Hacker News Reader

Yes, but I think those events are rare enough to be classed as outliers. Ultimately, the guidance of 'work at a company that's going to make it really big in the future' isn't all that helpful in practice!

Google/Facebook level IPO's are quite rare, and you had be in relatively early to get enough.

Or $12k+ per week at 50% utilization. 75% utilization sounds a bit stressful.

For that matter, $8k+ per week at 50% utilization is still $165k at the same fudge factor for taxes & overhead. That's already well beyond my threshold for "I've increased this variable to the point that further increases are nice but not a primary motivator, and I'd rather that further optimization focus on quality of life as the primary variable."