To rephrase Freakonomics, "what do drug dealers, high school football players, and young New Yorkers have in common?" http://freakonomicsbook.com/thebook/ch3.html

could you add "employeers on a startup" in that list? What's the ratio of people that made good fortune (500k+) on a startup, with those that just got scraps, and an ok paycheck, for a lot of work, or nothing at all.

In the 90s, I heard it was 4.7% of computer (I guess that's software) startups made the fortune 500.

The odds of a startup taking off are about one in three or four, which isn't all that bad.

I did more or less the same thing in Chicago in the 90's. It's a miserable existence, but you feel so hip, cool and victorious knowing that you've escaped the burbs. A lot of the buzz in Silicon Valley about living in San Fran reminds me of that, too.

Isn't that what your 20's are for, though? Trying new things, being able to risk a bunch and learning that perhaps there are other things that are more important than being hip and trendy? And, you gain a lot of experiences and lessons learned, so even though you're malnourished, it's not all bad.

You know, you could just rewrite this article and the replace the words "New York" with "London", and "Oklahoma" with "Scotland"!

>Adam Leibsohn, a 27-year-old communications strategist who makes roughly $60,000 a year and pays $1,650 a month for his own apartment in the East Village...“It’s kind of a spartan lifestyle,” he says.

We admire your frugality.

“You’ve got to forget about brands, you’ve got to forget about, you know, what your mom made you growing up, and take what’s out there.”

So?

Isn't this what people always had to do to get by?

But now it's so unusual it merits a NYT feature story?

Cry me a river.

Seriously! That's exactly what I thought. I'm a (married) consultant living in Queens. I work at businesses all over Manhattan and I find that I'm the only guy bagging my own lunch (seriously - never seen anybody else do it in the two years I've been doing this here). I'm from the south, so I find the NYC idea of "budgeting" to be absolutely laughable.

This is outrageous bordering idiotic. I still don't get why youngsters refuse to be intelligent.

Some people I knew in high school - their big ambition (some of them since they were little) was to get married young live in the suburbs stay at home raise their family. And they're doing that - e.g. like it or not, they're successful. The beauty of being human is your choices can change, as your circumstances change.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink.

it's called sex and the city. I am not exagerating, but there is a whole generation of women that want to be in "the City", and living the fun/glam life. Anything else is just too boring. Hence, there is much more women than men in NYC. Well, the reality of living in the city, is completely different, way too expensive, and too many sacrifices to be made.

But, when you are young (early 20s), you are used to live in dorms, sharing a room with another person, etc... so you could put up with those conditions for a while, until it wears you off, and you either get a good paying job, or move out.

There is probably a bit of the sex and the city effect, but this lifestyle has been a part of new york since new york began.

So a group of young people wants to move to an expensive city for the fun and glamour because everything else is just too boring, you say? Funny how that works.

To the point where you endanger your health and freedom. Startup entrepreneur usually live in the same condition but for different reasons. They want to build a small empire, business, or just help people etc.. But to live in eat ramon for lunch and diner just so your mail is sent to a Manhattan address goes beyond my understanding.

Why? Their priorities are socializing and getting by.

It is their choice, and I think it is ignorant to judge them 'idiotic'.

Maybe that was too harsh. I apologize to them.