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Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference

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Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference

#21
This kind of article shows why we need more women in tech. Many, many more. Critical and insightful but also respectful and modest.

One thing that was missing, though, was politics. Politics in the true sense of the word, namely, the power struggles in the tech society which give rise to the current status quo.

Also, she says, "No one pretended tech was a meritocracy". The thing is, tech is a meritocracy, and that's part of the politics of tech. Meritocracy, of course, is a joke. It is not a desirable state of affairs, because it should be obvious that "merit" is a false currency used to justify what is, rather than work toward what should be. It is the quintessential naturalistic fallacy.

It amazes me time and again how people can take the term seriously, which only demonstrates how dangerous it is. Such a blatant, perverted joke, a dystopia that some intelligent people mistake for a utopia. Wikipedia says this: "Although the concept has existed for centuries, the term "meritocracy" was first coined in the 1950s. It was used by British politician and sociologist, Michael Young in his 1958 satirical essay, The Rise of the Meritocracy, which pictured the United Kingdom under the rule of a government favouring intelligence and aptitude (merit) above all else... In this book the term had distinctly negative connotations as Young questioned both the legitimacy of the selection process used to become a member of this elite and the outcomes of being ruled by such a narrowly defined group."

I still can't fathom how meritocracy can be taken as anything but a negative. I mean, the first question that comes to mind (or, rather, the second after "what is merit") is, "who has merit and why, and who does not?" Once this question is asked, it is immediately apparent that any attempt to paint "meritocracy" in a positive light is ludicrous.

Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference

#23
post #2

I don’t know why this comment struck me as odd … maybe it’s because the only people I know who identify themselves specifically as “nontechnical cofounders” are women. This means that you seriously need to go meet more founders. There are probably as many non-tech founders who are men as tech founders. These founders(such as Alexis from reddit) have filled the role in a very similar manner as Jessica describes.

Sure, but I think her point stands. They don't identify themselves as a nontechnical cofounder: they're the business guy, the money guy, the sales guy or the industry guy. Using a negative to describe one's own role comes across as very self-deprecating.

What I remember about Alexis saying was that he was the non-technical founder, and pretty much did I kind of weird stuff all the time like coming up with an mascot for the site. You can take pride in it and it shows if you do.

I've heard and seen times all kinds of founders, non-technical and technical ones, saying that their role is fetching pizza on launch day, fixing the toilet, answering the phone, calling angry customers or doing what ever job is required.

It's the job of the founder, and it's humbling not demeaning. You come up and build the initial product, you take care of the business, you grow the team and in the end if there isn't anyone else to do something, you do it yourself if needs taking care of.

Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference

#24
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but I think her point stands. They don't identify themselves as a nontechnical cofounder: they're the business guy, the money guy, the sales guy or the industry guy. Using a negative to describe one's own role comes across as very self-deprecating.

Alexis has a record of identifying himself as the non-technical founder. So do many, many other founders. Just do a google on this query to see founders describing themselves as non-technical: non-technical founder site:news.ycombinator.com

Adding to zaidf, more examples: http://www.quora.com/Non-Technical-Co-Founders/How-do-I-prov...

Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference

#25
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but I think her point stands. They don't identify themselves as a nontechnical cofounder: they're the business guy, the money guy, the sales guy or the industry guy. Using a negative to describe one's own role comes across as very self-deprecating.

Alexis has a record of identifying himself as the non-technical founder. So do many, many other founders. Just do a google on this query to see founders describing themselves as non-technical: non-technical founder site:news.ycombinator.com

From what I remember, those describe themselves as ‘the business guy’ or ‘the marketing guy’ but give advice, mainly about the attitude to have to fellow ‘non-technical co-founders’, assuming often openly that they do have a needed skill-set, that happens not to be code.

Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference

#26
> Giving the idea of “separate but equal” another try and seeing if it plays in our favor this time?

I think that this is a key point about that conference, and TED Woman. That and the implied paramount of sexism idea that if they let men talk, there are going to be chauvinist pig, because that’s indistinguishable from having a penis.

Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference

#27
post #10
post #8

It's expected that every word anybody said during that conference will be scrutinized beyond what's appropriate, simply because it's such a touchy subject. That's probably the reason why the video of the conference was already taken offline today while I was watching it (edit: it's not, see below). Generally I think it would be more productive if judgements weren't done on a hair trigger, because that's what makes th…

That's probably the reason why the video of the conference was already taken offline today while I was watching it. No, we took the video offline because one of the speakers hadn't realized the talks were being filmed. It will be back once we edit that one out.

PG - This is great to hear. Was in the middle of watching it with my wife (and co-founder). It's one of the most passionate and important conferences I have ever seen.

Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference

#28
I think that this article misses one main point about Jessica Livingston: that she is different from other women; she said so herself. Not all women have the same type of personality. That is not a bad thing. "With a female founder it’s the second sentence out of her mouth. As if to say “PS - don’t take me seriously”" This is the point in which the author goes too far. Jessica knows that everyone at YC values her word. How many times has pg said that he often looks to Jessica about funding a group? For someone with a different personality, that statement might be more accurate, but I highly doubt it is for Jessica Livingston. In conclusion, everyone is different. Men are different from other men and women are different from other women. Do not assume that a statement means something because of the gender of the person saying it without taking into account the personality of the person.

Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference

#29
post #2

I don’t know why this comment struck me as odd … maybe it’s because the only people I know who identify themselves specifically as “nontechnical cofounders” are women. This means that you seriously need to go meet more founders. There are probably as many non-tech founders who are men as tech founders. These founders(such as Alexis from reddit) have filled the role in a very similar manner as Jessica describes.

Also, I think male founders sometimes also have to do 15 meetings a day to raise money, it is not an ordeal only female founders go through.
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