This guy is really ignorant. It's the same mentality that thinks the valley is impervious to bubbles and inflation.
What? Really, "you get the satisfaction of knowing you aren’t a complete tool bag every time you wake up in the morning."... They may have lost their jobs, but you lose at life.
Just to be fair, however, he's young. I think most of us have been there. We've taken the path less trodden (self employment, working at a startup, etc.) and we've had doubts. In order to counteract those doubts, we need to act as if the "other way" is stupid, that we're better, and that we're doing the right thing.
I think that's what this guy is doing. He's young, he's confident (to a point), but he lacks the wisdom and ability to reflect that comes with age.
So while it's easy to call him "ignorant", a "douche bag", or whatever - he's not willingly being any of those things. He's young, cocky, and exuberant - like most of us were.
(Of course, when /we/ were acting the same way, we were probably getting called out the same way too.. so this process might actually be necessary to develop that wisdom ;-))
I think that's what this guy is doing. He's young, he's confident (to a point), but he lacks the wisdom and ability to reflect that comes with age.
All of the things you mention occurred to me by the time I was 19. There's a difference between young people who are sprinkling their brains with alkaloids[2] at raves and the young people that are sprinkling their brains with DHA, creatine, and glutamine.
I also realize that there's a delicate balance I have to reach with regard to confidence. It's not easy to reach this balance, because on the one hand, young people are treated like second-class citizens (in some circumstances), but on the other, you need to have a lot of balls to do a startup, to charge what you sholud be charging, and claim the work you do is as good as that of an older adult's. This is especially true because claiming you are equal is taken to mean arrogance, even though the evidence for the alleged inferiority of the young is lacking. In objective contests like chess, war, athletics, hacking, and mathematics, there are many very proficient people who are very young.[1] This is not the case in established corporations, politics, or the job market. Finally, people always want to feel superior to others, and while they can't express this desire for superiority by being racist or sexist, they can do so by discriminating based on age.
Sometimes behavior that is acceptable in a male 50-year-old CEO is considered unacceptable in a female of the same age or a young guy (there was a Harvard Business School study that showed something to this effect; it was a case study of a CEO that has to make certain decisions. The male was considered to be "tough but fair" or something, while the woman was considered a bitch. The case studies were identical but for the gender of the protagonist). So, would you say he's being arrogant if he were 50?
Now, is Sam being a douche? I don't know, but I do know not all young people are the same.
[1] Fidel Castro, Alexander the Great, Octavian, Bobby Fischer, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Woz, most athletes (for many reasons), Reimann, etc.
[2] NB: I'm not talking about caffeine or ritalin.
Edit: I didn't mean to get on your case, petercooper; you seemed to have said things in good faith. I guess you touched a nerve...
This guy is really ignorant. It's the same mentality that thinks the valley is impervious to bubbles and inflation.
Yup - More than that - he thinks his limited value system applies to everyone.
Maybe he's never considered people do those jobs because they like them, because they are good at it, because it's dynamic, because it's lucrative, because they think it's an essential part of our society?
You know, similar reasons that people do startups.
Sure it's dynamic and lucrative, but I think the last few months have shown that shilling securitized high risk mortgages is anything but an essential part of society.
You can point at the current financial crisis, but there is absolutely no doubt that financial services are a fundamental part of society.
The current crisis owes a lot to greed, poor governance and ignorance (not only of the bankers, but the stockholders, pension funds, etc, etc, etc - i.e. everyone)... Even so, this isn't unique to the financial industry.
Wow Sam is getting crucified - this is even worse than when something about Co2scats makes it on Hacker News.
Here are my thoughts:
-I don't think I've ever heard of investment banking careers described as safe. When there's no deal flow, investment bankers are the first to go. If jobs could have finance betas (not software/website betas), investment banker would be around a 3.0 or higher, an accountant would be around a ~1.0, a nurse would be a 0.50 and a mailman would be a 0.25 (people have no idea how hard it is to get fired or laid off from a government job - reassignment is your friend).
-Market volatility, like a recession or oil prices affects nearly everyone directly or indirectly.
-You can "network" at any job, but I agree that it's probably easier to make friends faster at a startup due to the nature of the business. There's certainly myriad counterexamples, however.
-The tool bag line just made me laugh.
-Anecdotally, I think he's right about having a broader based skill set. Having had over 30 jobs (not a typo, I've worked since age 12) I've never picked up more useful skills in a shorter period than while at a startup. This could obviously vary.
-If you absolutely need to raise money as a startup, I think you're in one of the worst situations as capital is already drying up and people/institutions are becoming risk averse. Not good for startups.
-If you don't need to raise money and have enough savings/revenue to last for a year or two, I'm not sure if you're any better or worse off than anyone else. I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks on this.
-If you're young, without a family, sans serious medical conditions and geographically apathetic I'd argue you're better off working at an interesting startup for very cheap (stipend & equity & food & rent?) than you are taking a way-below market-compensation desk job. Why? Upside.
The lack of capitalization within the post and ping pong rub-in certainly doesn't help the cause, but I'm sure Sam has already figured that out. At least he inspired some interesting conversation; I've really enjoyed this thread.
Edit: Andr had some of the same points I did and posted before me. We've obviously both had a lot of exposure to the fun filled monkey business of finance.
In this case can Sam be forgiven being young and naive? So far it seems he has only experienced lifes "ups" and is surrounded by people who have yet to fail (in any significant way) with ego/attitude to match that such lack of hubris brings, hence the mentality.
What? Really, "you get the satisfaction of knowing you aren’t a complete tool bag every time you wake up in the morning."... They may have lost their jobs, but you lose at life.