Comment by mc3

The question is what is Expectation(Total Wealth) working at tech Giant vs. joining a typical startup (with no crystal ball bias).

Esp. given that most single peeps working at tech Giant can live in a slave box eating supermarket food and save most of their income and invest it. They can probably use their income for leverage build a property investment portfolio, which if the rent covers the mortgage, they will still have savings to invest in stocks.

Now take into account the $10M lifestyle and the $200M lifestyle, and for a hacker who isn't into 1st class flights, balls and cristal (see what I did!) I think 10M would be enough money to retire in a humble house somewhere in suburbia and hack on side project, even with a family to support.