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What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

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Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#81

Post by tmpz22 »

As someone who had some small success early in life I want to send a message directly to this kid that may be unpopular on Hacker News: Pace yourself, do NOT pin your happiness on the occurrence of great wealth or success early in your life, spend a large amount of time appreciating the great success you've already had, take things slowly and experience as much "normal" life as possible - get a girlfriend, try out a normal job with minimal responsibility but strong mentorship, and appreciate that the world is filled with vast knowledge that will not be gained instantaneously and MOST CERTAINLY is not contained in any mono-culture such as the tech-startup scene.

To everyone else, the mid-west front-end developer making 55k who thinks he's a failure because he hasn't had the same success as a 17 year old MIT student and YC alum... happiness is an internal force that comes from inside you and not from external luxuries. Its OK that you didn't go to MIT, its OK that your company didn't go through YC. Its OK that you don't post a 200k+ salary on levels.fyi. Many people who have had those accolades are currently MISERABLE or have faced many hard failures since. Those hard failures are rarely publicized. We all will face great hardships in life... its the human condition. Instead of worrying about these things focus on finding your own internal happiness and pride.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#82

Post by dragonwriter »

jpxw wrote: post #76
sbisker wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On another part of his homepage it says he went to MIT around the same time he did YC. As someone who interviewed for YC myself while attending MIT, I am not even going to pretend I got the interview entirely independent of my background and the opportunities it gave me - and indirectly, my ability and decision to finance a very expensive education, even after financial aid. Now, he obviously had talent to even get i…

How many people are not going to MIT because they are financially unable? I’m curious.

> How many people are not going to MIT because they are financially unable?

I have heard MIT has slightly less complete need-based financial aid than some of the other big name private schools, but still much better than most before-aid cheaper schools, so probably some but relatively few of the people who would otherwise go to MIT, and those few are probably going to other big name private schools, not excluded from education.

There's probably a lot more not applying because they think they wouldn't be able to afford it, because knowledge of the sticker price of big name colleges seems far more widespread than knowledge of the amount of school-based need-based aid they tend to have available.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#83

Post by gavinray »

jpxw wrote: post #76
sbisker wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On another part of his homepage it says he went to MIT around the same time he did YC. As someone who interviewed for YC myself while attending MIT, I am not even going to pretend I got the interview entirely independent of my background and the opportunities it gave me - and indirectly, my ability and decision to finance a very expensive education, even after financial aid. Now, he obviously had talent to even get i…

How many people are not going to MIT because they are financially unable? I’m curious.

How many people do you think ARE financially able to go to MIT?

The tuition cost is $53,450, with housing costing $10,430 and to my understanding living there is required the first year.

Factor in books and food, and you're looking at $60,000-70,000/yr.

That's $240,000-280,000 for a four year degree.

I dropped out of highschool at 16, got my GED (thinking I'd be able to get a 2-year headstart on my degree without researching the cost of college), and enrolled in community college where it cost me $800 to take a single class.

Making $8/hr working in a lumber mill fulltime on top of trying to go to school, that just wasn't going to work out. After taxes my income was about $1,000/mo and I was living on my own and supporting myself, so all told I could manage to save about $200-300/mo.

It took me a third of a year to save up enough to pay for one community college class -- or I could go into crippling debt as someone who wasn't even legally an adult yet.

I eventually wound up quitting and giving up on the idea of ever obtaining a college education.

Real fantastic options, our education system and opportunity equality in the USA is just swell.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#84

Post by teachrdan »

bt3 wrote: post #53

> But I was able to get a job in SF with a single cold email and zero connections. Care to share anything more about this, purely out of intrigue? My own experiences have shown me that folks aren't as quick to respond, especially when you have limited value (experience) to show, even if you're just looking for mentorship.

In addition to OP being a strong candidate, this line basically screams, "I was very lucky."

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#85

Post by sbisker »

jpxw wrote: post #76
sbisker wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On another part of his homepage it says he went to MIT around the same time he did YC. As someone who interviewed for YC myself while attending MIT, I am not even going to pretend I got the interview entirely independent of my background and the opportunities it gave me - and indirectly, my ability and decision to finance a very expensive education, even after financial aid. Now, he obviously had talent to even get i…

How many people are not going to MIT because they are financially unable? I’m curious.

They do their best to prevent it, but a lot of students don’t even apply because they or their parents think they can’t afford it. Access to education about financial aid itself is a privilege. That has got to be the biggest limiter by absolute volume of people.

It “felt” more uncommon that someone actually turns down an MIT offer after they see the package, as they do their best to provide student work aid and students tend to be optimists about debt - but I only saw the people who said yes, so my data is totally biased. I’ll note that one common situation is folks who can technically “afford” MIT, but are offered a full ride elsewhere - a lot of folks I knew who joined felt some pressure to save money by taking the scholarship elsewhere, and struggled to turn it down.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#86

Post by jayparth »

gavinray wrote: post #83
jpxw wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many people are not going to MIT because they are financially unable? I’m curious.

How many people do you think ARE financially able to go to MIT? The tuition cost is $53,450, with housing costing $10,430 and to my understanding living there is required the first year. Factor in books and food, and you're looking at $60,000-70,000/yr. That's $240,000-280,000 for a four year degree. I dropped out of highschool at 16, got my GED (thinking I'd be able to get a 2-year headstart on my degree without res…

I mean, if you get into MIT, you can definitely get student loans... lenders agree that your MIT degree is proof that you'll make significant income later in life and pay off that debt.

Your situation sucks. It's not really applicable for top schools though. With a combination of financial assistance and debt, it's possible for most people coming from bad financial situations.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#87

Post by emit_time »

austenallred wrote: post #47
blocked_again wrote: post #18

> Silicon Valley doesn't care about your background This is BS. You have a much higher chance of rasing money for the same idea if you worked in FAANG than if you worked in Accenture. Same goes to someone who went to Harvard vs someone who went to University of Colorado.

It may be easier if you have credentials, but it’s certainly possible without them. I’d argue how your business is running is 10x as important as credentials. (I dropped out of a non-prestigious school and had work experience at one company, have raised $120m+ in <4 yrs).

> It may be easier if you have credentials, but it’s certainly possible without them.

So they care a lot, but it’s not everything to them?

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#88

Post by ian-g »

I have a lot of thoughts about this. I'm glad he's seen some success! That's great for him! I just don't know that all or even much of what he's learned is transferable

> I was able to get a job in SF with a single cold email and zero connections

This seems like sheer dumb luck. For every one of him (or you, if you're reading this) there's a lot of people who thrash and struggle. I went through 80+ job applications before I got one offer last search, and that's less than I thought I would need

> You don't need experience to get started

This one seems situational. Best example I saw recently (and I can't find the twitter thread, I'm sorry) was weirdly shaped food startups. The large point was that there are stores for oddly shaped food, they're just ones rich people don't normally shop at (WinCo anybody?). And there are uses for damaged food, like juice. Sometimes you think you've found a niche, but you should still research it a bit

> Silicon Valley doesn't care about your background

Sure it cares less than other places. It still cares a lot. It's not everywhere people would support you that way. My silicon valley high school wouldn't have allowed folks to try and make scheduling software for them, not a chance.

> Failure is acceptable

This one, I somewhat like. Avoiding failure is definitely prioritized. I think maybe we should emphasize fallback plans maybe? Some people just can't afford to fail completely unless they have people who will support them through it

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#89

Post by smegma2 »

aroundtown wrote: post #61

What I learned from this article: 1. Privilege opens doors not available to others. 2. Those with privilege are often oblivious to the advantages they have.

I'm surprised that you didn't know that before, and that you learned this from the article, considering that there's no mention of privilege in it.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#90

Post by drfuchs »

jpxw wrote: post #76
sbisker wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On another part of his homepage it says he went to MIT around the same time he did YC. As someone who interviewed for YC myself while attending MIT, I am not even going to pretend I got the interview entirely independent of my background and the opportunities it gave me - and indirectly, my ability and decision to finance a very expensive education, even after financial aid. Now, he obviously had talent to even get i…

How many people are not going to MIT because they are financially unable? I’m curious.

Almost a third of MIT undergrads attend tuition-free, according to https://web.mit.edu/facts/tuition.html
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