Three kids, a safe job and an Audi is not ambitious. And it certainly isn't netting you a YC partnership at 25.

Founding yet another tumblr-for-cats and selling ads isn't ambitious either; you can do mundane work at startups just as easily as you can in a big corporation. You can do ambitious work at both of them, too. For kids who don't come from a wealthy family, there's something to be said for building up a minimal safety net early on by doing ambitious things in a relatively stable large firm. It's not the only way, though (obviously).

Ah, but what if it was

three kids, a safe job, two Ferraris, and the ear of Larry Ellison?

or how about

Climb the ladder, eventually transition to politics, and become a Senator on a technical platform?

ruswick's point is that ambition is not the sole province of the startup crowd.

They are solving problems people won't ever realize they're going to have.

This is a fair point. But what's that saying about talent hitting the target in front of you, but genius hitting the target no one knew was there?

Because if Microsoft is good at anything, it's creating new problems for their users. :)

I can finally rest well at night.

In all fairness it turns out YouTube would not let me sell this information on their website, so I don't think he really has a case.

Wicked sweet idea, why didn't I think of that?

wow, i have arrived.

Apparently. I was just stating my enthusiasm to see Loopt on AT&T/Verizon, not that it was some grand new idea.