> I’m just telling people reading this in college to take equity value seriously and not dismiss it as worthless because people on HN say to do that all the time.
The vast majority of those people who you are giving that advice to will be played for suckers. It is good advice only for a tiny fraction that have the capacity, the opportunity, and the resources to negotiate a non-exploitative equity package. It is terrible advice for all the rest.
I mean it might be rude to say "if you're able to get hired at top startups of a certain kind the equity might be nonzero" but for the people that applies to, it's not terrible advice. Like, high school kids in general should not assume they can count on a career in the NBA, but if you're a 7' tall human male you have a >10% chance of playing in the NBA in your lifetime, so for them knowing that they have greater odds of success could be valuable information.
> for the people that applies to, it's not terrible advice.
The advice being dispensed is superficially applicable to everybody who gets offered an equity package, and it is terrible advice for most of those people.
It's like giving high school basketball players advice which assumes they'll make it to the NBA.
Maybe he only talks to people going to Stanford - he lives in Palo Alto after all. The people going to Stanford tend to have such incredible privilege that they might just be the right people for his advice.
The vast majority of those people who you are giving that advice to will be played for suckers. It is good advice only for a tiny fraction that have the capacity, the opportunity, and the resources to negotiate a non-exploitative equity package. It is terrible advice for all the rest.