Even if you know the truth behind a statement like that, it's hard to read something that earnest and not have an initial eye roll in response. As someone who doesn't know the YC team's motivations, it's nice to know that at least someone thinks that some of the earnestness is real.

Maybe I'm a fool then because I would read that and take it in earnest as I read and take much of the HN community in earnest. I have a great deal of respect for YC and the HN community - I guess the point of my original post was it's a little disappointing that isn't the case.

Maybe you just haven't watched the show "Silicon Valley" ;). It's all about "making the world a better place." ;)

Whenever I talk to other founders about YC, encouraging them to apply they are often asking about "what the catch is", "yeah, yeah, but how are they really?" because they don't believe it is really like that. It has become kind of a joke the phrase "making the world a better place" but YC is one of the few places where they mean it