News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by viuduib on Thursday March 30, 2017 @04:25AM (#13993760)
Oh yeh, because creating a startup is a breeze isn't it ? And most anyone could simply drop every commitment in their lives and like 4 years later they're rich! Why doesn't everyone do that, given they're free to do it ? Well, because they're not free to, not at all.

90% of people are strapped into financial obligations and have families. None of these people can afford to risk starting a business, even if they would be good at it and had the money, support and contacts required. Even among the usually already wealthy people who can afford to risk a startup, 90% of them fail.

What you're really saying is: if you inherited the freedom to risk creating a startup, and you are one of the lucky 10% who make it a success, then you deserve to enjoy the rewards.

Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by gambiting on Thursday March 30, 2017 @04:47AM (#13993835)
Absolute nonsense. People start companies in extremely difficult positions in life and only some of them succeed. No one said it's easy.

But that doesn't change the fact that every single one of Amazon employees is free to leave the company and start their own tomorrow. You don't have to have complete financial security to be "free" to do something.

Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by viuduib on Thursday March 30, 2017 @06:52AM (#13994312)
you are living in a dream world
Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by gambiting on Thursday March 30, 2017 @07:06AM (#13994371)
No, I just don't assume that you need to have a million dollars in your bank account to start a business. There's way too many people on HN who think that to run a startup you need investment money, offices, dozen employees, marketing campaigns etc etc.

You don't. You can start small, out of your own bedroom if you have to, and then grow from there. There's plenty of stupid advice like "if you're not making million dollars within 3 years of starting then there's no point" but it's just not true.

Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by sumedh on Thursday March 30, 2017 @05:09AM (#13993914)
> 90% of people are strapped into financial obligations and have families.

So they have to prioritise what is important, if they feel that starting a business is more important, they will avoid getting financial obligations and starting a family.

This is also part of the overall risks, you might be better off just being an employee with a normal life instead of being a failed entrepreneur.

Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by andrepd on Thursday March 30, 2017 @06:52AM (#13994309)
They don't have to choose to prioritise, they don't have a choice! Which brings your entire argument down.
Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by sumedh on Thursday March 30, 2017 @07:22AM (#13994436)
If you are going to count poor people then I agree most of them dont have a choice, I am talking about people who visit HN.
Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by andrepd on Thursday March 30, 2017 @11:17AM (#13996100)
Hacker News gets about 300K unique visitors per month. That's ~0.0042% of the world population. Hardly a representative sample to make those kinds of ridiculous statements.
Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by sumedh on Friday March 31, 2017 @07:49AM (#14002815)
The reason I am talking about HN demographics is because we are on HN.
Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by viuduib on Thursday March 30, 2017 @06:58AM (#13994348)
wait, didn't you time-travel in your argument ? You said if you feel like starting a business, go back in time and not have a family or take-on debt - may as well say they should have been born into a rich family with a good education, contacts and an inheritance to gamble with
Re:Jeff Bezos Is Now the World's Second Richest Person by sumedh on Thursday March 30, 2017 @07:28AM (#13994456)
If you are young and your inner voice is telling to work on your idea then it's better not to take debt like a house loan or an expensive car loan. Similarly tell your partner to wait for marriage/kids.

Of Course a rich kid won't have to do these sacrifices but the rich kid will probably not have the same intensity and drive as the middle class person who wants to succeed.