The paths that Ranjit and I were drawn to also offered something else: prestige. Though hard to define, prestige can be thought of as the attention you get when you do things that others see as impressive. Paul Graham, the founder of a startup incubator and mentor to thousands of young people, sees this attention as a trap. In his view, prestige is

This is the trap of prestigious career paths. Instead of thinking about what you want to do with your life, you default to the options most admired by your peers.