Allegations of "Victim blaming" are a classic tactic to shut down discussion by implying that anyone who steps out of the appropriate mental box will be deemed an accomplice.

You can invent whatever descriptions you wish, but it is victim-blaming. Vague threats of a public backlash against sexual harassment lawsuits is an attempt to blame women for filing them and attach implicit suspicions to their claims. Reminder that Tinder has confirmed the inappropriate messages.

Discussion about what, exactly? That women are not trusted enough to not bring false allegations, therefore men should always have witnesses to make sure that men are not victims of even false allegations?

Seriously, if you are the victim of a false allegation that is later proven to be false, then your reputation is not destroyed. If you are the victim of one instance of a false allegation that later reveals a pattern of bad behavior, then you should not have behaved badly in the first place.

Basic income is a potentially unlimited liability without any government control over fertility. If the needs of the portion of the population that are net consumers grow quicker than the surplus from net producers, an economic apocalypse happens sooner or later.

In a world of dysgenic fertility, this is guaranteed[1].

[1] http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2014/06/dysgenics-is-mo...

The entire premise of this completely unsubstantiated blog post is refuted by the well-substantiated Flynn effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

Probably a positive environmental effect masking decline in genetic potential IQ, which there is evidence for: http://www.xenosystems.net/dysgenic-reactions/

Every US Government department operates on a shoestring budget, if you listen to them. It's amazing that they can keep the lights on.

Empathy is easy. Building something worth a damn is hard, and incredibly rare in human history.

Moreover, calling it "luck" discourages others from adopting these repeatably beneficial habits and ideas for pulling a family out of poverty.

How could I make sure my offspring have a better life than I did? If my only option is "luck", then why bother trying?

Working hard is making sure you don't toss your winning ticket away. More people, working to keep their families out of poverty, changes the odds of the lottery.

But that doesn't change that it is a profound fortune to be born into such a family.

I agree with your points, I have seen people use similar justifications for why they have not improved their lives. Which is unfortunate but I think it's the wrong battle.

Many more times I have seen people from middle class or better backgrounds talk about how they got where they were because of hard work or drive or whatever. And then use that as justification for why some social program should be cut, like food stamps. The way I look at it, the "might as well not try" argument harms a few people who have the least influence in society. The "I worked hard and made it so we don't need social programs" argument is made by some of the most influential people and the programs they cut effect millions.

I know that people will make political hay of this, but there is danger to managing to quarterly statistics. If your economy needs some adjustments to achieve long-run sustainability then it's possible that GDP may fall for a quarter or two and there's nothing wrong with that.

GDP is a great metric for long-term or inter-national comparison. It's terrible as a quarterly national management metric.

The crazy thing is that people go through this experience and want to do it again. A failed startup leaves you burned out, emotionally wrecked, and financially crippled. Why take another ride on that roller coaster? Pride? Status? Money?

For the same reason you ride a roller coaster: For the thrill of the ride.

You also get to work for something you care about.

And yes, there's the possibility of high financial rewards, but that's unlikely.

For many of us, we just can't help it - it's an innate part of us - to build something.

I'd recommend the author substitute it with "let down", even though it doesn't as accurately describe how she likely feels.

Political correctness is bullshit. They stabbed her in the back at the worst possible moment, its called stabbed in the back because had they not lied to her about their motivations she could have gotten real co-founders and not be left out without a team at the worst possible moment. They are lucky they got the treatment that they did on this post-mortem. They deserve to get outed publicly. If not only as a service to others who would not knowingly do business with those whose word holds no water.

We don't even know the full story (& probably never will), yet you're already advocating mob justice? That's about as bad, if not worse, than the political correctness you're railing against.

I find it refreshing that we got this level of truth and detail from a startup post-mortem. The price for that transparency is selective opacity in a few still-sensitive areas. I get the deal.