It doesn't take extreme privilege to quit your job and indie hack for 5 years. It takes $60k in savings and extreme frugality (or the equivalent of the cheapest amount you can live on for 5 years in your country). $60k of savings can easily be saved in a year with a junior dev job in the USA, or 2 years in Europe as long as you have the frugality. Of course, you do sacrifice having a family, living in an expensive area, going out to restaurants and all other luxuries, but you can own your time without being born into any sort of wealth or privilege outside of being born in a country with GDP per capita above $10k.
Most people would rather live a more normal middle class life and work for the man instead. To each his own, but don't act like it's not a choice available to practically 100% of HN readers.
Sorry, where in EU or US can live a "normal" live on $12k/year? Sure, you can do it if you live in a one bed-room apartment in the middle of nowhere and only eat home-cooked pasta every day. But I don't think anybody that had an above average lifestyle before that can sustain that for 5 years, especially if you know that "luxury" is just one succesful job application away.
I have seen this logic presented in multiple places. While it might be possible to live that frugally, it only works if you have your work already sorted out. Like the business plan or an app idea. As a college student who spent $2/day on food (India 15 years back), I can assure that it’s not the setup for a healthy mindset. It also restricts exposure a lot and thus limits access to new ideas. Most of my brainpower was spent on penny pinching each expense.
Most people would rather live a more normal middle class life and work for the man instead. To each his own, but don't act like it's not a choice available to practically 100% of HN readers.