The title says to "continue working on your bad idea" but the article is really about pivoting. Pivoting is not the same as continuing to work on your bad idea. Pivoting is about YOU continuing to work, and leaving the bad parts of your bad idea by the side of the road and moving forward.
But if you can take some good parts of your bad idea and move forward, that is smart. And that's not news; that's a concept from lean startup, and Eric Ries didn't invent it. It goes back to the Romans.
IMHO, the title is misleading and the article is trite.
His reasons don't necessarily result in a pivot. He says "you want to have something you're doing", so if your alternative is to do nothing, then keep doing what you're doing even if it's a bad idea. Whether you later pivot, change to a whole different idea or get a job, isn't the point. In the absence of a better idea, keep going, because doing something is almost always better than not.
Similarly, gaining experience with a bad idea is more likely to help you compared to doing nothing. That's not covered by a pivot. It may or may not aid you in pivoting, but it's almost definitely not going to hurt. Sitting doing nothing is just a waste, though.
He talks about serendipity. That'll often be amplified by working on something, rather than doing nothing and thinking about doing something. You'll be meeting people, creating stuff someone might find a use for, maybe writing code you could use in a different project. All of that could open up a new avenue that sitting around won't.
In addition, let me add a point. Practice being a finisher. You might not feel like the idea is fantastic but even if it's rubbish, moving the needle on it is good practice. Good for your mental strength, good to know "I'm a finisher", because many people haven't learned that (yet).
Obviously the caveat is if you have a better use of your time, do that. Could be making money to increase your runway, could be a better idea, whatever. But if your only alternative is to stop and read HN, it could well be worth continuing with your bad idea.
Obviously, if an idea is bad, continuing to work on it is stupid. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOw2yWMSfk
But if you can take some good parts of your bad idea and move forward, that is smart. And that's not news; that's a concept from lean startup, and Eric Ries didn't invent it. It goes back to the Romans.
IMHO, the title is misleading and the article is trite.