[throwaway991199]

I have to agree with you there.

I'm in Europe and I just polled a whole bunch of friends, anyone using these companies and got a resounding NOPE.

I just polled a bunch of US friends too and they say the same. Sure, purely anecdotal.

But for me, none of these have changed the world.

Maybe if you worship at the alter of YC or a wannabe Paul/Jessica groupie or liberal/progressive fantasist then I guess you totally buy into that.

Transformed is really a total stretch.

I'm still laughing after listening to that interview.

Waiting for the down-votes and I'm sure this will be flagged as it will upset some thin-skinned people who live in a (tech) bubble.

[dang]

I've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the HN guidelines, and because you don't seem to be using this site in good faith. Intentionally or not, your comments have the effect of trolling. (Grandiose rhetoric about YC and the HN community, btw, doesn't insulate an account from needing to follow the rules here.)

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email [e-mail] and give us reason to believe you'll follow the rules in the future.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12393868 and marked it off-topic.

[1123581321]

I down voted this comment because it is based on counterfactual anecdotes (those companies do have popular and well-liked products), and builds on those anecdotes to insult people who believe those statistics, and then tries to inoculate itself against criticism by accusing downvoters and flaggers of responding irrationally. The attempt to frame a predictable response as an unreasonable one hurts the discussion without offering anything in return.

I do agree that world-changing is a term used in contexts such as disease eradication. Certainly disease eradication changes the world more than avoiding a stay in a hotel. However, world-changing as a term is not restricted to the most impactful change to which it has been previously attached. For a typical programmer, making something that lets millions of people have an easier workday, vacation or home life should count as changing the world, even if it is a bit mundane.

[mgkimsal]

What's interesting is how we now view what is 'mundane'. Pretty much my entire 'normal' life in 2016 - in which pretty much everything is mundane - is beyond what many fiction writers were capable of thinking of just 30 years ago. Instant/live audio/video communication with people around the planet - for essentially free (24/7!) - is now taken as 'mundane'.

I know most of us 'know' this at one level - well, many do, anyway - but given the infrastructure we build on, most of what we end up building is somewhat 'mundane' by comparison.

Lastly, I'm of an 'older' generation. Those younger than me do not remember a time when what's 'mundane' now was ever exciting/new/revolutionary. Much like having grown up with color TV, telephones and refrigeration and not being able to imagine a world without those, my younger family really can not imagine a world without near-free 24/7 access to info/communication.

[icebraining]

In my home European city alone, 450 000 people have stayed on the 4500 available houses on Airbnb in 2015. Other cities have passed or are planning to pass new laws specifically due to its effects.

"Changing the world" is an ambiguous concept, but you can't say it hasn't had an impact on cities across the world.

[rezashirazian]

There are many companies that change the world that you nor your friends would probably ever hear from.

[wott]

Define 'world', then.