rone | why do you fucknuts keep trying to bring back the fin de millénaire feel it is dead fucking stop it

So Chris Jones brought this smug little tip list to my attention and, lo, did my gorge rise. Find here my response:

The "cool" perks are being phased out
If you're sucker enough to go to a start-up because of the "cool" perks, then i guess you're shallow enough to believe that phasing out flashy crap is a bad sign.
You stop trying to explain to your family and friends what your company does
The assumption that your family and friends are "laymen" that need special translating skills is obscenely condescending.
The job description you were hired for no longer fits what you do
Is that a bad thing? Then maybe talk to your boss about it. A good company reëvaluates a contributor's role whenever necessary. Things change. Are you adjusting? Do you want to adjust?
You keep hearing "that's bullshit" in your head during the quarterly company pep talk
Nothing special about start-ups in this regard. And if your start-up has "quarterly pep talks", you're already in trouble.
You realize that your degree got you here, but you're not using it
So fucking what? There are tons of people in tech who have degrees that are unrelated to their job. Many of them are happy with their work. We already know that college doesn't do a good job at preparing you for the working world. Stop deluding yourself.
Your angel investors become, well, demonic
Finally, unreserved agreement. I saw it happen at gBox 5 years ago. I could not leave quickly enough. VC can also be unwelcomely and destructively meddlesome (that was at Visible Path).
You increasingly compare your life to the movie Office Space
If this is happening at a start-up, you're utterly fucked.
You increase your blog and web comic consumption, and your performance doesn't suffer
Don't blame the start-up for your own suck-ass attitude.
Grad school – any grad school – suddenly sounds appealing
It's not merely about being bored. Maybe you've just had an epiphany about a change of direction. Again, this is a personal thing, not a start-up thing.
The CEO defers going public for "another couple of years"
Your company is massively fucked and you don't even know how bad it is.
You stop recommending friends for positions at the company
Huge red flag, but again, not start-up specific.
Your job title is increasingly disproportionate to the amount of responsibility you have
This is just a re-run of 3. You might be fucked; you might simply be suffering from not having your voice heard. Find out.
The company overpromises and underdelivers
See 10.
Your move to full-time from contract keeps getting delayed
See 10.
Your company is no longer a start-up
Guess what, you nincompoop: successful businesses are run by grownups. Stop trying to chase the eternal perfect start-up so you can keep being an overpaid adolescent. You want career growth; start-ups want to become a real company, too, either on their own merits or by getting acquired by a real company. Making it to the next level doesn't mean you can't keep going to work on your scooter.