Fine, but that comment was not a proper criticism or a warning - it was a dismissal. Even having revised my opinions on pg and his writings, I find coldtea's summary to be unfair.
Loved that essay back in 2005, you know. PG and YC were just starting then, no? But, since then, I watched in awe what they built and how their work touches and improves my life every day.
Maciej? He's writing about how we shouldn't go to Mars these days. He's and excellent and very entertaining writer and I am sure he has plenty to teach me but I'd rather listen to PG. My focus is limited and I'd rather follow someone who already helped me get ahead and showed me what the possibilities truly are instead of pushing his limits onto me.
But, please indulge me, I am curious: how is this mindset serving you? Are you a happy person? Are you a balanced person? Are you a successful person? Do you have everything you need? How long have you been thinking like that? What would it take to change your mind?
How is turning an exchange about the merits of going to Mars or the quality of a VC-slash-startup-guru-blogger output into cheap psychologizing and ad hominems serving you?
Do you think you come out as balanced and happy by doing this?
Do you regularly think anybody that thinks differently than you, or doesn't gulp down whatever snake-oil the "succesful" sell, is problematic, unhappy, unsuccesful, unbalanced, and should "change their mind"?
Do you think that only business guru admirers or grind culture entrepreneurs are "happy"? Do you think only techno-optimists dreaming of strongmen like Musk and Bezos giving them Mars colonies are "balanced"? (And do you think either groups are anywhere close to a balanced person, as opposed merely naive and happy-go-lucky victims of Californian Ideology?)
Belief systems can all be attractive in theory but you can compare their merits by simply looking at the actual results in the life of people adopting them.
Since you are aggressively pushing yours onto others it would be interesting to know how they work for you. Sorry if it felt as an ad hominem attack, it was never my intention, I was just curios. My apologies.
https://idlewords.com/2005/04/dabblers_and_blowhards.htm