[q7xvh97o2pDhNrh]

> I would rather be a poor entrepreneur/freelancer than wealthy salaried employee. And office isn't really the factor, but other things, like freedom.

To add a data point that will sound snarkier than it is:

I used to say very similar things. It is a really wonderful sound bite, and you can get together with all the other starving founders to say things like this to each other.

Looking back on it, I think this philosophy is actually a really important part of the startup-industrial complex. If you can just make it "not cool" to go get a job, and starting a startup is all about "freedom and adventure," then it becomes really easy for VCs to normalize things like "founders paying themselves subsistence salaries." That means the pipeline of new startups will increase in quantity and decrease in unit-cost -- which is exactly what the VCs want.

What they won't tell you about, if you want to chase the founder dream, is the opportunity cost. It turns out that maxing out your 401(k) is pretty great, as is having an infinite supply of sparkling water and spending your days building software with a whole bunch of other brilliant people.

I'm still not going to RTO, though. That part is just dumb, and I think every serious company that truly values engineering productivity will agree.