I dunno how much folks should trust this as more of an account of his specific journey, given this guy apparently didn't do an 83b election and got stuck with a big tax bill (ch 11).

OP here, 83b didn’t apply in my case as I had only stick options, referenced in chapter 11

Yeah, but as a founder, why did you have stock options rather than stock with a vesting agreement?

Even early employees can early exercise and file an 83b.

This chapter is just self inflicted through bad planning, where the correct advice is to vest stock and make sure you file an 83b when you start the company.

The advice everyone should be getting here is not "don't take out a loan", but "make sure you get stock and an 83b"