Yeah, I dunno. Today Silicon Valley sounds more and more like the old money club of Wall Street than the kids in the garage that will soon revolutionize the world.
Of course, a big part of revolutionizing the world is not knowing you're doing it. You can't throw a rock and miss a start-up in SF that isn't planning on "changing the world" right now. Most are doomed.
... or Holywood, where VCs (producers) minimize risk by funding well-known formulas betting that a blockbuster will save the summer, while talented programmers (actors) get any job out there, stay a few months, cash in and go to the next gig. A bunch of other untalented wannabes (biz devs, MBAs, PRs) act as talent scouts, schmoozing at "parties" (meet-ups) trying to find the next fresh-out-of-the-boat programmer to exploit.
In that sense, I believe NYC and other areas provide a much healthier environment for true "indie" productions (aka customer-centric development)
I love NYC as a city, but New York VC-istan is awful. Just fucking taint-sniffingly hideous. Unimaginative, with even more MBA-culture. And the sorts of MBAs that end up in New York startups are catastrophically bad-- people who just weren't smart enough to stay in finance (and that doesn't take much).
Go to "other areas" if you want an indie scene: places that are clearly on the rise like Austin, Durham, Boulder and Baltimore. Funding will be harder to get, though.
Your statement is an example of a non-bay-area mindset. Failure if a badge of honor -- it means you contributed to the community.
Founders move on to get jobs as VCs or high-ranking executives at more stable companies. Employees lose their jobs and don't get any severance.
Yes, honorable.
Here is evidence that Google wanted to "organize the world's information" in 1999. http://googlepress.blogspot.com/1999/06/google-receives-25-m...
Certainly world changing success is very rare. But explicitly aiming for it seems like it would help rather than hurt.