ladytron

You are lucky.

I wish I could have just enjoyed college without worrying about food, gas, and keeping a roof over my head.

Working to pay for all that as a science major was no easy task. I cut corners and sometimes took too many credits to graduate in a timely manner.

It wasn't Animal House or Legally Blonde.

He didn't run away when he saw I was reading a nerdy book. Instead, he approached me. Is that your book? He liked my brain.

I knew it was time to get married about a week after we met. Everyone else paled in comparison. It took another 6 months to make it official - but I was really married in my own mind after that first week together.

Hi,

I'm also a big HN fan and I've been lurking around here for the last 10 years. Start your own firm, go get VC, someone will fund you. If you are at a well known company now someone will fund you.

Otherwise, expect more of the same for the next 20 years. I doubt anything will change. At least if you run your own firm you can work very cleverly, and over time build up $$ from equity in your own projects. Trust me, you will learn much more and faster at your own startup.

They are not required. Many more here who are successful do not have all or any of those things. They just don't talk much.

Have you ever heard of the term lipstick on a pig?

Upvote for Feynman, always

Founder, big data startup 4 kids in 4.5 years Lots of patents and nerdy stuff.

I have no hobbies. I don't go to networking/startup events. I don't watch TV,Netflix, etc and I don't have cable. Rarely go on vacation, unless a family obligation to visit grandma.

Tactics: Office with 24/7 access outside house (worth the rent) Coffee shop open at 6 am/closes at 1 am with wi-fi.

Basically I work every morning at coffee shop before kids get up. Partner works late after kids go to bed at 8 pm. We work at the office lab every weekend, taking turns, with a sitter, or we just bring kids to office with coloring books, games etc.

Doing this you can work about 35 - 50 hours a week, but obviously it's not for everyone!

I'm surprised they kept her around so long. I am wondering why they just didn't bring her in, transfer her to a new team, and tell her she was no longer "a good cultural fit" with the team. In a at will:right to work state that is a totally legal way to fire a high performing employee (I think).

It's almost like they enjoyed watching her complain. Glad she got out.

The same could be said about the corporate raiders that run many tech companies. They leave ethics at the door "I'm just doing my job to support my family".

I think people who start their own companies sometimes do so because they can have more control over product quality and quality of life for their team.

Founders don't start companies to live a "pretty good life in the top 10%".

We do it because we are ambitious, want to solve huge technical and business problems, make our mark, and change the world.

We usually have more energy and sleep less than others. We love work. We love our business. Most of us would not want to be corporate "drones". It would be like a living death.

Work as an independent contractor. You are not an employee and even if you create IP for your client, they do not own your off time. For example, if you had two clients, they would not own the others ip.

If they send you a blanket ip agreement as a contractor, modify it to only agree to the created ip during working hours.

Rules are: Not on company equipment Not on company time Work on projects not related to your day job

Being employee status is trickier than a independent consultant though.

A Tale of Two Cities, fiction by Charles Dickens

Yes, I believe this is what happened to my friend with the rare disease of late pregnancy.

Even though she had a diagnosis, she was on a regular maternity ward.

None of the nurses / Drs. Seemed to really want to learn about her condition or make sure she was being treated correctly for her disease. She "didn't fit". Her death or the baby's death would have been "the cost of doing business".

Her doctor said 2 or 3 babies died of Choleostasis every YEAR, yet the nurses and doctors on the maternity ward were quite clueless.

Btw I'm no Dr. But I can read Google.

Richard Feynman wrote about how when his wife got sick he figured out that she had TB, but because he was very young and a physicist her family and their doctors ignored him and his diagnosis. He acquiesed and did not push, which he later regretted.

He said that only after they had tried many other approaches and wasted time did the Drs come to the same conclusion, but by then it was too late for her.

At that point her realized he was much smarter than regular MDs and never took their word as gospel from that point on.

That story stuck in my head as my friends and family have had medical challenges.