By this definition I would argue that most SF start-ups are more similar to cults than CFAR is -- though as I said in my comment above, I do agree that CFAR hasn't conclusively proved yet that this is more than just a sort of Space Camp for bored rich people of a particular variety.
oh my god yes. I'm frequently creeped out by how much my various employers have wanted me to be TOTALLY AND ENTIRELY on board with their mission. like, I like making awesome software, and I like customers enjoying it, but plz no I do not want to devote my life to x thing just because it's both fun and gives me money. If I'm going to devote my life to anything, it's going to be doing something like building computational models of the genome or something.
