Conversation

Andy Matuschak
@andy_matuschak
This question's gauche, but: given the prevalence of $400k++ comp packages for ~30-year-olds in Big Tech, why aren't there lots more "gentle[wo]man scholars"? i.e. people quitting to do non-remunerative creative projects I can think of some, but shouldn't there be thousands?
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Ben Reinhardt
@Ben_Reinhardt
Speculations, mostly hoping to summon Cunningham's law: - We celebrate people who use that $$ to then do <startups/vc> not scholarship. - The person you need to turn yourself into to get to that point is not the sort of person who gentlescholars - Too much work to reach frontier
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Boris Smus 🇺🇦
@borismus
i’d like to be a gentleman scholar when i grow up, but a family of four w/ small children in an expensive city has a shockingly high burn rate tbh a big reason i track folks like you is to get a sneak preview of alt non-vc, non-startup, post big-tech paths
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Boris Smus 🇺🇦
@borismus
I happen to be the local landowner in this case ;) But am in favor of cost disease increasing wages of underpaid persons (eg. teacher, nanny payments). That shit is hard
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