Have hired twice from them, both are total winners. But took a lot of pruning to get there!

thanks for your thoughts, appreciated!

re '"but will never be "great" at either" What sort of attitude is that?' - I don't consider this a bad attitude, more of an acknowledgement that my goal is not to be "great". Further, I am of the personal belief that certain things are unattainable to all people - there is such a thing as a truly great writer, where it's not just attitude/hard work, but a certain natural inclination and ability. I believe I can be great at many things (we all can), but I don't think I have the mindset to be a "great" programmer. Does that make more sense?

jtoeman, I do understand, and your clarification helps. Perhaps I just see that there's no reason to limit yourself, it just becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Focus on what you enjoy and you'll naturally become better at it, even if that isn't your goal.

thanks - agreed with your philosophy in general.

in this particular situation, the employees want the company's stock - the team is just trying to figure out what's fair...

OF COURSE you can. but it's about choices. you must weed OUT the 60+ hr/week startups for the ones who work normal hours. this will eliminate some fun/great opportunities - BUT - it will NOT eliminate ALL great opportunities.

our startup's been a ~50hr/wk place for 2 years, built great product, and got acquired in January. we didn't make $19B, but we aren't complaining either.

from your priority set, which I personally agree with, you have plenty of options - but you'll have to be "on guard" for the manic places that think 70hrs is normal and the "only way" to be successful. pro tip - they are incorrect.

i do recommend coming up to SF over the peninsula though.... YMMV.

But, watch out! There is a constant exposure to these glorious tales of success and achievement and it will change anyone's mind and attitude. After sometime here, if you a have a little bit of ambition, you wouldn't mind these long working hours and you will also be trying hard to "make it" in the valley.

Are you saying that ~50hr/wk is in the "normal" category?

Meh. I remember back when you could only register .ly domains using a Japanese registrar. Now it's so mainstream.ly

would love to hear the story of how you went from zero to game... where did you start, what resources did you use, etc...

I am writing a blog post to cover all aspects of my journey. As summary, started with MoaiSDK, ended up with Xcode,Obj-C and Cocos2d. http://www.raywenderlich.com is great start for newbies. Thanks for your interest.

It's actually the most accurate piece on what's going on inside the TV industry I've seen from a non-insider...

OP here - sorry for the dupe, I searched but didn't see it yesterday. Mostly I thought it was a funny video that the community would enjoy - hope it didn't offend!

Oh, don't worry about that at all. These things are not always obvious, and we're all learning how to make HN better.

As someone with 15 years experience building TV technology, my statement is: this is a must-read for anyone who wants to build, invest in, or otherwise "play" in this space.

and thus, like every other forum online, "those who came before" are massively rewarded, and new users are basically treated like crap.

coming soon to HN - AOL keywords, blinking text, and animated ASCII art!