The Downtown Project Suicides

The reality is that most entrepreneurs - those that do not have the pedigree to be handed huge checks from VC's - have everything on the line. To most, failure means that they and their families will suffer severely. People often start businesses because they have needs or responsibilities that are above their earning power at a regular job. When you combine those pressures with the high failure rate of startups, you get a high suicide rate. It's sad, but it's not a problem that is unique to the Downtown Project.

A person who is happy is not reading hundreds of books about happiness. And that person will also not become happy through doing that. Happiness is not something you can create externally. (Yes, if you're starving and homeless then having some money and material possessions would definitely make you happy. But we are talking about multimillionaires and billionaires here who are not in that situation.)

I think the entire downtown project has much less to do with creating some sort of startup utopia and more with something that Tony himself is seeking. But he won't find it outside of himself.

To toot the counter culture horn, it's the pursuit of profit as the end-goal that makes the world a rotten place... ironically, does the pursuit of happiness as an end-goal have similar issues?

To rephrase: Like profits, happiness is a way to tell whether or not what you're doing is working, but it's not what you're doing.

● Being surrounded by happiness /or/ the expectation of happiness makes people feel behind, like losers, and makes them depressed.

● Depression is highest in 1st world countries.

Now, think about Las Vegas, it's a "celebratory / party" town. Lights, glamour, parties, fun times, gambling, excess, big business, big hotels. Its atmosphere only exaggerates the idea that "everyone is doing fine but you, you're a loser". Building a startup community there is probably not a good idea.

I do believe though that if it weren't for my knowledge of the project I wouldn't even know about the area. In fact, many locals I've met still don't know about Container Park. So, they do have some marketing to work on I guess.

http://dtlv.com/2014/09/30/downtown-project-layoffs-tony-hsi...

It's not omitted to fit the 80 character limit; the title with the word included is still underneath that.

It's not omitted because the article isn't about suicides; there's three of them discussed.

I submitted the link, and I could have sworn I just copied and pasted the full title it's running under at Re/code, which is "The Downtown Project Suicides: Can the Pursuit of Happiness Kill You?"

If I'm misremembering and the word wasn't in the submission, I apologize in advance. But if it was there, and someone took it out, that seems like it does a real disservice to the article by downplaying the gravity of what it's actually about. (I'd edit it myself to put it in, but it looks like my window for editing the submission has closed.)