Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many YC founders went to community college?
Good question.
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“It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
241–250 of 384 posts
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the United States, people who don't have significant financial support from their parents graduate from university with a great deal of debt.
Indeed. But those are the same people getting those $150k entry-level salaries from companies in the Bay Area. Even after paying down $50k/year in debt one would be hard pressed to spend the rest of that without saving anything. You spend your college years sharing a house with 5 roommates, driving an $800 car and living on Costco pallets of canned chili. Keep that up for another few years after school while pulling…
It's probably not the best practice to base arguments on outliers or anomalies. Yes, these numbers may be true for the Bay Area but almost certainly not the norm. The argument unravels quickly if applied to other markets.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
$10k is hardly a safety net.
Yeah I was going to say 10k is a trip to ER after a small accident.
Our terrible health insurance situation makes potential spending any given month very bumpy. $10k should be enough to keep a single, frugal person in an OK situation for a good chunk of a year, at least, but could just as well be blown inside 24hrs by one slip on some ice or any number of other ER-worthy problems, and isn't enough to cover a healthcare plan that removes much of that uncertainty for any length of time while also paying rent and buying food.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't get blinded by the analogy. There's an important difference between it and the problem we're discussing: We can't actually change the fact that woman generally are not as strong as men. We can however as a society change the fact that many people don't have a safety net. I appreciate that Paul G's intended meaning was different, but it's kind of hard not to interpret what he wrote, as no, we don't actually have…
You’re just painting your own bias over his words. How about interpreting what he said literally i.e. “even poor people can start businesses” instead of misinterpreting him as “against social nets”?
If you take him literally, I.e. without the social context, then his statements is essentially meaningless.
All it would take is one single example of a poor person being successful while all of the others fail and die in poverty to prove him right.
His example is part of the context, and the fact that his example was not in fact of a poor person demonstrates that he isn’t being responsible for what he says, and deserves the criticism he is receiving.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#245Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
> we work in software, where socking away your first ten thousand dollars happens automatically after landing an entry level dev gig, provided you don't go out of your way to blow your entire outlandish salary on silly possessions. This is shockingly out of touch with reality, just like PG's original tweet. There are plenty of people with CS degrees who can't find a job, and plenty more who have jobs that barely pay…
> There are plenty of people with CS degrees who can't find a job, and plenty more who have jobs that barely pay enough to cover their expenses. If anything, this comment is out of touch with reality as it stands for most software developers in the US. The median salary for a software developer in the US is over $100k. In Silicon Valley MSAs it's even higher of course. The median income for similar careers like compu…
Yeah, not really. It all depends on where you live. I doubt most developers here in Eastern Europe make the $100k you speak off.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
> we work in software, where socking away your first ten thousand dollars happens automatically after landing an entry level dev gig, provided you don't go out of your way to blow your entire outlandish salary on silly possessions. This is shockingly out of touch with reality, just like PG's original tweet. There are plenty of people with CS degrees who can't find a job, and plenty more who have jobs that barely pay…
> There are plenty of people with CS degrees who can't find a job, and plenty more who have jobs that barely pay enough to cover their expenses. If anything, this comment is out of touch with reality as it stands for most software developers in the US. The median salary for a software developer in the US is over $100k. In Silicon Valley MSAs it's even higher of course. The median income for similar careers like compu…
Average starting salary for CS undergrads today is $57,000. He did say "entry level dev gig".
If you live alone in a major city, have student loans, and don't have great healthcare benefits from your employer, you'd be lucky to save much of anything on that salary. Banking $10k is a pipe dream.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
$10k is hardly a safety net.
Depends where you live? Hard to say what diff people in diff situations and in diff places need and/or consider a safety net.
$10k barely covers the premiums + deductible for a health insurance plan on the individual market, or god forbid, COBRA. A safety net should cover expenses if you lose your job, which means losing your health insurance.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There are plenty of people with CS degrees who can't find a job, and plenty more who have jobs that barely pay enough to cover their expenses. If anything, this comment is out of touch with reality as it stands for most software developers in the US. The median salary for a software developer in the US is over $100k. In Silicon Valley MSAs it's even higher of course. The median income for similar careers like compu…
Yeah, not really. It all depends on where you live. I doubt most developers here in Eastern Europe make the $100k you speak off.
I think that a more charitable interpretation of my comment would be that it's referring to the US considering the currency, the reference to MSAs, and the demographics of HN.
I've edited my comment to clarify.
Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the United States, people who don't have significant financial support from their parents graduate from university with a great deal of debt.
Indeed. But those are the same people getting those $150k entry-level salaries from companies in the Bay Area. Even after paying down $50k/year in debt one would be hard pressed to spend the rest of that without saving anything. You spend your college years sharing a house with 5 roommates, driving an $800 car and living on Costco pallets of canned chili. Keep that up for another few years after school while pulling…
Some people have family to support. Eating all the canned chili in the world is not going to bring down your parents' medical bills.
Your advice may work well for you, which is fine, but bakes in a lot of assumptions about social class, which is what we were just trying to avoid. To be young and debt-free and responsibility-free coming out of university is not everyone's lot.