[seehafer]

Posts like this always essentially boil down to one statement:

"The startup (in the pg sense of the term) lifestyle is not for me."

And that's ok. For most people, making a dent in the universe is not an existential need.

[oinksoft]

I always forget the name of that startup where Torvalds wrote Linux ... he couldn't have made a dent without a startup, could he?

[olalonde]

But the same reasoning applies. What was Torvald's "expected value" at the time he wrote Linux? Probably -XXXXX$ if we factor in opportunity cost.

[dmor]

you don't have to have a startup to make a dent, but if you make your goal "work 30 hours a week with a nice salary" to doubt you will achieve anything close to creating Linux

[melanie_io]

OR, most people realize that building a wildly successful photo app / car sharing service / daily deal site does not 'make a dent in the universe.'

[olalonde]

"wildly successful" is usually a good proxy for "make a dent in the universe" (assuming he/she didn't literally mean physically denting the universe).

[dusing]

99.9999% of startups are not denting anything, or really even trying to.

[seehafer]

I'd agree that most aren't, but that doesn't mean they're not trying to (laboring under mistaken assumptions and the like)

This also depends on what making a "dent in the universe" means to you.

[dusing]

Personally I use Steve Jobs' definition. And yes some may "think" they are.