Comment by 0xbadcafebee

> [at a startup] you get very direct access to users and customers and their problems, which means you can actually have empathy for what's actually going on with them, and then you can directly solve it.

I'm calling BS on this. The empathy fairy doesn't bless you just for working at a startup, just like it doesn't disappear when you work for big tech. You have to actually create and nurture empathy yourself. You have to engage in the work: learning about the products, all the people you've never met that build things you didn't know existed, how all of it eventually becomes a thing for a customer to use, and how to make it better. In that process, you learn to care about things you didn't before.

Can you "directly solve" a problem for customers in a big company? Sometimes. But more often, you have to work together with other people to solve it. You have to use initiative, talk to people, coordinate things, lead initiatives. It's more work. And because it's more work, it's even more rewarding when you solve something. You may have even improved a lot more than the original problem in the process.