[tptacek]

You can make the same kind of argument about this criticism of Graham. When it comes to YC's business principles, we have more to go on: the success of YC startups, and the way YC has transformed the funding landscape for startups. Those are real changes that YC was right in the middle of.

I'm not interested in looking to Paul Graham for advice on how to handle general issues in society (and am usually disappointed by what he has to say about them), but I'm also not interested in pretending that YC has been unsuccessful because it's politically convenient to make him a villain.

[throwawayknecht]

My bullseye metaphor was maybe a little off; the "target" I was talking about was not economic success, in which case YC hitting it is indisputable. It's the idea that this essay contains the principles necessary to achieve those financial results.

My claim is that YC has many principles that led to its financial success, and not all of them are, or are really compatible with, other principles mentioned in this essay.

("Good" as used in this essay also shares a kind of empty essentialism with Google's "evil" - a focus on BEING good or not BEING evil, rather than the trickier question of how to DO good / avoid DOING evil - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/what-...)