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FWIW, there's a study that looked at patent filings and paper publications for inventors in small vs. large companies.

It seems that as a whole, when people choose the Big-X route, they tend to make fewer inventions and publish fewer papers and their inventions and papers get cited less.

So, in theory, by going to work in Big-Tech, you're choosing greater comfort and prestige, while reducing your overall impact on the world, while the startup route holds much more expected impact, but a much higher likelihood of reduced financial comfort.

There's a part of me that thinks that nations that encourage hoarding talent would be less successful than those that encourage innovation, and therefore, I wonder if we need some sort of innovation grant (i.e.: for every successful patent application/company registration/etc. that is NOT fraudulent, the submitter gets 24 months of financial support at the median income level, so they can chase that dream)




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