Argh, typos. For the record, here's what I meant to write:

I've used the phrase cargo cult startup to describe this phenomenon (after Feynman's phrase "cargo cult science"): going through the motions in the hopes that your intended result will happen, without understanding cause and effect.

Excellent insight and description; thanks. Going to use that as needed. Now that's an idea worth spreading!

Yeah if you read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult#Post-war and swap "investor money" for "cargo" it works quite amusingly.

Did it, agreed :). Re. "cargo cult", interestingly, the way I got to know of the term, was via a National Geographic article from years ago. [1] They actually sent a team to those islands in the Pacific (Melanesia, maybe) and documented the cults live, with text, maybe interviews and definitely photos - airstrip, trucks, people ... I still remember some of those things they showed and they match what is mentioned in the Wikipedia article. Think I even remember the term / cult John Frum (and just guessed, correctly, that Frum means from).

[1] This is from long back, when the mag was extremely good, with those stunning photos and great write-ups of places and things and people of all over the world. Later it became thinner, with shorter articles, less photos, etc.