You don’t have to spend much time in Silicon Valley to start hearing that the people don’t care about money. People here are just trying to make the world a better place. Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists eat ramen noodles for dinner and drive old, clunky Hondas to work. If they do make money, that’s just a tiny cherry on top of their altruistic Tofutti soy whip sundae.

That’s what people here would like the world to think. Let’s be realistic, these start-ups aren’t nonprofit organizations.

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Yikes:

At Facebook, the first 250 employees are on a highly secret list called TNR250, for The Nouveau Riche 250. They discuss things they plan to buy when they sell their hundreds of millions of dollars in stock: boats, planes, artwork, even an island. (To be fair, philanthropy is also discussed.)

Venture Capital is a lifestyle:

“Today, being a venture capitalist is more about a lifestyle than it is about investing,” said Roger McNamee, a co-founder of the tech investment firm Elevation Partners. “They’re making a million bucks a year without generating much, if any, return. It’s like watching Fox News — these people are living in an alternate reality.”

Only 1 entrepreneur in 10 or 100?!

“Steve Jobs was very clear: he said, ‘Change the world, and the world will take good care of you,’ and people like Zuckerberg have absolutely followed that calling,” Mr. McNamee said. “But I think that you get one entrepreneur in 10 or 100 who is actually like that. For every Mark Zuckerberg, there are 10 guys pretending to be Mark Zuckerberg.”

I really, really like Nick Bilton's writing. I think it's interesting that the $1m birthday party fellow asked folks not to post photos to social media.

If folks take pride in humiility, it seems the aim is self-defeating. Humility, by definition, must be sincere and genuine.

There's an easy test for this; what percentage of employees and investors are willing to back folks in greater proportions for their desire or opportunity to change the world as opposed to potential and/or indicators of economic success?

And before we say that greater mission produces great profits, I'd recommend Adam's favorite startup: Janka, as a class example.

$1m birthday party guy is David O Sachs aka founder of Yammer aka PayPal mafia guy.

Aka the guy complaining that there are no good opportunities in Silicon Valley.

I love Janka!