On a slight tangent, modern farming techniques are more akin to the mining he describes than they are to farming. It's not just the software industry that is affected by this short-term thinking; it's the majority of human endeavour.
It's hard to tell whether the stock market is a cause or a symptom - our primary mode of 'investing in the future' is so prone to being short-circuited for short term gain.
Large scale conventional farming is akin to mining. I guess it's always the little guy who gets enlightened first. There are a lot of small farms practicing sustainable agriculture. It feels like it's taking way too long to persuade conventional farmers to clean up their act (and to persuade consumers to make better food choices), but the number of acres involved in sustainable farming has grown quite a bit in the past decade. Human nature being what it is, I don't know if we'll ever get the majority of people to behave responsibly over the long-term. But, the current trends do look promising.
At first glance, it seems this guy is basically just describing the markets and calling traits problems. Obviously you need to invest in a company before its popular for it to be a good investment. A company with a fully stable profit won't even take your investment most of the time. "Mining" is just the process of investment! However, I do not think this is the point. The important point is not that "mining" and the markets are evil, but that founders shouldn't be investors. If you start a company, you should be interested in BUILDING A COMPANY, not selling a big company and making a boatload. Obviously, people want to make money, but for some reason the misconception that the cash in hand for a crappy company is worth more than the cash in stock for a great and growing company. Great companies start with people who want the company to succeed and investors who want to make a buck, not the other way around.
It's hard to tell whether the stock market is a cause or a symptom - our primary mode of 'investing in the future' is so prone to being short-circuited for short term gain.