Preface: I have a lot of respect for YC. It's created a lot of successful companies. As an outsider, here's why I think it will be difficult for YC to create substantial value in the future. Feel free to disagree with me in the comments.<p>The first problem: In tech, too many people want to start companies, and too few people want to solve problems.<p>YC, in its effort to build an institution of prestige, caused the glorification of starting and running a company. This creates noise by attracting the wrong type of people to apply. Their application prevents basic gamification, but in reality, it's created a strange pocket of companies that have little real impact on people.<p>We've seen that it's entirely possible to build a convincing image of a company that pretends to solve a problem. Their application unfortunately focuses very little on explaining what the problem is. Having users, growth, and profit does not always suggest that a problem is being solved.<p>This leads into the second problem, maybe a more fundamental one: YC's motto of "Make something people want" is misguided.<p>This is dangerously misleading for a few reasons. People often "want" something that's harmful to them in the long term. A lot of tech products offer people a shiny object, reap the rewards of selling that product, only to leave people worse off than they started.<p>I could build a business of selling heroin to users, and I've built something that people want. This seems like an extreme example, but the digital equivalent of heroin is social media.<p>A much better framing would be "Solve a big problem that people have". I think this change would go a long ways to solving both problems I've outlined. If they stick to this principle, they'll continue to be an institution that creates value for society in the long run.<p>YC has created pieces of "true" value here and there, but I hate seeing it go down this path of creating a system for the purpose of moving money around.