying is don't run around willy-nilly doing work for free, thinking that will somehow magically lead to success; be cognizant of what you will actually get in return. And I'm not saying that money is the only type of payment, not at all.

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Frankly, I think you are deliberately misinterpreting the spirit of the suggestion. Your interpretation reduces the original point to absurdity: "do something for no reward."

I'm not in the startup scene at all and if I were, I wouldn't expect that working for free would magically lead to success, but why is a bad idea to work strictly for experience - assuming you have some idea of what "good" experience would be? What's an example of the non-monetary payment you have in mind?

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