Lenny RachitskyHost of Lenny's Podcast | Author of Lenny's Newsletter

Silicon Valley's "last train" mindset

21 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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Lenny Rachitsky argues that Silicon Valley's obsession with making money fast creates a "last train" panic that pulls people away from what they actually care about. He suggests working hard in your early twenties so you can slow down later, rather than chasing every opportunity out of fear.

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Right now, Silicon Valley is uncharacteristically full of people who don't actually love computers. What I mean by that is like, oh, I want to make money. I think there is this idea of this is the last train, the permanent underclass kind of stuff. And it is so detrimental to thinking about how you want to spend your heartbeats in life. The advice I would give is like, just don't let the rush or the frenzy sort of distract you from the things that you actually care about and are passionate in life. I think you're actually way better off if you work incredibly hard by until from like 18 to 25 or whatever, like that's the way to go. Like you should work a lot, right? And then later you can work a little less.