You are absolutely right, "poor" only relatively. If you have a job hacking software you are probably not poor in any objective sense.

> We make a great living

Assuming "we" are all engineers. There's no reference to role in the article or comment you're replying to, so I don't think that can be assumed. There are plenty of low wage jobs at startups.

In the article, sure. I assume that because we're by a large a bunch of engineers, many of whom work at startups.

If the frame of reference is "anyone" then I still don't get the argument. What percentage of jobs out there are lottery tickets? A tiny, tiny fraction. So what's the advice from the GP; everyone should try to work in some unicorn startup in hopes of getting rich?

Poor is where you must work to maintain your lifestyle.

Rich is where your money makes you enough money to a point where you need not work to maintain your lifestyle (but can choose to).

That's not a common definition of poor. This is one that would be more in line with typical use:

> Lacking sufficient money to live at a standard considered comfortable or normal in a society.

From https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/poor

>Poor is where you must work to maintain your lifestyle.

Said no one ever. That's almost insulting to people who have actual financial problems.

This is the most Silicon Valley thing I’ve ever read and it makes me sad how far we’ve come from the pure joy of hacking.