[voxl]

Except the point being made is that only the rich and affluent get to make creative decisions. Though the experts who get any traction also belong to this group in my experience. A CMU Professor just draws more eyes than one from The University of Minnesota.

[dmix]

The "boy genius" cliche in Silicon Valley journalism is flawed and sometimes unhelpful, but it's not because it's strictly limited to "the rich and affluent"? Not sure where you're (or the author) is getting that.

Vitalik wasn't some rich kid who went to Harvard and was groomed by VCs. He was gambled on because he had some interesting ideas.

The fact the media loves Mozart types also doesn't mean that their cliches are true or representative of the culture either. It just shows what the readers of Wired and pop-science want to hear.

[balsam]

Gerard used the subtle term “social position”. People might take that to be “affluence” but it isnt necessary so. For example, a technically promising white child from any californian public school would be in a vastly better social position (from SV media’s POV) than a rank and file googler.

[skybrian]

It seems like lots of funders are looking for creative ideas to fund? Y Combinator is an obvious example but there are many others.

But it's true that it's competitive and you need a certain amount of education to even know you can apply and come up with a decent proposal. (And if you already have money, you don't need to look for more.)