The GP is referring to a well-known phenomena that the founder of HN described in http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html.

The GP is referring to a well-known phenomena that the founder of HN described in http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html. > We saw this happen so often that we made up a name for it: playing house. Eventually I realized why it was happening. The reason young founders go through the motions of starting a startup is because that's what they've been trained to do for their whole lives up to that point. Think about what you have to do to get into college, for example. Extracurricular activities, check. Even in college classes most of the work is as artificial as running laps. Many people, and I'd argue most people, start startups for their careers and for fun. Actually focusing on the business and solving business problems is foreign, grunge work. It's no surprise that founders and early employees pursue exciting tech to distract themselves from the challenge of product-market fit.