Nobody is forced to become a founder. A lot of people are naive to the sheer level of stress involved, and think it’s going to be easier than it actually is. You don’t find out just how stressful it is until you’re already super committed, have raised money, have employees, and there’s no easy way out without screwing a whole bunch of people over.
Founders tend to only talk about the good things happening at their companies, and tech press tends to focus on the successes. These things contribute to more people starting companies.
On the flip side, though, any regular HN reader has likely seen dozens of accounts written by startup founders whose companies have failed. And there's quite a bit of overlap between the set of HN readers and the set of past, current, and likely-future startup founders.
Yes and optimism bias leads people to believe they won’t experience those negative events. Everyone must believe they are going to do better than the median outcome when they start a company.
Founders tend to only talk about the good things happening at their companies, and tech press tends to focus on the successes. These things contribute to more people starting companies.