I challenge the idea that a startup is the best place for an aspiring new engineer to learn. If you don't have an adequate number of high caliber technical folks on your team it's simply impossible to effectively absorb and train new engineers.
Just because someone is smart and has raw talent does not mean they are wise. In order to build that technical wisdom you need to be a part of an engineering organization that has it already. Some startups do, but universally characterizing all startups as being the best learning environment is incomplete advice at best and dangerous, self-serving advice at worst.
When new grads approach me about wanting to do a startup I tell them to work at a Facebook or google for a year to learn the ropes, then make the jump.
Like you said, it's just complete bullshit. Rapidly assembling CRUD apps to discover a market is somehow gaining technical skills?
If you want to develop technical skills, the way to do it is by reading and then trying to solve the challenging perennial problems. This generally is not profitable activity which is why it is funded by research grants.
This guy is confusing technical skills with something else, something that sounds like a hypermasculine myth about the value of self-flagellation. It is Protestant work ethic bullshit, the kind of bullshit that, when it permeates a society, makes that society utterly anti-pleasure and impossible for any sane person to enjoy.
Just because someone is smart and has raw talent does not mean they are wise. In order to build that technical wisdom you need to be a part of an engineering organization that has it already. Some startups do, but universally characterizing all startups as being the best learning environment is incomplete advice at best and dangerous, self-serving advice at worst.
When new grads approach me about wanting to do a startup I tell them to work at a Facebook or google for a year to learn the ropes, then make the jump.