Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably not. If you want people to stay, give them a decent financial incentive. I keep seeing this sentiment, but I think it's important to distinguish between "don't give your people worthless equity instead of a good salary" and "I'm just here for the money." Starting to see a lot of the latter around here and it's disheartening. Sure, broken dreams and failed visions and all of that happens, but it's part of the…
There is nothing wrong with being at work just for the money, and it most definitely does not mean you are cynical. Funding a family or a hobby is a rewarding and valuable life to live. Being in it for the money can be a really powerful way to push through a lot of hard and boring work that nobody capable of doing could possibly be passionate about.
I however am restricting my evaluation to the domain [high-tech] : [startup], which after all is the core demographic for HN and YC more broadly.
In that context I don't think it's an optimal outlook - and in fact I think it is detrimental to the zeitgeist and pushes further away from the PARC roots of paradigm setting technology development.
I grant that in the current environment it's "idealistic" but I think at the core, the real innovators still have the vision of changing the future through technology - at least I do, and I know I'm not alone in that.