IQ ? SAT ? Experience ? Creative answer :) ?
Ask YC: What is considered high level of ability ?
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Re: Ask YC: What is considered high level of ability ?
#2IQ? SATs? How dare you! Everyone knows those are not correlated with intelligence.
Re: Ask YC: What is considered high level of ability ?
#3I have a feeling cperciva wins.
Re: Ask YC: What is considered high level of ability ?
#4I considered putting down my IQ, but decided that would be a bit tacky so I just listed some of the areas of technology that interest me or that I feel I'm good in.
IQ and SAT stats do not strongly correlate with performance anyway.
Re: Ask YC: What is considered high level of ability ?
#5I have a feeling cperciva wins. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079
Any time someone mentions "ability", you should ask "... to do what?"
If you're looking for ability to find new algorithms and prove their correctness, I probably win. If you're looking for ability to build a robust application (which is a key point to me -- I'm working on online backups, and the central point of backups is that they do NOT lose data, even if hardware failure occurs) I might win. If you're looking for ability to create an engaging Web 2.0 site, I definitely lose.
I'd assume that what YC means by "ability" is "ability to create whatever you've said on the application form that you intend to create" -- which in my case was an efficient, robust, and secure online backup system, but for most applications would be an engaging Web 2.0 site.
EDIT: Incidentally, it didn't even occur to me to mention the Putnam on the YC application form. For the "high level of ability" question I pointed towards my BSDCan'05 paper concerning stealing RSA keys on Intel CPUs with HyperThreading via an architectural side channel.
Re: Ask YC: What is considered high level of ability ?
#6I considered putting down my IQ, but decided that would be a bit tacky so I just listed some of the areas of technology that interest me or that I feel I'm good in. IQ and SAT stats do not strongly correlate with performance anyway.
SAT scores correlate highly with academic performance. This should come as no surprise, since their whole purpose was to democratize college admissions by allowing those students who would do best at college to be accepted, regardless of their religion or social connections.
The fact that SAT scores correlate poorly with workplace success is a red herring -- SAT scores were never supposed to predict workplace success.
Re: Ask YC: What is considered high level of ability ?
#7I think they want to know if you have achieved a high-level of ability in any field. This would indicate a certain discipline and application.
Re: Ask YC: What is considered high level of ability ?
#8Id say it means higher than most other people you know or have met.
Re: Ask YC: What is considered high level of ability ?
#9I have a feeling cperciva wins. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079
Any time someone mentions "ability", you should ask "... to do what?" If you're looking for ability to find new algorithms and prove their correctness, I probably win. If you're looking for ability to build a robust application (which is a key point to me -- I'm working on online backups, and the central point of backups is that they do NOT lose data, even if hardware failure occurs) I might win. If you're looking fo…
Dude, if I won the Putnam I would invent some letters that signified that fact and put them after my name. Heck, maybe in front of my name.
Re: Ask YC: What is considered high level of ability ?
#10Demodulating v32.bis with your ears.