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Comment by Sorry_Rum_Ham | Hacker News Reader

His thesis statement is entirely misleading. He absolutely recommends it. The entire article reiterates several times how happy he was and continues to be that he passed up more secure opportunities again and again over the years.

Not sure why the clickbaity title was necessary.

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How is it that you think I recommend it? It's a pretty genuine warning that it's a hard way to make a living.

I expected it to be about how you regret your choice and you would recommend this path to almost no one. This seemed to be what other readers expected too. But, instead, you talked about how happy you were with the choice. Also, you hedged your anti-recommendation quite a bit:

> "If you are looking for security or reassurance, I do not recommend this line of work."

I don't think people proudly believe they want "reassurance", in many cases.

> "However, if you are burning with curiosity — if your heart and intuition lead you to do things that don’t make sense—well, then you don’t really have a choice in the matter, do you?"

I think people would much rather think of themselves as "burning with curiosity".

(Isn't curiosity cooler than reassurance/security? At least in the HN audience?)

I interpreted your closing statements, very roughly, as ~"Careful, don't do what I did if you're normal. Only do what I did if you're cool." So it was actually a recommendation, in my mind.

Ah, thanks for the explanation. I found the "clickbait" bit to be a leap (though you weren't the only person to say so). This is how I really feel about it. I wish I felt like I had enough of a choice in the matter to say "oh well, that was a mistake." If I felt like I did have a choice, no, I wouldn't recommend it.

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