We killed it. Anyone got a paste of the text?
http://pastebin.com/h5Q5RNz2
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The Book of Graham
41–50 of 125 posts
Re: The Book of Graham
#42This was surprisingly entertaining. There's some truth to it, but it essentially misses three things: 1) The intangible benefits of being at a startup (as a founder or early employee) -- working on interesting problems, with smart people, in a well funded environment. You learn things, meet people, get to use amazing tools. (Startups definitely aren't the only way to do this -- academia or, for engineering, some part…
The downside to failure is exceptionally low. It's all other people's money...
Oh my!
Re: The Book of Graham
#43Remember that in all brilliant satire there are elements of both truth and absurdity circling around a key absurd truth. I think that key truth is: YC is a value investor by any reasonable definition of the term. That's not in any way to say they're not a symbiotic value investor.
Re: The Book of Graham
#44Re: The Book of Graham
#45There's an uncomfortable truth here. In the last 3 or 4 years, tech startups have started to become the fashionable choice for unthinking MBAs, taking the place of Investment Banking and Private Equity before it. I was at a conference recently organised by University College, London (arguably the top science & engineering school in the UK). With no hint of irony, the organiser welcomed attendees - "we're all here bec…
Good. Keep the unthinking MBAs out of sectors where they can do real damage.
Re: The Book of Graham
#46This was surprisingly entertaining. There's some truth to it, but it essentially misses three things: 1) The intangible benefits of being at a startup (as a founder or early employee) -- working on interesting problems, with smart people, in a well funded environment. You learn things, meet people, get to use amazing tools. (Startups definitely aren't the only way to do this -- academia or, for engineering, some part…
So me it is all truth...
I mean, your 2) point is critical: I am in Brazil, I am in a startup because I had no choice, and although I am getting paid with someone else money, if the startup crashes, I will go down with it, and go down I mean, get in worse situation than I already am... currently I am struggling to pay my rent and food, if my startup fails, I won't be able to pay rent and food, at all, considering my parents are having money issues too, this mean most likely I would experience real starvation, something that I am not much keen on experiencing.
Re: The Book of Graham
#47I don't get it. What's the intended message for his younger brother? That you should go into a steady, well-paying career because then you'll be able to impress women by picking up the tab at a fancy restaurant/bar? Or was it just poking fun at YC-as-a-cult?
I am still unsure whether the author was 1) seriously making some decent points about YC's model underneath a (self-aware and -effacing or just tone-deaf, I'm really not sure) veneer of old-school snobbery and greed, or 2) sarcastically making the opposite points by presenting the counterargument in such unappealing terms. Either way, it left something of a bad taste in my mouth for both industries.
Actually, you are one of the few people that got the article 100%
That IS the intention of the author (make you feel a bad taste for BOTH industries)
Re: The Book of Graham
#48I don't get it. What's the intended message for his younger brother? That you should go into a steady, well-paying career because then you'll be able to impress women by picking up the tab at a fancy restaurant/bar? Or was it just poking fun at YC-as-a-cult?
I am still unsure whether the author was 1) seriously making some decent points about YC's model underneath a (self-aware and -effacing or just tone-deaf, I'm really not sure) veneer of old-school snobbery and greed, or 2) sarcastically making the opposite points by presenting the counterargument in such unappealing terms. Either way, it left something of a bad taste in my mouth for both industries.
I'm pretty sure it was option 1. In general, it was pretty scathing and precise in its take-down approach. And any lingering doubt about where he was aiming was removed by his closing comment.
Re: The Book of Graham
#49Considering this guy is running a finance/consulting parody website, I have to assume there's a measure of jealousy and regret that the website he is running does not have attractive enough characteristics to be let into Y Combinator, although he must swim in some of the same circles as these startups. The main question I take away from reading this is how the average payout to a young college grad compares on wall s…
To be clear (from the guy who submitted this), leveraged sellout was an incredibly popular blog that covered wall street from a junior insider's perspective for years. It was generally ironic, but as a friend of mine once asserted, irony is kind of like absolute value -- the more ironic you are about something the more seriously you take it, and it becomes difficult to distinguish the intensity of your irony from rea…
i used to read the site. he was an outsider observing finance (the roomate of a bunch of bankers) who launched a popular website instead of following "the path". high point was the book, which came out in 2008 - worst possible timing - and did not sell. bad luck. the same site in 2012 would have been funded for millions ... get some guest authors ... maybe sell to gawker media / huff post / etc ... no book required.
with regards to the content - if you take away the "irony" as cover for a legitimate argument, it's still an interesting question to contemplate. for the average econ major (but not CS major), with no edge in technology, compared to the safe average payouts available on wall street, it is probably a bad decision to pursue a tech startup ... which is what makes the parody work.
Re: The Book of Graham
#50This was surprisingly entertaining. There's some truth to it, but it essentially misses three things: 1) The intangible benefits of being at a startup (as a founder or early employee) -- working on interesting problems, with smart people, in a well funded environment. You learn things, meet people, get to use amazing tools. (Startups definitely aren't the only way to do this -- academia or, for engineering, some part…
So me it is all truth... I mean, your 2) point is critical: I am in Brazil, I am in a startup because I had no choice, and although I am getting paid with someone else money, if the startup crashes, I will go down with it, and go down I mean, get in worse situation than I already am... currently I am struggling to pay my rent and food, if my startup fails, I won't be able to pay rent and food, at all, considering my…
Here's probably why rdl and a lot of people on HN disagree with the article. In SV, being at a funded startup as an engineer often (not always) means you left or declined a big company job, a job which is often higher-paying (in base salary). And if the startup fails, there will be no negative effect on your career, unless you failed for malicious reasons (e.g. blew investor's money on parties). If you are a founder, your startup experience will be perfectly valid experience to other companies. If you are an engineer, you will get a new job in no time (in the current climate).
The reason SV is relevant is because the article is specifically talking about YC.