1. I would have highly recommended you work on whatever project on the side BEFORE moving to Silicon Valley. Get feedback, build a prototype, launch, fix bugs, etc, and go somewhere with it.
2. THEN I would have recommended moving at that point, finding other startup folks looking for roommates, and join in. Gives you like minded folks who hopefully will turn out to be good roommates.
3. Finally, I'd continue working on said project and start hitting up meetups/events to spread the word while getting feedback and making new friends along the way.
Given that isn't what you're asking and say you are in SV without a project or anything going on, first order is still to find a place to live and an income source. Then proceed to work on said idea (as mentioned above) and go mingle to get some friends.
There are a few companies that have internal reward systems like this that I've come across in the past. Usually bigger size companies. You'll have to try and validate this with target customers to see if there is enough of a need for this to be a real business.
I was excited till I saw the video too although I think his "tone" or way of speaking and quirks bugged me more than lack of a prototype and cool music. I know that's a pretty shitty thing to say but its true (at least for me). Ironically his writing came off exactly the opposite.
It was always base on if we felt there was something that would either help the company, help the engineer themselves, or of value in some other way. No set limits but usually no more than a couple conferences per year either way.
I've also seen many people who learn things incorrectly and do harm to themselves from reading this site and others as well. It goes both ways and totally up to interpretation. As I once crossed a book in a bookstore which a cover which read "It's not what you say, its what they hear". Everyone interpret everything differently and sometimes this could be good and sometimes it could be bad. I think its all in perception.
1. Actually understands the full extent of the business side.
You wouldn't partner with a coder who can't code and is learning on the job so why would a technical founder want to partner with a non-technical "business" cofounder who doesn't know anything, worse, think he does?
This includes actual knowledge on things like knowing how to actually acquire customers and said metrics, not just be able to recite shit you read off HN or some blogs. Actual experience...
2. Without knowing how to code, at least be extremely knowledgeable about technical topics. Steve Jobs probably couldn't code squat but he understands enough. That's all I need too.
3. Extremely fast learner and can break habits quick. This one almost every person I've met failed at. Very few actually have been able to do this and they are gems.
I thought of an idea similar to this a few years back but a VERY different implementation. Unfortunately the project was finished (in code) but never launched due to limitations of other platforms at the time to support the overall way the solution worked. Its a good problem to solve.
As you can imagine, this is HIGHLY subjective. What is interesting to you may not be interesting to me and vice versa. From your Facebook example, aside from the fact that it had "huge" growth potential, I can't decipher reasons for why YOU personally found it to be the most interesting for its era. That makes it hard to quantify or recommend anything. Perhaps you can elaborate a bit more? Sorry, wish I could give a better response at this time.
Although my son is too young for me to personally comment on how this works, I've read comments on here some time back about other parents teaching their kids python through http://inventwithpython.com/
I think its worth exploring although HUGE disclaimer as I never even glanced over the book. It seems to be in your target audience however.
I love RSS... But I hate the sheer volume of noise and repetitive shit that gets rehashed over and over again across numerous feeds. I subscribe to a large variety of topics too, not just startups and technical news. It happens in every group and the VOLUME of repetitive crap is annoying to deal with.
Social media, when properly set and curated, have been slightly better at filtering some of the noise (albeit there are some repetition) but then lacks the volume of good stuff that RSS goes over that is being missed.
Majority of the stuff I work on are generally for personal use or solving a personal annoyance/pain point. A good chunk of them ends up being launched as good side businesses as a byproduct but they weren't done with the intention of such.
I previously did a "traditional" startup in 2007 (scaling, hiring, etc..) and sold that company in 2009. Now I pretty much just focus my time on projects. I have a huge preference to do 1 man projects/businesses vs doing a large startup again. Its more fun.
As for anything being cool, its totally subjective.
2. THEN I would have recommended moving at that point, finding other startup folks looking for roommates, and join in. Gives you like minded folks who hopefully will turn out to be good roommates.
3. Finally, I'd continue working on said project and start hitting up meetups/events to spread the word while getting feedback and making new friends along the way.
Given that isn't what you're asking and say you are in SV without a project or anything going on, first order is still to find a place to live and an income source. Then proceed to work on said idea (as mentioned above) and go mingle to get some friends.