1. Getting to ramen profitability with a team of 2 – 4 within six months to a year, AND
2. augmenting the human condition for a huge number of people in a meaningful way.
Well shit... if SV is a community of 2-4 person creating profitable products that augment the human condition every year...
"augment the human condition", "a huge number of people", and "a meaningful way" are really subjective and arguably VERY few people are doing things that meet those criteria.
those criteria aren't offensive, but the part that flips me was "it's not worth doing". Granted its 4 words in an otherwise insightful piece, but I have a problem with it when people tell others that their life's work is worthless.
People pursue all sorts of activities in their lives, personal and professional, that, by this metric aren't worth doing.
i'm aware, of course, that you've written opinionated pieces that narrowly define "startup" as well, so maybe all those things just aren't startups and don't apply.