I wouldn't describe this as risk-averse behaviour. The simple fact is in the modern startup ecosystem, even if the startup has a successful exit, even early stage engineers will see very little wealth having been massively diluted, and would have been much, much better off having worked for an established company over the same time period. An early stage employee takes all the risk but all the reward goes to the founders and the VCs. It's not worth it.
Which is kinda surprising, but I guess for all the noise they make it's still a pretty small network.
On hn, there is sort of bubble of people who think that working for startup is best thing ever and everyone else is selling the soul. What if it is not true and some people really wanted to be doctors/nurses or find their job at google happy place?
Keep in mind that as an immigrant you also you also only know a few traditional things a kid can do. The main thing that would get you into a startup is probably a CS degree, which what not high on the list for my aunts and uncles.
This might also be something about American society. People seem to cluster very closely with similar people. At least when I go there it seems that way.
HN, for obvious reasons, over-estimates how likely it is a startup will succeed, and over-estimates how much an early-stage employee will make on an exit, and also over-estimates how many valuable experiences an early-stage employee will be exposed to. Vastly.
Somehow I have a wider range of friends and family than most people, and the thing that is missing from this conversation is that most people by far don't know anyone wealthy, especially if they're not themselves wealthy.
The issue with that isn't just the money and connections themselves. There's a cultural gap of "I couldn't do that, only people on TV do that" whether it's starting a startup or pursuing one of those one in a million type careers like acting or sports.
There's a risk behaviour that is also affected by background. Basically you're pushed to not take too much risk: your parents' entire productive output has gone into your education, you can't just take a chance on it.
Case in point is my family. The parents all got spread around the world as refugees back in the 1970s. Everyone worked really hard but they told their kids to go the safe route.
I have a cluster of cousins in the bay area, what do they do? None of them do startups. Doctors, nurses, and Google.