251–260 of 261 posts
To be fair, when I'm 40 I can't imagine still wanting to work 12+ hours a day. I'd like to see my family. This alone makes me feel like the age bias is caused more by people realizing the work won't work with their goals. The article itself seems a bit off since it doesn't deal with data so much as a single anecdote.
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> I refuse to tolerate this in any company I work for and I will ceaselessly call them out for this ageism. And yet they appointed a 24 year old as CTO. Better pack up your stuff, since you refuse to tolerate it.
Just because he's young doesn't mean it's ageism.
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> but I'm pretty sure you can't get sued for declining to invest in a company Try this for example: "Our VC firm does not invest in companies with black founders. We looked at the data, and companies with black-founders have a measurably lower ROI." Are you still pretty sure ?
Excellent point. I doubt very much they would ever get sued - they are too smart for that, but it doesn't mean that what they are doing there is right. Could someone be so kind as to tell me how many people over 50 have been admitted to Y-combinator? How many people over 40?
I think the group who actually get discriminated against, if otherwise just as qualified, are 0-18. That's who I would discriminate against, based on US laws, contracts, etc.
We know from public YC companies that the majority are in their 20s, but there are a lot in their 30s, and several examples in 40+. What we don't know is 1) how many applied in each age group and 2) were they of differing quality other than age.
I'd be inclined to suspect YC gets a lot of the best 20-something entrepreneurs to apply, but doesn't yet get a large percentage of the qualified 35+ year old entrepreneurs to apply. I think that's for three main reasons:
1) a perception that YC is youth-focused
2) diversity of resources and other diversity for older entrepreneurs (IMO, a 25 year old who just did a $50mm exit from his second company has a lot more in common with a 45 year old who has done the same, than either have with a 22yo who has done nothing but college or a 45yo who has worked for the local government in IT his whole life)
3) people get trapped into mortgage/family/etc. and aren't willing to take 3 months off and move to the Bay Area to do YC, even if they think they're willing to do a startup (3 months in the bay area is far from the greatest hardship you'll face...)
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Despite being a "nerd", I think the more traditional sort of 'frat' is actually a lot more inviting. Without the video-game nonsense I think it is actually more accepting of lifestyles that don't involve primarily a couch. The thought of spending my own freetime playing video-games is revolting to me, I associate it with depression and loneliness (yes, online or otherwise multiplayer games too). It really seems like…
It's not an all-or-nothing choice, though. I've had an Xbox 360 for years, and when my kids were born/adopted, I barely touched it. I hate playing against the knobs on Xbox Live, so I just stick with the single player stuff, or find friends to explore maps and blow stuff up. Very immature, I know. But it's fun. Look at my post up above...My Xbox is an early generation and I still hardly play it because I have better…
I'll play video-games on occasion but to be able to pass myself off in that sort of gamer culture is I think impossible unless you are willing to glue yourself to a television for hours and hours a week.
Other types of "frats" do not need that level of dedication I think.
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What kind of things do narcissists do on the weekend that would be specifically limited by age?
Many SV startups are proxies for being a close knit frat. Hiring for "cultural fit" has gone way off the wacko deep end. (Did google start this? "Oh, you don't have a degree? We won't hire you. Oh, but you do make your own beer and wear funny shoes? Cultural fit! Hired!") Your job description skills matter, but only if you also are a functional alcoholic who is addicted to playing online games for 30+ hours a week in…
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"The other cutoff, 38, has a lot more play in it. One reason I put it there is that I don't think many people have the physical stamina much past that age. I used to work till 2:00 or 3:00 AM every night, seven days a week. I don't know if I could do that now. Also, startups are a big risk financially. If you try something that blows up and leaves you broke at 26, big deal; a lot of 26 year olds are broke. By 38 you…
I don't see any bragging there. Those seem like reasonable and non-discriminatory observations.
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Exactly, it's an indicator. At the CEO level, I'd argue that you must look for people who understand the value of understanding their target audience ("customer") and taking the low cost / low friction action required. Or, put simply, spend a couple of hours and $200 on cloths to look the part. What, exactly, do you think would happen to a 24 year old hotshot banker who goes to an interview at, say, Goldman Sachs wea…
> At the CEO level, I'd argue that you must look for people who understand the value of understanding their target audience ("customer") and taking the low cost / low friction action required. > Or, put simply, spend a couple of hours and $200 on cloths to look the part. Assembling a $200 wardrobe tailored to appeal to the innate biases of someone hiring based on the clothes you wear is not low cost, low friction, or…
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Just because he's young doesn't mean it's ageism.
I don't know where he works or the company's circumstances, but in most cases, only a small tech start up that values youth over experience (or is on a shoestring budget) will appoint someone in their early 20s to an executive-level position.
They'll usually do that when he's the most experienced person in the company (like I was and am).
I've been working since I was 18, not 22. That makes for six years rather than the usual two, and the first 5-10 years of a career are pretty impactful for everyone.
Further, they were very dense years spent studying on my own time and working a lot of contracts.
I didn't sit in a junior position at a large corporation, I've had enough time to become a decent backend engineer in my own right but also develop a decent specialization. In addition to that, my contracting and consulting background has made me somewhat less provincial than when I started so I'm capable of relating to business needs as a C-level needs to.
I don't question your capacity to perform your job without knowing you, please afford others the same respect. I was trying to talk about the prejudice in the industry, not have it projected against me in the opposite direction. (Against younger people)
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It always confused me that some really bright young people (e.g., Zuckerberg) can't grasp this: the variation in intelligence and capability due to non-age factors >>> the variation in intelligence and capability due to age factors. Put another way, I'd take Einstein in his 40s over a thousand other randomly-chosen physicists in their 20s
> I'd take Einstein in his 40s over a thousand other randomly-chosen physicists in their 20s (I don't think I've seen a more clear example of a false dichotomy.) I agree that age is rarely the determining factor for someone's general competence: someone who's competent young is going to be competent when they're older. Their strengths do shift slightly, though. Depending on the mission, experience may extremely valua…
If it's mainly selection based on metrics of certain types of competence and strengths that may correlate with age, then we shouldn't be hearing stories about people having to shave or dye their hair, get a hipster-wardrobe, just to have a chance at getting a second interview. (or plastic surgery ...)
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What kind of things do narcissists do on the weekend that would be specifically limited by age?
Many SV startups are proxies for being a close knit frat. Hiring for "cultural fit" has gone way off the wacko deep end. (Did google start this? "Oh, you don't have a degree? We won't hire you. Oh, but you do make your own beer and wear funny shoes? Cultural fit! Hired!") Your job description skills matter, but only if you also are a functional alcoholic who is addicted to playing online games for 30+ hours a week in…
Ugh I hate that. This one time, there was a few hours to bridge between the end of the work day and the start of the office Christmas party (presumably because some management guys had to drive back from out of town). The other programmers quickly set up a multiplayer Starcraft game and later an FPS deathmatch. I quickly found out both types of games are not a lot of fun unless you possess a modicum of skill in them (unlike, say, Tetris or 1000 Blank White Cards).