I think he is talking about not a "new profession", but new achievements within your profession. Good artists, architects and novelists constantly strive for th

I think he is talking about not a "new profession", but new achievements within your profession. Good artists, architects and novelists constantly strive for that. But startups is not a profession. It's a way to get from "zero" to "financially set for life". If your "profession" is business, then after making millions, you should aim for billions, and another web startup isn't a good way to get there. If you are trying to make something people want, then you can make a much bigger difference without trying to make a profit. Wikipedia and Ubuntu (and YC, for that matter) are good examples of that. If you're trying to be on the cutting edge of tech, research is better than startups. By the way, J.K. Rowling is not a good author, so it's a bad example.