lvs strikes a chord with me as well. I'm also an academic (well, staff in implementation of MS Cloud technologies at a 150k user university). Coming from a very

lvs strikes a chord with me as well. I'm also an academic (well, staff in implementation of MS Cloud technologies at a 150k user university). Coming from a very liberal campus has exposed me to a great deal of people, from Anarcho-capitalists to Communists, and everything in between. I get the idea that simply "doing work to make money" doesn't change the world in meaningful ways. I think of it akin to the idea of "Rent" or lock-in. Both of those ways can be used, and quite effectively, to extract more money. Yet neither of those can be used to further science, arts, technology, engineering, philosophy, or other more academic pursuits directly. Making a new DRM technology to retard sharing of media isn't innovative: it's built on a broken premise that will turn into a time and money sink for all those whom are involved. Now, money can be used to fund those areas. YC is doing just that with the UBI research (linked elsewhere in this thread). But the money can also be stockpiled, sent in investments, or other non humanity-furthering ways. But, I think the crux of his argument is that this 'gravitational' force of money sucks innovative peoples, scientists, and similar into what amounts to a tar pit. There's only a limited amount of these types of people, and the claim is SV and similar cultures around the world is sucking the air out from more pressing pursuits. Now, the bad side: Academia is also just as poisonous... Just in not the ways SV is. Instead, at least in the US, I'm sure you know of the repercussions students have, are, and will go through for the loan crisis. My own job, as with most around me, are paid nearly all by exorbitant student loans. And it's a cyclical money-suck. Faculty also deal with nasty issues. Three of my friends are PhDs in various STEM areas. All 3 of them are adjunct faculty. In other words, cheaply paid contract labor. This is similar to the Uber-ification of teaching staff. I'm a relative outsider to that of business and that of academia (being IT staff). I see the value of both, and also its poisons. The more I think on it, it seems the underlying issue is money. Or better yet, it's the idea that one has to "grow or perish". The idea is the same in both spheres.