Silicon Valley's acqui-hire gold rush: 9-month startups, instant millions, and shrinking ambition
edgarpavlovsky · x · 2026-10-27
Quoting a viral post on Silicon Valley's new era, edgarpavlovsky argues: (1) getting acqui-hired by OpenAI/Anthropic/Cognition is the least impressive, least impactful and least wealth-generating outcome, yet much of SV now targets it; (2) people who get rich fast (e.g. crypto) tend to check out — getting rich early and 'fucking off' makes you a boring, low-value person for life, with rare exceptions who compound wealth into more interesting things; (3) 'most people just want to make a few million dollars' — far more than most have, far less than the long tail. The quoted post frames the backdrop: building a startup in 9 months for an acqui-hire, or joining the right company at 22 and becoming post-economic, is warping a generation's relationship with money, ambition and work.
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