It's the same cliche that gets repeated ad-naseum in HN. "Why I left X to build Y". Yes. YOLO. We know. You're pitching your startup. Is it not ok to offer critique? Taking too long to get to the point is a cardinal sin in writing and it's kinda lame to just label it as "haters gonna hate".
Again, the experience she described cannot be reduced to "YOLO." YOLO could just as easily mean "I left Google to do something bigger and more successful." But that's the opposite of what she did. She learned to figure out what she actually wanted instead of what she would get praised for, even if it was an overall less ambitious life path.
"She learned to figure out what she actually <strong>wanted</strong> instead of what she would get praised for, even if it was an overall less ambitious life path". YOLO.
Why waste your life doing what doesn't fulfill you? You only live once. Is that not applicable as well? This is precisely my argument. I'm just saying we should be ok with offering critique on style and content, not silencing it around here.
> Why waste your life doing what doesn't fulfill you?
Because it can be extremely difficult to distinguish your own needs/wants from the desires and expectations of the people around you.
No one wakes up in the morning thinking "I'm going to ignore what I want for no reason, and instead do what everyone else thinks I should want." And yet it's an easy trap to fall into, like the author did.
To the extent that "YOLO" can be applied to a variety of things, it does not make a good summary of anything.
On critiquing: something has gone very wrong when you're making dismissive and snarky remarks about someone's long, personal thought piece. You could do a number of interesting things, like, say, disagree with it or suggest improvements. But if you're idea of a critique is "this is long and boring and I know this stuff", I suggest simply finding other reading material instead.
Was this a pitch for her startup? She named it once, without a link. And it's a name that isn't easy to search for. If this is pitching, she's not very good at it.
Edit: It's http://letsmend.com/ - you can find a domain registration page if you search her name and the name of the startup.
That's what I got out of it. It's all pretty vague, so maybe it's just a post about how you should eschew the rat-race, go do your own thing, build your startup, and find happiness. Which is even more meh, honestly. Another key of good writing is to leave your reader with just one point in mind, one that never occurred to them before.
PG also has many essays that are regarding doing your own thing, and about life. Admittedly, I find PG much better in providing insight, however this article also does a pretty decent, (albeit with many platitudes) of giving us insight on living life. Something that apparently many people on HN think is not meh.
