April 4, 2016: Interesting article in the NY Post today – yes, the NY Post. The headline for the article is “Millennials are being dot-conned by cult-like tech companies.”

The article is a review of Dan Lyons’s new book, “Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble” (Hachette Books). In the book he recounts his time at tech start-up HubSpot. I’ve put the book on my reading list (so this is just a recounting of the Post article) but for anyone who works in this world the article points out the ridiculous, adolescent culture promulgated by some cynical VCs looking for the next FaceBook.

Memo to the the 28 year old Android programmer: you are the modern-day 1849 Gold Miner, working for the Company. Your chance of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg are equivalent to your chance of winning the Powerball lottery. Many in the VC community prey on these aspirations by compensating you with stock options not cash – and of course in most cases these stock options will never be worth a dime.The point of this is not to dissuade the millennial generation (or any of us)  from following their dreams; it is simply to point out the reality of the gig. Most of us won’t transform the world – Plato did; Leonardo da Vinci did; Jonas Salk did; lots of people I’ve never heard of did. But the people who brought you Zynga did not. And chances are you won’t either. Don’t fret: it’s called growing up. You can do good, you can be a force for good in your family and community and contribute: these are all noble goals most of us aspire to meet. But to transform the world? My 1983 Columbia College classmate Barack Obama perhaps has; me and the rest of the class, probably not so much.

There are obvious reasons why stock options are a great form of compensation for many employees: the individual’s financial improvements are tied to those of the company. If the company makes money, options vest and are worth money; if the company doesn’t make money the options become worthless. However, if the management of a company disingenuously uses options to entice young workers to forego compensation when it knows it’s spinning some tall tales, you’ve got an ethical problem. That’s what Lyons’s book presumably points out.