Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How Y Combinator Changed the World

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 105 posts

Re: How Y Combinator Changed the World

#21

Post by ModernMech »

edouard-harris wrote: post #12
OnlineGladiator wrote: post #4

> Their ideas reflected YC’s implicit view that for every problem in the world, there is a startup solution I dream of a world where we try to solve problems first and monetize them second, and I don't mean growth hacking. > It’s Y Combinator’s world, and we’re all invested in it. There are many people who resent this world. I'd like to live in a world where success isn't measured by money.

Sincere question: what would one use to measure success in such a world?

Such a world exists. It's called "academia". Our measured units of success are publications, and citations.

Re: How Y Combinator Changed the World

#22

Post by ModernMech »

ford wrote: post #8
new_realist wrote: post #3

Y Combinator managed to convince startups that would have been founded anyway to give up expensive equity to them. I'm not sure they would have failed without YC. Put another way, if you take a piece of every startup on the planet, can you claim influence if some of those startups eventually succeed?

This is similar to the idea that it doesn't matter where you go to college - because the things that get you into top X schools are the same traits that correlate with success afterward. This paper is a study that makes that argument: https://www.nber.org/papers/w7322 (disclaimer - I only read the abstract) Also - in fairness to YC - there are a staggering number of companies that are started every year. I don't have…

Wait... how was the username "ford" never used on HN until now?

Re: How Y Combinator Changed the World

#23

Post by srcreigh »

Msw242 wrote: post #16
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the delta between those that have it the best and those that have it the worst.

That's a hugely flawed north star. We've had inequality as long as we have had surplus. The more surplus, the more inequality. But I'd rather live today than in hunter gatherer times, even though they were materially more equal. "Why not modern life with less inequality?" Well because growing the pie and splitting the pie are competing drivers. If Elon musk weren't already obscenely wealthy, he wouldn't have been abl…

Jesus said we'll always have poor people. So you're not wrong.

It doesn't have to be a solvable problem to be the best way to measure success.

Your working definitions of "best" and "worst" still seem to be about net worth. If money isn't the measure of success, the delta probably wouldn't be net worth delta.

Re: How Y Combinator Changed the World

#25

Post by ianbutler »

Ostrogodsky wrote: post #7

[flagged]

I mean just because you don't see it as having changed the world doesn't mean it hasn't. I've worked at companies that couldn't use stripe / existed before it was a thing and accepting payments was/is a difficult problem subject to all the regulation from multiple countries and building and maintaining it yourself is a total crapshoot.

Starting a business and accepting money with stripe is super simple comparatively.

A lot of world changing happens behind the scenes and isn't necessarily super flashy. They lowered the barrier to entry making it much easier for anyone building new things to get their customers paying which is world changing for people involved in doing business and business has always been a huge part of humanity whether you like it or not.

I wonder how many things exist because one person somewhere was able to integrate stripe over a few hours and start making money versus needing a team to maintain a payments system.

Re: How Y Combinator Changed the World

#26

Post by yumraj »

OnlineGladiator wrote: post #4

> Their ideas reflected YC’s implicit view that for every problem in the world, there is a startup solution I dream of a world where we try to solve problems first and monetize them second, and I don't mean growth hacking. > It’s Y Combinator’s world, and we’re all invested in it. There are many people who resent this world. I'd like to live in a world where success isn't measured by money.

> I dream of a world where we try to solve problems first and monetize them second

I dream of a world where we don’t create solutions, such as blockchain, and then try to find the problem.

Re: How Y Combinator Changed the World

#28

Post by AussieWog93 »

ModernMech wrote: post #21
edouard-harris wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sincere question: what would one use to measure success in such a world?

Such a world exists. It's called "academia". Our measured units of success are publications, and citations.

It still has the same problem, unfortunately. Citations and publications come first, actual science second.

Perhaps any effort to quantify success/status is destined to be gamed.

Re: How Y Combinator Changed the World

#29

Post by echelon »

ModernMech wrote: post #22
ford wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is similar to the idea that it doesn't matter where you go to college - because the things that get you into top X schools are the same traits that correlate with success afterward. This paper is a study that makes that argument: https://www.nber.org/papers/w7322 (disclaimer - I only read the abstract) Also - in fairness to YC - there are a staggering number of companies that are started every year. I don't have…

Wait... how was the username "ford" never used on HN until now?

HN is a pretty small community. There are ample dictionary word usernames left.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=generalmotors

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=usually

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=fucking

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=sucks

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=although

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=their

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=hummers

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=appear

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rugged

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tough

None of these are registered yet.

Is it remarkable because it's a name? I bet we can find lots of those, too.

Re: How Y Combinator Changed the World

#30

Post by sobellian »

srcreigh wrote: post #23
Msw242 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a hugely flawed north star. We've had inequality as long as we have had surplus. The more surplus, the more inequality. But I'd rather live today than in hunter gatherer times, even though they were materially more equal. "Why not modern life with less inequality?" Well because growing the pie and splitting the pie are competing drivers. If Elon musk weren't already obscenely wealthy, he wouldn't have been abl…

Jesus said we'll always have poor people. So you're not wrong. It doesn't have to be a solvable problem to be the best way to measure success. Your working definitions of "best" and "worst" still seem to be about net worth. If money isn't the measure of success, the delta probably wouldn't be net worth delta.

I hardly prefer a world replete with identical spiritual or moral misery, even though it totally zeroes out this delta.
Post reply on HN