[yongjik]

In scale of awesomeness, 99.9% of silicon valley is closer to "Goldman Sachs" than "The Apollo Project" (if not below both). If a Goldman Sachs analyst spends his Christmas eve looking at charts, claiming he's furthering the wealth of mankind, you'd probably laugh.

[SamReidHughes]

It is not true that 99.9% of Silicon Valley is not furthering the wealth of mankind. Making products that are useful to people, in fact, does further the wealth of mankind.

[w4]

Sure, just like the Goldman Sachs analyst does generate liquidity.

Ok, ok, cheap shot. But come on, here: the average product created by a Silicon Valley startup barely reaches the threshold you've set (usefulness), never mind the more widely agreed upon definition of "furthering the wealth of mankind" (contributing to a substantial improvement in the human condition or knowledge).

[SamReidHughes]

Okay, but even if 50% or more of startups don't actually succeed in being useful to people, by failing, they still aren't trying to be whatever you deem Goldman Sachs to be -- they are (many of them are) attempting to make something useful.

(I also think Goldman Sachs does useful things too, like buying commodities when they're cheap so that they can sell them when they're not cheap, an act which, if Goldman makes money off the trades, causes certain units of that commodity to be more used more efficiently.)