Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.   
Innovation is not just about technology, but also about business models and ecosystems.
I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.