> Of course, not everyone can get an offer at a FAANG, but again, if you could get an offer, startups basically never make sense anymore. You almost always will get more even if the startup hits, which is rare.

Of course plenty of people prefer to work at startups because the environment is more fun and you have direct influence on what ships and often direct contact with customers.

Remember when Google suddenly gave an across-the-board 10% raise to every employee to try to stave off defections to startups? Sure, there are certain jobs that are fun (depending on your interests) and of course it's easy to find "phone it in" positions at FB and Google, but most of my friends avoid FAANG or are glad they left.

Once your comp hits $X there's more to life than money.