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I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#361

Post by S4M »

arm55 wrote: post #351
sama wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What we've thought about the most is creating a better way for potential cofounders to meet each other.

If there was a YC/HN supported cofounder matching program, I'm guessing it would have a lot more success than other attempts that have popped up. However, some important qualities of a good cofounder match are hard to quantify and require serious (and often confrontational) interaction. Perhaps if YC let individuals apply without an idea to a loosely structured hackathon/conference, some good relationships would form…

I did apply for the YC summer batch 2016, and for the YC fellowship through "Apply HN". I wasn't selected but someone saw my application and contacted me to become my cofounder. It didn't end up working out but I can see how public applications can be a way to meet cofounders.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#363

Post by dharma1 »

Det_Jacobian wrote: post #307

I'm 27 and I've cofounded only one company in a lifestyle industry (video games). Despite being nearish the top of my particular field, I don't have a PhD in a relevant field like AI. Games are hard in that they are very competitive, but we're not exactly curing cancer. How behind am I, assuming my primary goal is maximizing positive impact on the world?

Your game/GPU programming experience can be very relevant to AI.

Take a look at these projects

https://unrealcv.github.io https://gym.openai.com https://m.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/54p6zq/16090...

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#364

Post by wojt_eu »

CardenB wrote: post #306
sama wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the most important life skills is to get good at taking rejection and failure and then picking yourself back up and continuing. If you are going to run a big company, far, far worse things will come your way than a YC rejection. Try again. And again. And again. Giving up too early is one of the biggest causes of failure I know. In terms of the two models--it really depends on your company and market, and what…

Hey Sam, What's the difference between being persistent and wasting time? I'm curious as to where you draw the line.

Seth Godin wrote a book on the subject https://www.amazon.com/Dip-Little-Book-Teaches-Stick/dp/1591...

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#365

Post by [deleted] »

buechs wrote: post #99
hindsightbias wrote: post #66

Does the YC Group provide any psychological counseling/guidance/referals for attendees? Does it feel any responsibility to?

yep, i do this for yc! just like the rest of yc, taking care of yourself and your cofounder relationship is DIY but we offers resources to help. i'm an executive coach (with a specialty in startup founders) and our founders book office hours with me when they need support around managing stress/anxiety, troubleshooting conflict in difficult relationships (with cofounders, investors, loved ones, etc), communicating ef…

[deleted]

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#366

Post by coralreef »

kriro wrote: post #359

Could you outline the exact reasoning why YC still believes SV is the place to be for a startup. I've never heard any explanation that went deeper than "well investors are there and network duh" It seems very broken that IT specifically should be bound to a physical place. Are there any plans to innovate in this regard or any research YC is doing?

http://www.paulgraham.com/hubs.html

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#367

Post by du_bing »

sama wrote: post #242
du_bing wrote: post #230

Hi, Sam, how do you think about the opportunity of technology in China, do you think China a good place for investing and developing? What the difference between the China market and USA market?

I think China is probably the second most interesting startup market to me in the world right now (after Silicon Valley).

Great, it's really inspiring for you to say so, haha, I am an English Literature major with epilepsy in China, now I am learning technology to make a living remotely, hoping someday I will be able to apply to YCombinator with my friends. I am also translating some articles on Hacker News that I love into Chinese, I love the site, it's precious on the Internet.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#368

Post by Liron »

bottled_poe wrote: post #358
sama wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a consequence of technology but a real challenge for society. I think the right goal is probably to eliminate poverty--conceptually, I like the idea of a guaranteed floor but no ceiling. I'm very interested in basic income and we're running a large experiment on it. If that doesn't work we have some other ideas.

> I like the idea of a guaranteed floor but no ceiling Raising that floor seems like it would simply devalue the dollar. I'm not sure how having no ceiling helps the situation.

Raising the floor logically implies redistributing real wealth to the poor from the non-poor, but implies nothing about the value of a dollar.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#369

Post by allenleee »

asimuvPR wrote: post #271
allenleee wrote: post #215

Hi Sam, in interview with Elon Musk, you asked him 'Do you think people that want to be useful today should get PhDs?' Elon: Mostly not. Here are my questions: 1. Do you think people need to get a PhD degree to become useful research scientist in AI industry? 2. Do you think people need to get a PhD degree to become Member of Technical Staff (Machine Learning) in Open AI? Thank you.

I know this is addressed at sama, but as someone doing AI without a PhD: 1. Not at all. You need to develop a consistent work schedule that will consist of researching papers, applying the knowledge, and writing your own. There is a lot of theory and practice. Very exciting time to be in AI. What you need is time and the interest in doing it. Feel free to email me if you have questions (not a sales pitch, just being…

@asimuvPR thank you for your decent reply! I will.

Re: I Am Sam Altman, President of YC Group. AMA

#370

Post by berpasan »

mrhektor wrote: post #331

What is an ideal stage for a company to apply to YC? We've gotten together an excellent team and partners, and are just starting to build out the value prop. However, we don't have any customers / traction yet. Should we wait to apply, or apply right now?

Apply, you lose nothing. And apply again once you get more progress.

There is no ideal stage, but they'll fund the most promissing of them. The more your startup grows and the more times you apply (= persistance and staying alive), the more interesting your startups gets, hence better the odds.

At Quero we applied 3 times before being invited for an inverview and approved.

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