Of course we can warp the semantics and argue that these people are "sincere" in their desire to defraud retail investors or something, but that doesn't seem to be the author's argument.
Fundamentally, the vast vast majority of founders who exit successfully made society better somehow.
But ... it's also true that founders who exit successfully are like 0.001% of the Bay Area's population, but we talk about them like they're 10% ... so we should all stop talking about them so much ;)
"Useful" is quite the euphemism.
> Fundamentally, the vast vast majority of founders who exit successfully made society better somehow.
This is an extraordinary claim.
But there are lots of people with a sincere mission who we don't hear about, because they're quietly working toward their goals.
That doesn't say that their goals are worthwhile or that what they're doing is actually good for the world, but they can still sincerely believe it is.
Most of them fail, and we hear about precious few of them. That doesn't make them any less sincere either.