Even if you assume that HR talent differences don't matter, you can't make the same assumption about marketing, PR, and other personnel with much needed soft-skills.

So what you're left with in a single-minded company of brogrammers and soft-bros is effectively a brain drain that leads to the kinds of flubs the author describes that drive customers and sponsors away.

Yep, the kind of flubs like Path and PayPal.

You're mistaking flubs for flops. A flub is a botched opportunity. A flop is a total failure.

Startups really can't afford to let a series of flubs (results of a badly formed team making bad decisions) turn their whole endeavor into a flop.

Wait, isn't this guy a VP at Path? This kind of language must be industry best practice.

Heyo!

Admittedly, you've got me here.

This has been well documented: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_lifecycle

just curious, where does one work researching mathematics?

I'm a university postdoc, going to start a professorship next year.

read like something Richard Powers would write

Mathematician falls into the 10 least stressful jobs (at #8) after years of also being in the 10 best jobs in America (at #2):

http://ti.me/ivYEZr

http://on.wsj.com/g7MTWh

Both lists also contain Software Engineers. Does that mean math majors (esp. computer oriented ones) should take more software engineering classes? SE helped me (although I was surprised how much), I encounter Use Cases and Requirements on a daily basis here. I majored in Computational Mathematics.