Nearly anyone who has ever asked me about my thoughts on Silicon Valley culture has probably gathered that I have a pretty negative view of startups. It’s sad to me that anyone would go into computer science, a wonderfully exciting field, just to “get rich quick.” If you spend enough time at Stanford, you’ll become all too comfortable with hearing nauseating phrases such as “I’m looking for a technical cofounder for my VC-funded stealth mode startup.” (Of course, that was an exaggeration.) There are so many people who don’t see the excitement of computer science, and I’m okay with that–not everyone has to like CS. What bothers me is the idea that people force themselves to do something they’re not interested in when they have the means to do something else.

Continue reading →