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Re:What if Obama gave Y Combinator 40 Billion Dollars by mahmud on Friday June 05, 2009 @11:57PM (#644454)
for 40B, people will get into starting up for the salary.

don't start a company to make ends meet, start it to execute a haunting vision that you can't get rid of (ever wonder why people quit their jobs, often to their financial detriment, to startup? yeah, it's a curse.)

Re:What if Obama gave Y Combinator 40 Billion Dollars by gruseom on Saturday June 06, 2009 @12:38AM (#644494)
start it to execute a haunting vision that you can't get rid of

I agree with this - only partly, because it isn't necessarily in a person's control - but a haunting vision that you can't get rid of is a real asset. It's easier to devote insane effort to something that your intellect and/or soul are deeply invested in than to something arbitrary or trivial. I wonder whether luck is more of a factor in the latter kind of project.

In any case, I am having this experience these days, quite unexpectedly as I never set out to have it and used to feel dismissive when hearing people talk about "vision". I'm grateful for it. It makes it easier to crawl over broken glass.

Re:What if Obama gave Y Combinator 40 Billion Dollars by zaidf on Saturday June 06, 2009 @12:40AM (#644495)

  for 40B, people will get into starting up for the salary.
That will simply be another challenge the application process will need to address. That's assuming it even becomes a problem.