But as long as the startups get good advice I'm happy.
What will rise up and be the new YC for unconnected 18 year olds? YC probably wouldn't even talk to Steve and Alexis under the current expanded growth model. pg grew their idea and seeded their initial user base from his personal website readership.
I think Sergey once mentioned (jokingly) he's not smart enough to be hired at Google anymore. That's kinda the YC situation, isn't it? The original people of YC created something bigger than themselves, and maintaining+growing the behemoth machine is the focus now. The people who "grew up" inside YC run it now because they helped create it. But, as an outsider, you can't just be hired into the machine. You can't grow the same way the originators did—you have to prove your worth elsewhere (this parking spot is already taken).
There's always space for new scrappy teams to out maneuver established organizations. What would a new "the next YC" look like? You probably can't start it as a tech industry outsider. You'll need to have had your VC connections and an exit or two already under your belt. The easiest route would probably be to round up a team of traitorous YC partners who say "this has grown too big and crazy, we need to reset our roots back to the original problem space again."
What will rise up and be the new YC for unconnected 18 year olds?
???
Maybe those people are just so stealthy that I don't notice that you're staffing up in that area as well. Just a thought!