Some real Paul Graham bashing (Because no one else is succeeding) (opens in new tab)

The author asserts that YC's capitalist purpose it at odds with the hacker ethos of free information.

I would argue that YC is investing in products, not ideas. It has been stated many times that ideas are not valuable in themselves; their value is derived from the execution of an idea.

Furthermore, building a product around some open technology provides a monetary means to improve the technology. If you look through the list of contributors to many prominent open source components I am certain that you will find people who contributed because they were building a product that used the technology.

To me a "hacker" is someone too busy building things to get caught up in the semantics of why and how. Richard Stallman , for example, is no longer a hacker. He's too caught up in the "why" of open source software.

"The money problem" as pg calls it, is a significant barrier to being a hacker. Solve the money problem and you can work on whatever problems you want without worrying about why and how.

YCombinator seems to be aptly named. It is an attempt to solve the problem of solving problems. That is why it is the ultimate hack.