imacat

Yes, it also shows how volatile people are when it comes to doing a startup.

I understand the usefulness of pivoting, but as it stands, people are pivoting across entire industries (into industries where they are completely inexperienced) for the sake of getting funding.

Some cross-pollination between industries is beneficial, but right now you have too much of it - It turns everyone into a snake oil salesman - All bling no substance... Everybody knows a bit about everything but nobody knows everything about anything.

YC encourages a breadth-first mentality which is subpar when it comes to encouraging deep innovation.

The YC decision process should be seen like a decision tree with the minimax (adverserial search) algorithm switched on... Applicants are YC's opponents, not their ally and they are always looking for ways to subvert the system.

Yes it sounds like a fantasy to me. People just love trends and hype cycles too much. As humans, we have an innate need to magnify the importance of certain things while marginalizing or ignoring others completely. It's easier to think in black and white instead of shades of grey.