I think some people tend to take pg's startup ideas too seriously. I mean, I've heard talks by him in which he explicitly says not to take these too seriously.

I think some people tend to take pg's startup ideas too seriously. I mean, I've heard talks by him in which he explicitly says not to take these too seriously. They are examples and only examples. So right now, for example, it's pretty obvious security is a big thing. It doesn't (shouldn't?) take pg to tell you that. All you have to do is read the news. Find a big problem (it just happens that dating is one) and fix it. Don't plan on getting in YC (or any other incubator) or being successful simply because you picked something off one of pg's lists. I'd say the most important qualities of an entrepreneur is to be in tune with these problems without getting any sort of external guidance. It's not a good thing when someone comes on HN and posts a post-mortem about their YC experience beginning by citing an RFS or one of pg's "idea" essays. Personally, I think that some RFSs from 2009 (http://ycombinator.com/rfs.html http://ycombinator.com/rfs.html) are downright silly -- 5 and 3 in particular. Moral of the story: find something you're passionate about -- a problem, a niche, etc. -- and build something to fix it. If it happens to fit into one of the RFSs or pg's ideas, oh well, good for you I guess.