I had to run before I finished, but to wrap it up: Going back to the initial set up of the piece, he was trying to help startups get into YC. Basically he was

I had to run before I finished, but to wrap it up: Going back to the initial set up of the piece, he was trying to help startups get into YC. Basically he was helping them sell themselves to YC, by having them answer “explain what you learned from users” If it’s any effective at all, then by answering this question, you can make your startup very compelling to YC. Would it work? One way to judge that is to apply it to what he knows (YC) and see if it’s appealing to startups both now and back in 2005. So the complaint about how this piece feels sales-y is missing the forest for the trees, because that’s the point of the exercise! By the very nature of the intent of the question, of course it’s going to sound like a sales pitch for YC. That’s the whole purpose of the exercise to begin with. It’s a question, when answered, begates a sales pitch for getting into YC.