Why start a startup, or work for one? The typically rational response is: you expose yourself to more risk (bad) to get more reward (good).

I wonder how much is this really the case for others. For myself, this argument doesn’t register emotionally. I’m not working in a startup because of the payoff. In any case, it feels so distant that it doesn’t exercise a great pull.

The pull is in the freedom that it offers. Freedom to make decisions, to change course, to have to come up with something. This freedom is a good antidote to what Paul Graham summarizes as the main regret of the dying: Don’t be a cog.

Life is short and valuable and risky. Startups, with their default dead nature (and then stemming the flood when they are default alive) encourage you to somewhat fight for your life when you are working. Working in a place like this reduces the chance that you’ll fall into a rut. The situation will allow it less than you would otherwise.

I wonder if this conclusion applies to all risky activities, not just startups.

The reward of risk is that even if you didn’t succeed in living the life that you meant to live, at least you damn well kept on trying.