I presume you meant one way NDA, your overall point is a really good one. Contracts are very useful as a leading indicator of how the counterparty thinks about the relationship.
FWIW professional liability insurance absolutely can make sense, even be necessary when writing software, depending on the nature of the contract and your overall responsibilities.
Startups in the valley were a thing well before low interest rates were even imagined. Interest rates change the landscape, but it's hardly a prerequisite.
I know a bunch of software engineers who haven't followed this trajectory, and I suspect that's where the this advice was aimed.
Particularly if you start off recently(ish) on the SWE FAANG track and were lucky with RSU timing etc., you'll find a lot of the options that come your way don't pay nearly as well. But you may find them exciting anyway.
> If the law is changed it will not only limit Peter Thiel from doing this but also you and me.
That obviously not necessarily true. One can imagine a change in law that limits tax sheltering of this type for any individual to say, 10mm. A tiny fraction of the population would be affected.
This is the real weakness of most MOOCs. Most people are not disciplined enough to do nearly enough of the real work themselves without some sort of outside incentive. At least not until they have several years of practice.
Physics is a bit like that anyway though, you can't learn it by reading or listening to anyone, you have to solve things yourself from scratch, usually multiple times.
Reading good books/having good lecturers certainly helps, but there is no way to replace the work.