I think in the Valley there's an over-emphasis on design, sometimes one that comes at the expense of utility. If we look at the most popular places in the Web,

I think in the Valley there's an over-emphasis on design, sometimes one that comes at the expense of utility. If we look at the most popular places in the Web, like Craigslist or Wikipedia (or day I say YC), none of them are particularly beautiful. And they could be made more beautiful today sure, but they started with something highly utilitarian. At many start-up events, I've seen ideas that didn't really solve problems and weren't that utilitarian, but were so BEAUTIFUL that people assumed they were great. I worry about this, because then the founders get a lot of "false positive" responses, and when they actually enter the marketplace, they might find that reality <> expectation. Bad for them, but also bad for everyone else, because what's the cost of this huge emphasis on design as opposed to true utility?