Today I read an article with the headline "How to Pick the Right Idea for Your Startup." That right there epitomizes exactly what is wrong with startup culture.
Don't have an idea? Don't have a startup.
Ideally, problems could be solved and ideas implemented without the need to form a company, get funding, or turn a profit. Those are simply (often optional) measures that must be taken to help realize the end goal.
I disagree with that. Some of the better startups we've funded changed their idea completely during YC.
It's the founders that matter, not the idea. So I'd say instead: if you're not the right sort of person to start a startup, don't start a startup. But of course that is a complicated matter to decide because (a) people often don't know if they are the right sort of person and (b) people change.
We already do, kind of. We know that a significant fraction of the groups we accept will change their idea, and that we can contribute as much of their new idea as necessary.
Sometimes we even tell people when we accept them that we'll accept them if they do something different. Greplin was one of those.
Don't have an idea? Don't have a startup.
Ideally, problems could be solved and ideas implemented without the need to form a company, get funding, or turn a profit. Those are simply (often optional) measures that must be taken to help realize the end goal.