I was disappointed in this article when it was first published in July. Whenever a newspaper columnist makes a plea to reset humanity's "moral compass", you kno

I was disappointed in this article when it was first published in July. Whenever a newspaper columnist makes a plea to reset humanity's "moral compass", you know that the article is basically worthless, an exercise in futility. Usually, these posts are inspired by a sort of lazy annoyance that results when they receive one too many press releases about startups they don't want to cover. But more importantly, writing like this makes a fundamental mistake about how humanity moves forward. We don't do it efficiently, moving in a straight line. We do it while wasting tons of effort. A bit like the media. We could turn Allison's own criticism against her with an article about media coverage entitled: Writing All the Wrong Articles. If you look at any website, there is remarkably little news, and a whole lot of speculation, various ill-informed opinion pieces and other forms of clickbait. Waste is just part of human activity. You need to make mistakes before you get them right. Also, many startups create solutions that are appropriate for niches that any given newspaper columnist may not occupy. They look useless from the outside, but may serve their target well. Finally, the author doesn't even address the fact that industries core to human wellbeing, such as healthcare, are among the most heavily regulated. Founding a healthcare startup is a good way to waste 10 years of your life navigating obscure laws that impose a heavy compliance burden. And that is not startups' fault, it's the fault of lawmakers and industry lobbyists.