Imagine someone interested in data mining and such but not in working at Google, for reasons that are outlined in PGs essays (inability to get things one, large

Imagine someone interested in data mining and such but not in working at Google, for reasons that are outlined in PGs essays (inability to get things one, large corporation, conformism, politics, etc.). YC were even running these ads in the beginning: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martindavidsson/96160482/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/martindavidsson/96160482/ So when you are 100% sold on the idea that a startup is the way to go instead of accepting that offer from big co., it turns out that they look for this as validation. I find this quite sad. About the market research part, you are right, but I think in the case of really transforming and original ideas, it is exactly the kind of approach that does not work: fix some variables, focus only on the few left. If it were so, we could write programs that come up with ideas.