While I agree with the headline I think his specific advice - not to give people feedback on their ideas in the conceptual phase - is bullshit. When somebody a

While I agree with the headline I think his specific advice - not to give people feedback on their ideas in the conceptual phase - is bullshit. When somebody asks me what I think of their idea, I start by highlighting several things I like about it, then discuss a couple of the challenges or risks, and try to make suggestions about useful next steps. People almost invariably find it valuable -- and often tell me later how much even this short conversation helped them. Conversely, I often ask people what they think of my early-stage concepts, and their responses are almost always useful. Even if somebody just says "wow that's a great idea!" without really thinking about it, I can continue the conversation with "Cool, what do you like about it?" > Your ability to predict the future is no better than his. Really? It's not like I have a crystal ball, but after doing startups and strategy for 25 years, I've seen quite a lot of patterns for success or failure, and learned a bunch of techniques for making success more likely. What's the matter with sharing that?