I was originally intending to ignore the now infamous Jason Calcanis post. It was so sweatshop-ish, so completely over-the-top, I honestly figured it would just largely be ignored.

Of course, whenever TechCrunch picks up a story, people's ears prick up and take notice, and now everyone is a-Twittering and blogging and overall freaking out.

Duncan Riley's single quote from his reponse to Calcanis' post that keeps being repeated is "Expect to check your family at the door if you want to go work for JCal." Reading it over and over again just makes me sad. The attitude conveyed in Calcanis' post is one that's all too prevalent in the Valley, and the main reason I've fought ever moving there tooth and nail. I've lived the life of a start-up wife, clinging to a single-digit employee number and stock options that, if the company went IPO, would mean we'd never have to think about money. I was a single mother over half the time while my husband put in 80 hour weeks and traveled. We sweated weeks that payroll would be late, funding that never seemed to close when you wanted it to.

Riley was right about checking family at the door. When my third child was hospitalized, my husband wasn't here. I can't count the number of things that he missed in the hopes of making it big. The mantra is that the Valley is where the only people who survive are the ones who are willing to risk everything, but what percentage ever make those millions? And how many just go from one start-up to the next, hoping that the next one is the big one?

There are things in this world worth more than egoboo, conference panels, and millions of dollars. And as nice as it would be to not have to think about money, I think we both like it better this way.