Could it be that this generation of new programmers will never see their new tech invention become meaningful?

If someone creates a new idea and it takes off they either get huge offers from existing companies to buy it or those companies use their huge resources to build a bigger and better version.

In the age of the start of facebook and reddit there were no mega corps taking interest or possessing the talent in these areas.

Technology companies matured into consumer hostile mammoths, no room for small competition anymore. Build something just good enough to sell off to a big guy and move on. It would be impossible for the events leading to myspace/facebook/reddit to happen again today.

Im a CS undergrad right now and in need of a side project... I'll start right now :)

But for real, the idea of Reddit seems perfect to me its just way to popular now. Maybe a platform where you need to pass some sort of quiz created by the mods of the different communities in order to post/comment? I could see this having lots of issues though.

Also I don't really mind reddit going to shit ever since I found HN a few years ago.