what risk? You were going to join a funded startup with revenues out of the gate. You were being offered enough salary to live comfortably and enough equity to build a wonderful outcome for yourself and your family if your hard works pays off. Where is the risk in that?
Were they profitable, or at least did they have a clear path to profitability? Monthly revenues of $20k is great, unless they are spending $50k per month to get it. If that is the case, $500k won't last long. That would be a risky place to join, if it weren't clear how to get to profitability.
Ya, and there is no guarantee it would last either. A competitor might eat their lunch, etc.
Also, to be perfectly honest, I imply the issue is with me when I decline jobs [e.g. I don't think I am good enough, I do not have the stomach for risk] regardless of the real reason.
The last time I did that I asked some friends of mine if I should state what the real reason. The company in question was suing someone for making the same transition they were asking me to make, the hypocrisy of it combined with the fact it'd probably happen to me 5 years down the road when I changed jobs was the real reason I declined.
People lie when they decline jobs because they don't want to create a greater negative impression that might be caused by the truth. That is also something I don't think the OP is taking into account.
Another job interview apologized that I was not the perfect fit when I never had any intention of taking the job once I had gone in for the interview and heard more about them. The real reason they declined was I think they figured it out during the interview but we both played along until the end and stated different reasons that were as gentler than the reality to avoid a greater negative impression.
Bingo. And how generous is a "generous equity package"? Is this the founder / management team's first rodeo? Because things could _look_ rosy but still be crappy compared to that "safe job". What if you join this hot new startup and things look great only to have them screw you in some manner? It happens.
"The only job security is the security you create for yourself." Sure. For some that might be to work for a startup. For some it might be to found a startup. For some it might be to work for a "safe" company doing something innovative (it happens).
Risk ultimately is weighing the probability of some amount of loss versus some amount of gain. It is subjective and historically informed. The OP stated "Think about it: when is the hardest in your life that you’ve worked? For me, it was when everything was on the line. Not just my job, but my income, my children’s schooling, and our groceries. I wasn’t working hard to impress my boss, get a promotion, or avoid a negative performance review. I was working hard to make ends meet." That's fine for him. I would rather not be in a position where my children's education is on the line. Does that mean I don't potentially hit the high gains the OP has? Maybe. Or perhaps others are making more informed decisions or slightly different risk-based decisions (maybe that key hire ended up going to a company who already has their series A or B, has better revenue / pipeline, and is going for a slightly lower equity package..that's still risky it's just not as risky what OP seems to be suggesting)
>I am amazed at how many people use those excuses and yet watch 15 hours or more of T.V. per week. T.V. isn’t inherently bad, but it is a distraction. If you work a 40 hour week and then watch T.V. (or video games, etc.) for 15 hours, you might as well be working in a startup.
What the hell is wrong with you? "If you're spending your free time not working, you're distracted! You should be spending it working!" How about no? Maybe my life doesn't revolve around filling as much time of it as possible with work, ironic considering that seems to be the angle you were getting at earlier? This article contradicts itself by first telling you not to waste your life working and then telling you to take 15 more hours out of your week working.
Note that I didn't say you needed to work 100 hour weeks. I don't think that you should spend all your time at the laptop, in fact I specifically mentioned helping others and family as a really important investment of time.
I just think talking yourself out of working extra hours when you waste a lot of those extra hours is just self deception.
You don't seem to understand that everyone probably needs those 15 hours of wind down time and doing something mindless [e.g. TV, video games] is how they do that.
It isn't self deception. Just like I know that I'm less productive at complex problems at 3am, I'm less productive if I'm doing it for 11 hours a day instead of 8.
You can become mentally exhausted to the point your work output is worthless because you make stupid mistakes that take longer to QA.
The cost of me making a mistake for 8 minutes? ~$10,000. The cost of me being properly rested, properly QAing things, etc. is not as expensive as the damage of a single mistake a year.
> I just think talking yourself out of working extra hours when you waste a lot of those extra hours is just self deception.
Why does "wasting time" matter when there's a 100% guarantee that we're all going to die and that the universe is going to come to an end?
Fuck it. I say: Do whatever is necessary for you to lead the life you're happy leading and then... well... lead that life.
If someone is happy doing the bare minimum necessary to spend the rest of his/her time stuffing his/her face with junk food and pigging-out on reality TV, then who are you to call that time "wasted"?
The universe is going down the toilet and, when it does, there will be nobody around to think "Hmmm... Calhan Whatshisface should have spent his time learning the @$$32 JS framework instead of watching Real Fartfaces of Silver Spring".
If working gets you off, then that's fine, but please step off your high horse and stop expecting everyone else to want to spend their life slobbing the proverbial knob of ProductiveWork™.
You aren't addressing programmers who want to know why their side projects and startup ideas are never getting off the ground. "Maybe it's because you're playing too many video games" would be a reasonable thing to say to that audience.
You are instead addressing any and all programmers, and are assuming they all want what you want. I hope you realize how off-putting this is to the people who are just fine with working in a "safe" job and chipping away at their 401k and playing with their kids/TVs/Xbox for 15 hours a week.
I think more developers should "have a spine" by telling their employers that they refuse to work more than 40 hours a week. That's where the industry needs to grow a spine. You started off on the right track with this line "I hope it includes the people you helped, the children you raised, the spouse you loved dearly," and I was rooting for this article. But then you completely derailed and made the whole article about developers being spineless by not taking on more work at a greater risk. Maybe you will make something great at work and maybe it will out last your life, but most likely, it will not. Do what you enjoy all the time and try to give happiness to others whenever you can. If you don't want to take a job because it is too risky, then don't. But the real problem with spineless developers are those that take on 60-80-100 hour weeks when they really don't want to because they are too spineless to say no.
I'm not a programmer, but I do know that there's a reason people watch TV and do other "useless" things, and that is because it's not work. People need balance. Personally I prefer going for a walk or writing, but hey, each their thing.
Yeah. Considering TV and such in isolation is wrong. You can't just say "you wasted those 15 hours on TV" because, if we assume that that TV watching was wasteful in and of itself, you can't know what repercussions it would have if he hadn't done it. Maybe he would have burned out because he didn't have any off-time.
“the risk is too great” may also mean “the risk isn’t sufficiently compensated”, which is pretty common for early employee offers at startups. You’re bidding against Google, Apple, Facebook, etc, which pay large salaries for top talent and will almost surely be in business next year.
There’s nothing wrong with risk, but many people reasonably expect to be paid a premium to take it on.
Those places pay better salaries than startups for middling and bottom-barrel talent, too. Hell, even companies that aren't famous for being tech companies, but still leverage technology workers heavily, pay better base salaries than most of the startups I've seen.
>> I am amazed at how many people use those excuses and yet watch 15 hours or more of T.V. per week. T.V. isn’t inherently bad, but it is a distraction. If you work a 40 hour week and then watch T.V. (or video games, etc.) for 15 hours, you might as well be working in a startup. They don’t all require 80–100 hour weeks.
TV and computer games do not require the same level of attention, involvement or energy as work does. They are wind-down activities. They are pure fun. Not that coding isn't rewarding, but it's different and it takes it out of you rather than putting in. I'm not exhausted after playing a game for a couple of hours after work, but a couple of extra hours work would shatter me and make my quality of life worse.
My risk is that I take on short term contracts. My reward is that I get paid at about the 97/98th percentile in my country. This is enough spine for me :)
Yeah, I hope I didn't convey the T.V. video game thing too heavy handedly. I just get tired of people complaining about missed opportunities when they waste so much of their time and don't take risks. I use wind-down activities all the time. Cheers.
There are some video games, maybe mostly competitive, which certainly do take a lot of mental effort, concentration and insight. Sometimes to the point that those gamers can become exhausted from playing those games.
I guess the point is that everything can be taken seriously enough to the point that it becomes something which takes a lot of effort (and that effort can be rewarding or stressful).
Sorry I didn't convey that well enough. I was mostly addressing this to programmers in my region who seem much more risk averse than many of my colleagues in other places (like SF) and yet complain about missed opportunities.
Fair enough. Did you miss mentioning the latter part (about the programmers complaining about missed opportunities)? Because with that in mind, the article reads a whole lot better. I might have missed it as well. If that's the case, I apologize!
So, according to the author, everyone that doesn't want to work for a startup doesn't have a spine?
Maybe the real reason guy didn't join, although compensation is "good" is not that good? Maybe he saw the writing on the wall and didn't want to go for a "good" salary only to be forced to look for another job in next few months when funding money expire? Maybe he didn't like the prospect of working 60+ hours weeks? Maybe he just doesn't like 2x startup culture?
There are a million valid reason why someone wouldn't want to join startup, even for a "competitive" salary, and it has nothing to do with having spine or not. And he's not obliged to tell a real reason to anyone, so "too risky" is as good as an excuse as anything.
I feel like everyone who contributed to projects such as the Linux foundation are really making a difference. Being able to get affordable / free operating systems into 3rd world countries is huge. Even if you just contributed to some device driver or kernel code, that is something I'd be very proud of.
also: it might be time for some Tumblr users to brighten their font color as well.
Life is full of decisions. Often times you make them blind eg you have no way of knowing how its going to turn out.
Sometimes you can predict, but as you look further into the future the less reliable those predictions are. If you went to college, you choose a major and a school, you have no idea how it will turn out. You will meet people who change your life, but you had no way to predict that when you met them. If you meet and becomes friends and work with Zuckerberg or Gates, you're life is going to be different. You had no way of knowing that "this MicroSoft company is going to be huge" when it was just starting out.
I went to work at a startup in College that failed. After that large corp with long term contracts, 10 years later layoffs started. I went back to a startup again. I have no regrets about any of it though.
Some of life is just luck. Don't not prepare though. That would be folly. Just be aware you can't control everything.
My general rule is that if you are pretty happy with the way things are stay the course, if your not happy, look for something you love and want to do and go in that direction. That goes for personal life and work life.
I appreciate the passionate voice in the article, but he seems to imply that the only way to gain from taking risks is via starting your own business or joining a startup. That's certainly an appropriate theme on HN, but it's not the only way to feel fulfilled, especially if the work you do for money isn't your life.
For example, I am fulfilled by aesthetic pursuits like painting, writing music, and performance literature. I don't fool myself into thinking I am good enough at any of these things to make money off of them. But it's no less fulfilling than the kinds of risks one would take in business. In fact, I'd argue it's more fulfilling to artistically express something about your core self and then put it on display. This is with my impression (from stories on HN) that the startup world can be very superficial.
The point is fulfillment and risk come in many shapes and sizes. You don't have to risk your family's welfare and work 55 hour weeks to get valuable life experiences. Maybe you need it to develop flawless business acumen, but the OP is pretty clearly talking about life experience here.
I don't see what's so touchy about what the author's main (valid) point is. Getting out of your comfort zone is a great thing to do. Be brave, but also be smart about the decisions you make and inject some variety into your life.
How am I supposed to spend time with my family if I'm expected to be at work from 9am until 7pm (that would be a 50 hour work week)? Also, I assume that most startups either offer unlimited vacation (which from what I've heard means you don't get to take a lot of vacation), or they offer 2 weeks of vacation to start out. So, I have a couple hours at home with my family and only a couple weeks out of the year to take time off to spend with them. That doesn't add up.
Maybe I'm incorrect about the average startup, but at least from what I've seen and been offered, I would have to give up too much of my family time to work for one.
It can be done, that said, it can't be done in most startups.
Many startups are composed of mid-twenties white males. The culture of work becomes 10am to 8pm, then go drinking.
If you have a family, you could work 7am to 3:30pm and be out the door in time to see your family, then work some more at night. But you'll get glares, and eventually you won't be a "team player" or whatever they decide to make up.
If you can find a startup run by people with children it can be a good fit, but you don't know until you interview.
Who is this article really for? If you want to work for a "safe" company and bring in a good salary and benefits, then go for it. If you want to take the risk and work for a startup, you can do that too! We all value different things and we will seek what interests us the most.
> A fulfilled life is inherently a risky one
Is it really? Is that necessarily true for everyone?
Yeah, I read this I hope you didn’t work a safe job, at a safe company, in a safe industry for your entire life. And just thought "Thanks, fuck you too." Maybe I don't feel like screwing up after taking on ridiculous amounts of risk and then being a burden on society cause I don't have any money.
I have so many angry thoughts running in my head, but I can only sum them up by saying that the author very clearly has a hole somewhere in his life that he needs to fill by projecting his narrow viewpoint on others, and that subsequently this blog post is one of the dumbest things I've ever read.
This reminds me of the old "Good is the enemy to great" saying.
The author's thoughts rang very true to me. As programmers, it's true, times are good, salaries are high, employment is easy to come by. Sometimes I can't believe how much "easer" it is to live on compared to my non-tech friends & neighbors. But at the same time, that benefit it the worst drawback.
I am that programmer he is talking to. Even though, in the past I have started my own company, and have worked at "scary, early stage startups", I now have a good job, good pay, and I have been the one who has turned down interesting, challenging, fun-sounding opportunities because of "the risk", the "uncertainty".
I miss those days of being fully engaged in what you are building, waking up thinking about the problem, coming up with the solution while you are in the shower. and building it that day.
I guess if I am trying to say anything, it is that maybe we need to reassess the proper kind "risk" as being a plus instead of a negative. Certainly there are are dumb risks, and startups that might make a ton of money but would not be worth thinking about in the shower, or give you that "I'm making the world better" feeling. But the risk of doing something you love, having to give it all you've got, knowing that if you don't build this, no one else will, and that the world will be a better place with it? That's not risk, that's happiness, which is what I'd be spending my money on anyways.
"I hope you took some risks. I hope you tried something new. I hope you learned much more than what college taught you".
I was deeply impressed by Paddy Ashdown's biography (former leader of UK's Liberal Democrats). He joined the Royal Marines at 18, served as an officer seeing combat in Malaya and the Middle East, joined the SBS, spent 2 and half years learning Chinese in Hong Kong "immersed" in the local culture, joined MI6, spent 7 years of immensely hard effort (some of it while scraping through while unemployed or dead end jobs) becoming an MP, became leader of his party, helped in the conflict in Bosnia (with a multi-million dollar price on his head)....
Even though I've co-founded a VC founded startup and worked at other startups I felt distinctly risk-adverse after reading about all of that. After all, anything you do while sitting at a desk using a PC can't be that risky....
this is just a whinge from someone who couldn't hire developers for his startup, which is probably lame and/or complete bullshit, like most of them are
He looks quite young - does he have a family to provide for? Does he have only 20 years left to take care of his retirement and financing of his children's education? Has he actually done the maths?
I think that choosing a life of being a perpetual precariat is likely to be a bad choice. You can view extreme risk taking as brave or as desperate and foolish.
But I also agree that programmers should grow a spine. In modern society they actually do have substantial power if they acted collectively on some issues.
Dude, you're projecting your own insecurities onto everyone else. If you think you're at a stage where you've figured out how to live a meaningful life, you're haven't.
I was particularly struck by this "I hope you didn’t work a safe job, at a safe company, in a safe industry for your entire life. I hope you weren’t content chipping away at your 401k day after day, year after year."
"Hi, I'm an individual who didn't struggle financially in life, my job afforded me the luxury of traveling and engaging in activities that make me happy." To me, that's it. If you can do that, plus have your health and collection of interests that keep your mind entertained, you did it. Life is very difficult for the majority of people. Surviving the best you can, enjoying what's out there, doing things that make you happy, is all you can do.
I mostly agree with what the author is saying, although I would argue that it has nothing to do specifically with programmers. Our entire culture is risk-averse, preferring a "safe" job to the potential reward of starting a business.
Here is one (anecdotal) example. I have been working on a business idea, and everyone tells me it is a good idea. I even have a working prototype. But the conversation always turns into a discussion about getting a job. I ask for a few hundred dollars to help with the business, they say no. Then later in the discussion they offer (without me even asking) a few hundred dollars to help support me while I find a job. Either way it is a few hundred bucks, but the job is acceptable, the business is not. This happens even for other investments where I show them numbers and we have a high probability of making money. Even then, no.
Even outside the world of business, people are afraid of risk. Even something as simple as trying a new food is too risky for some people. Our culture is so risk-averse that it is frightening.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 97.6 ms ] threadWere they profitable, or at least did they have a clear path to profitability? Monthly revenues of $20k is great, unless they are spending $50k per month to get it. If that is the case, $500k won't last long. That would be a risky place to join, if it weren't clear how to get to profitability.
Also, to be perfectly honest, I imply the issue is with me when I decline jobs [e.g. I don't think I am good enough, I do not have the stomach for risk] regardless of the real reason.
The last time I did that I asked some friends of mine if I should state what the real reason. The company in question was suing someone for making the same transition they were asking me to make, the hypocrisy of it combined with the fact it'd probably happen to me 5 years down the road when I changed jobs was the real reason I declined.
People lie when they decline jobs because they don't want to create a greater negative impression that might be caused by the truth. That is also something I don't think the OP is taking into account.
Another job interview apologized that I was not the perfect fit when I never had any intention of taking the job once I had gone in for the interview and heard more about them. The real reason they declined was I think they figured it out during the interview but we both played along until the end and stated different reasons that were as gentler than the reality to avoid a greater negative impression.
"The only job security is the security you create for yourself." Sure. For some that might be to work for a startup. For some it might be to found a startup. For some it might be to work for a "safe" company doing something innovative (it happens).
Risk ultimately is weighing the probability of some amount of loss versus some amount of gain. It is subjective and historically informed. The OP stated "Think about it: when is the hardest in your life that you’ve worked? For me, it was when everything was on the line. Not just my job, but my income, my children’s schooling, and our groceries. I wasn’t working hard to impress my boss, get a promotion, or avoid a negative performance review. I was working hard to make ends meet." That's fine for him. I would rather not be in a position where my children's education is on the line. Does that mean I don't potentially hit the high gains the OP has? Maybe. Or perhaps others are making more informed decisions or slightly different risk-based decisions (maybe that key hire ended up going to a company who already has their series A or B, has better revenue / pipeline, and is going for a slightly lower equity package..that's still risky it's just not as risky what OP seems to be suggesting)
What the hell is wrong with you? "If you're spending your free time not working, you're distracted! You should be spending it working!" How about no? Maybe my life doesn't revolve around filling as much time of it as possible with work, ironic considering that seems to be the angle you were getting at earlier? This article contradicts itself by first telling you not to waste your life working and then telling you to take 15 more hours out of your week working.
I just think talking yourself out of working extra hours when you waste a lot of those extra hours is just self deception.
It isn't self deception. Just like I know that I'm less productive at complex problems at 3am, I'm less productive if I'm doing it for 11 hours a day instead of 8.
You can become mentally exhausted to the point your work output is worthless because you make stupid mistakes that take longer to QA.
The cost of me making a mistake for 8 minutes? ~$10,000. The cost of me being properly rested, properly QAing things, etc. is not as expensive as the damage of a single mistake a year.
Why does "wasting time" matter when there's a 100% guarantee that we're all going to die and that the universe is going to come to an end?
Fuck it. I say: Do whatever is necessary for you to lead the life you're happy leading and then... well... lead that life.
If someone is happy doing the bare minimum necessary to spend the rest of his/her time stuffing his/her face with junk food and pigging-out on reality TV, then who are you to call that time "wasted"?
The universe is going down the toilet and, when it does, there will be nobody around to think "Hmmm... Calhan Whatshisface should have spent his time learning the @$$32 JS framework instead of watching Real Fartfaces of Silver Spring".
If working gets you off, then that's fine, but please step off your high horse and stop expecting everyone else to want to spend their life slobbing the proverbial knob of ProductiveWork™.
You are instead addressing any and all programmers, and are assuming they all want what you want. I hope you realize how off-putting this is to the people who are just fine with working in a "safe" job and chipping away at their 401k and playing with their kids/TVs/Xbox for 15 hours a week.
The thesis of the article is basically:
1. You're wrong to be happy with your non-entreprenuereal career
2. You're wrong if you aren't trying really hard to become an entrepreneur
This is a very dickish piece.
There’s nothing wrong with risk, but many people reasonably expect to be paid a premium to take it on.
TV and computer games do not require the same level of attention, involvement or energy as work does. They are wind-down activities. They are pure fun. Not that coding isn't rewarding, but it's different and it takes it out of you rather than putting in. I'm not exhausted after playing a game for a couple of hours after work, but a couple of extra hours work would shatter me and make my quality of life worse.
My risk is that I take on short term contracts. My reward is that I get paid at about the 97/98th percentile in my country. This is enough spine for me :)
I guess the point is that everything can be taken seriously enough to the point that it becomes something which takes a lot of effort (and that effort can be rewarding or stressful).
Maybe the author wants to 'inspire' but that's not what I feel after reading the article.
Maybe the real reason guy didn't join, although compensation is "good" is not that good? Maybe he saw the writing on the wall and didn't want to go for a "good" salary only to be forced to look for another job in next few months when funding money expire? Maybe he didn't like the prospect of working 60+ hours weeks? Maybe he just doesn't like 2x startup culture?
There are a million valid reason why someone wouldn't want to join startup, even for a "competitive" salary, and it has nothing to do with having spine or not. And he's not obliged to tell a real reason to anyone, so "too risky" is as good as an excuse as anything.
also: it might be time for some Tumblr users to brighten their font color as well.
Sometimes you can predict, but as you look further into the future the less reliable those predictions are. If you went to college, you choose a major and a school, you have no idea how it will turn out. You will meet people who change your life, but you had no way to predict that when you met them. If you meet and becomes friends and work with Zuckerberg or Gates, you're life is going to be different. You had no way of knowing that "this MicroSoft company is going to be huge" when it was just starting out.
I went to work at a startup in College that failed. After that large corp with long term contracts, 10 years later layoffs started. I went back to a startup again. I have no regrets about any of it though.
Some of life is just luck. Don't not prepare though. That would be folly. Just be aware you can't control everything.
My general rule is that if you are pretty happy with the way things are stay the course, if your not happy, look for something you love and want to do and go in that direction. That goes for personal life and work life.
For example, I am fulfilled by aesthetic pursuits like painting, writing music, and performance literature. I don't fool myself into thinking I am good enough at any of these things to make money off of them. But it's no less fulfilling than the kinds of risks one would take in business. In fact, I'd argue it's more fulfilling to artistically express something about your core self and then put it on display. This is with my impression (from stories on HN) that the startup world can be very superficial.
The point is fulfillment and risk come in many shapes and sizes. You don't have to risk your family's welfare and work 55 hour weeks to get valuable life experiences. Maybe you need it to develop flawless business acumen, but the OP is pretty clearly talking about life experience here.
The delivery (and I'm not just talking about the incompetent CSS) is horrible.
Maybe I'm incorrect about the average startup, but at least from what I've seen and been offered, I would have to give up too much of my family time to work for one.
Many startups are composed of mid-twenties white males. The culture of work becomes 10am to 8pm, then go drinking.
If you have a family, you could work 7am to 3:30pm and be out the door in time to see your family, then work some more at night. But you'll get glares, and eventually you won't be a "team player" or whatever they decide to make up.
If you can find a startup run by people with children it can be a good fit, but you don't know until you interview.
> A fulfilled life is inherently a risky one
Is it really? Is that necessarily true for everyone?
The author's thoughts rang very true to me. As programmers, it's true, times are good, salaries are high, employment is easy to come by. Sometimes I can't believe how much "easer" it is to live on compared to my non-tech friends & neighbors. But at the same time, that benefit it the worst drawback.
I am that programmer he is talking to. Even though, in the past I have started my own company, and have worked at "scary, early stage startups", I now have a good job, good pay, and I have been the one who has turned down interesting, challenging, fun-sounding opportunities because of "the risk", the "uncertainty".
I miss those days of being fully engaged in what you are building, waking up thinking about the problem, coming up with the solution while you are in the shower. and building it that day.
I guess if I am trying to say anything, it is that maybe we need to reassess the proper kind "risk" as being a plus instead of a negative. Certainly there are are dumb risks, and startups that might make a ton of money but would not be worth thinking about in the shower, or give you that "I'm making the world better" feeling. But the risk of doing something you love, having to give it all you've got, knowing that if you don't build this, no one else will, and that the world will be a better place with it? That's not risk, that's happiness, which is what I'd be spending my money on anyways.
I was deeply impressed by Paddy Ashdown's biography (former leader of UK's Liberal Democrats). He joined the Royal Marines at 18, served as an officer seeing combat in Malaya and the Middle East, joined the SBS, spent 2 and half years learning Chinese in Hong Kong "immersed" in the local culture, joined MI6, spent 7 years of immensely hard effort (some of it while scraping through while unemployed or dead end jobs) becoming an MP, became leader of his party, helped in the conflict in Bosnia (with a multi-million dollar price on his head)....
Even though I've co-founded a VC founded startup and worked at other startups I felt distinctly risk-adverse after reading about all of that. After all, anything you do while sitting at a desk using a PC can't be that risky....
But I also agree that programmers should grow a spine. In modern society they actually do have substantial power if they acted collectively on some issues.
I was particularly struck by this "I hope you didn’t work a safe job, at a safe company, in a safe industry for your entire life. I hope you weren’t content chipping away at your 401k day after day, year after year."
"Hi, I'm an individual who didn't struggle financially in life, my job afforded me the luxury of traveling and engaging in activities that make me happy." To me, that's it. If you can do that, plus have your health and collection of interests that keep your mind entertained, you did it. Life is very difficult for the majority of people. Surviving the best you can, enjoying what's out there, doing things that make you happy, is all you can do.
Here is one (anecdotal) example. I have been working on a business idea, and everyone tells me it is a good idea. I even have a working prototype. But the conversation always turns into a discussion about getting a job. I ask for a few hundred dollars to help with the business, they say no. Then later in the discussion they offer (without me even asking) a few hundred dollars to help support me while I find a job. Either way it is a few hundred bucks, but the job is acceptable, the business is not. This happens even for other investments where I show them numbers and we have a high probability of making money. Even then, no.
Even outside the world of business, people are afraid of risk. Even something as simple as trying a new food is too risky for some people. Our culture is so risk-averse that it is frightening.