> and equity is a lottery ticket.

What's surprised me is that most of the younger coworkers I've had, having grown up largely through boom times, absolutely believe that this equity has tremendous value. I've had multiple younger coworkers talk about how excited they are to have so much equity in companies that have no visible path to a liquidity event.

There's a mythology in this business and it's highly seductive. You need to get burned once or twice by the reality before you learn.