I sometimes wonder if startups and silicon valley culture have been romanticized and hyped to such an extent that the immediate thing that comes to the mind of

I sometimes wonder if startups and silicon valley culture have been romanticized and hyped to such an extent that the immediate thing that comes to the mind of young hackers is to drop out of college to pursue/start a startup! Dreams are great, and so is working towards them but I don't think one should get carried away by this madness and start buying into and believing this fallacy. A startup is not simply about working on a cool project or some fancy idea that you believe is fancy, it's in essence a business. A solid, successful business takes many hands and years to build. Not each of us is a Gates. A few years finishing college is not going to set you back and will certainly not get in the way of the brilliant entrepreneur. I'm all for working on your passionate ideas, creating something of value, building a valuable startup -- but come on, let's not erode the basics and ignore the foundation of the building in hopes of getting to the top floor fast. It is foolish to take a few examples of outliers and think of it as a pattern in general.