21–30 of 159 posts
He got at least one thing wrong: YC folks don't work hard to make money. Many of them work really hard, but I don't think it's to make money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Will you be applying for the next batch? Come on in and drink the Kool-Aid. Or, more accurately, the Goya.
I'm a college student, so when I apply it will probably be for one of the summer rounds. While I'm fine with abandoning college for a bit to work on something if it picks up steam, I don't want to miss a semester actually beginning the project. Or does that not make sense with YC? I already feel like a newbie, though. I haven't the faintest idea what Goya is.
And it's fruit juice.
I sometime doubt why I've been living my life most of time by ignoring mainstream culture, being isolated from my relatives, with a few really good friends far below Dunbar's number that will help each other without questions, working 60 to 80 hours on non leisure stuffs, and living in the opposite side of the earth to my birth place since I was 15. I even joined a quasi-cult organization once to see how does it work. It has been a quarter of century and I love it. Because I do what I want to hack in my life and I learn from PG that beside that I also need to figure how to make something that people want! And I still have some chance to know some very attractive females and keeping myself fit.
At least I feel much better now because I know I can survive under inhuman conditions so I just need to persist till I get my share of glory. Of course I may die tomorrow but I didn't live a life that feel pressure from peers, pointing hair boss and failed marriages.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a college student, so when I apply it will probably be for one of the summer rounds. While I'm fine with abandoning college for a bit to work on something if it picks up steam, I don't want to miss a semester actually beginning the project. Or does that not make sense with YC? I already feel like a newbie, though. I haven't the faintest idea what Goya is.
It doesn't really make sense with startups in general. You can't tell much after the two months or so before you have to decide on going back to school. You're lucky to just launch something by then, let alone iterate, let usage define your future, seek funding, etc. I'd be more inclined to just finish school and then do it. And it's fruit juice.
If you love what you do and are good at it, programming is only somewhat more mentally exhausting than playing computer games all day (and I do relatively complicated stuff: algorithms and numerical math in C++ and ML - don't ask about details, I like my relative anonymity). The "burnout" happens when there is no reward in sight, or worse: you work hard for many months, produce good results, then your PHB shits on th…
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=tough-choices-how-making
(No matter how fun the act of decision making is)
He got at least one thing wrong: YC folks don't work hard to make money. Many of them work really hard, but I don't think it's to make money.
- People are put in physically or emotionally distressing situations; - Their problems are reduced to one simple explanation, which is repeatedly emphasized; - They receive unconditional love, acceptance, and attention from a charismatic; [sic] - They get a new identity based on the group; - They are subject to entrapment (isolation from friends, relatives, and the mainstream culture) and their access to information…
- People are put in physically or emotionally distressing situations; - Their problems are reduced to one simple explanation, which is repeatedly emphasized; - They receive unconditional love, acceptance, and attention from a charismatic; [sic] - They get a new identity based on the group; - They are subject to entrapment (isolation from friends, relatives, and the mainstream culture) and their access to information…
Come on now, let's not go overboard here and compare YC to the Manhattan Project or Apollo missions. Doing a start-up is hard work, but we're talking about a slightly different scale here.
My comment just pointed out that the definition of a cult used in the blog post falls down badly when applied to famous successful projects (which we can presumably agree were not cults), and is therefore either being misused or broken.