This is how you end up with gstack. When you believe too hard in secret metrics because when people know about metrics it stops working you inflict psychosis chasing correlations that don't mean anything.
I got into YC Startup School by hacking it
11–20 of 81 posts
Re: I got into YC Startup School by hacking it
#12For the longest time, the YC application included the question "What was your greatest (non-computer) hack?". They have always liked people who think of ways to work around existing systems. So it's no surprise that their response was positive. Also, all the principals are ex-founders, mostly engineers, who totally understand hacking culture.
Sadly, it looks like they took that question off the application though.
Re: I got into YC Startup School by hacking it
#13> YC wanted me to use something called Paxel on my computer as part of the application. > I should run a script, a very easy-to-use cURL one-liner that installed something on my computer and analyzed every line of code I’ve written with a coding agent, compile a report, and upload it to YC’s servers. Yikes! I hope this is NOT the future of hiring.
paxel my gstack until i submit
Re: I got into YC Startup School by hacking it
#14> YC wanted me to use something called Paxel on my computer as part of the application. > I should run a script, a very easy-to-use cURL one-liner that installed something on my computer and analyzed every line of code I’ve written with a coding agent, compile a report, and upload it to YC’s servers. Yikes! I hope this is NOT the future of hiring.
wtfffff
what do you think it says if you don't use AI
Re: I got into YC Startup School by hacking it
#15> Based on Paxel’s own site, 1.2 million+ coders have so far uploaded their reports to YC.
I checked the Paxel website and it says this:
> So far, 1,543,553 sessions have been uploaded and analyzed.
The count is for sessions, not coders. I assume the tool uploads a lot of sessions from each person who uses it.
That’s a large number, but it’s not a million different people. I am surprised that so many people think it’s a good idea to download a run a program which gathers up their coding sessions and submits information about them.
Re: I got into YC Startup School by hacking it
#16> YC wanted me to use something called Paxel on my computer as part of the application. > I should run a script, a very easy-to-use cURL one-liner that installed something on my computer and analyzed every line of code I’ve written with a coding agent, compile a report, and upload it to YC’s servers. Yikes! I hope this is NOT the future of hiring.
the sad thing is that paxel sounds like it would be a pretty fun tool to run locally and see what my LLM assisted code gets classified as. instead, to borrow cory doctorow's framing, it is designed to do something to me rather than for me.
Re: I got into YC Startup School by hacking it
#17> I uncovered Y Combinator was scoring 100k+ founders around the world through Paxel Alright, my ears are wide open. Tell us more, how did YC use the private submission data from thousands of founders to score them? They fed some 3rd-Party AI all personal data to score who should get an interview? I can't be the only one here seeing a bad news story unfolding in real time...
sure….
Re: I got into YC Startup School by hacking it
#18Am I misreading this, or is ycombinator running a tool that transfers IP from an applicant’s machine to OpenAI and then transfers the generated summaries into their own servers. And that tool has some “webapp security 101” level vulnerability in it.
Feels like a disaster waiting to happen.
Re: I got into YC Startup School by hacking it
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
It can't possibly be an inevitable future. Something this would be super easy to game. From their perspective, it's code running on an untrusted third person/adversary's computer... If only last 40 years of computer history could be any guide as to what might go wrong here ..
most VCs aren’t founders and those who are ex-founders usually made pretty terrible companies. very few exceptions. actually i can think of only one. but once you have some money (like >5m which is achievable), you can throw it around a bit and you just need a handful of success stories built by someone actually talented. then you take credit for it and craft a narrative instead, which is easier just like collecting…
How is 5m easy to achieve? Asking for a friend.
Re: I got into YC Startup School by hacking it
#20“Got into YC” is being used a bit loosely here. They got invited to startup school, which is a two-day event hosted by YC.