You're misrepresenting reitzensteinm's position, which he put clearly: "I don't disagree with the direction of your sentiment, just the magnitude of the word you are using." His comment certainly seems to have been made in good faith even if you disagree with it.
Your tone on other hand is combative and patronizing. The HN guidelines say "When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names," and "Be civil."
I tend to agree with reitzensteinm that we in Silicon Valley should remember how good we have it compared to the rest of the world. Our fortune comes not only from hard work and talent, but from being born in the right decade in a prosperous country.
I was going to comment on reitz' original statement because something was off in the way it was put.
I didn't because every time I went over it and sliced it, there was too much scope to misunderstand what was said.
But there were 2 aspects that I knew were triggers -
1) His underlying assumption that the employees were there for playing the "startup lottery". Firstly this ascribes knowledge of the mind set of the emps. Secondly this ignores the fact that Zynga also was a "safer" firm given its history and at the time, certain prospects.
The employees for that firm which are hurting today aren't necessarily the same as your first batch or second batch hires in an untested startup.
(this is why I didn't comment - there are many ways to slice and dice this further, and suffer from badly drawn edges and subsets)
2) His description of it as startup lottery. The underlying philosophy here on HN, and in most places which discuss startups is strongly merit oriented.
His statement carried the implication that all the discussions so far were eye wash - it was a lottery and people lost, bad luck.
His later clarifications were pretty crucial to explain his context, but I can completely see where he ticked people off.
Your tone on other hand is combative and patronizing. The HN guidelines say "When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names," and "Be civil."
I tend to agree with reitzensteinm that we in Silicon Valley should remember how good we have it compared to the rest of the world. Our fortune comes not only from hard work and talent, but from being born in the right decade in a prosperous country.