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Ways YC has changed in the last year

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Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#131

Post by erik_seaberg »

airstrike wrote: post #67
xwdv wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the secret to working effectively is passive aggressive nonverbal cues and interrupting people frequently who may be busy doing something else and weren’t expecting an impromptu meeting? Has the physical world discovered how to replay past conversations where important decisions were made? Has it become socially acceptable to have long silences of 5-10 minutes while people formulate thoughtful replies in a convers…

> Has the physical world discovered how to replay past conversations where important decisions were made? Yes, they're called "minutes", memos or simply taking notes in meetings. > Has it become socially acceptable to have long silences of 5-10 minutes while people formulate thoughtful replies in a conversation? Yes, you can always say "let me think about that for a minute"

I’ve literally never seen a meeting grind to a halt like that. Instead, meetings are full of half-baked ideas, and I sometimes notice show-stoppers hours later when it’s quiet.

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#132

Post by eikenberry »

pyrophane wrote: post #100
neilv wrote: post #30

> We've now tried every point on the spectrum: fully remote, hybrid and fully in-person. So now we don't have to worry if we're being luddites: in-person YC just really is the best. How was this determined to be best? (Obviously, they haven't controlled for variables like the switch to 4 smaller batches, and the high percentage of startups all doing one exciting thing (AI). And do they realize the costs. And is it be…

Whereas in any thread about WFH it seems that 95% of HN has concluded that remote just really is the best. Case close. No further study needed. The only reason to think otherwise is corporate greed.

Given that it is a personal preference and that you are saying that 95% share that preference... it does seem like case closed.

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#133

Post by necubi »

neilv wrote: post #30

> We've now tried every point on the spectrum: fully remote, hybrid and fully in-person. So now we don't have to worry if we're being luddites: in-person YC just really is the best. How was this determined to be best? (Obviously, they haven't controlled for variables like the switch to 4 smaller batches, and the high percentage of startups all doing one exciting thing (AI). And do they realize the costs. And is it be…

I did YC in w23 which was a hybrid batch (talks and office hours on zoom with weekly SF events). Speaking for myself, most of the value was in the in-person events and not the zoom talks. Talking to alumni from the fully remote batches, it's clear that they missed out on a big part of the YC experience.

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#134

Post by hackernewds »

stanleydrew wrote: post #110
hackernewds wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> YC doesn't exactly need to do double-blinded Controled studies to come to some conclusions. Why not? There is a barrage of companies touting the benefits of in person collaboration, thinly veiled to just being "surveil the workers"

> Why not? Is this a serious question? For one thing, every founder will obviously know whether they are in-person or not, so it's not even possible to do a single-blind study.

My point is there are other statistical techniques, none of which seems to be utilized against #vibes let's go #RTO

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#137

Post by RestlessMind »

neilv wrote: post #30

> We've now tried every point on the spectrum: fully remote, hybrid and fully in-person. So now we don't have to worry if we're being luddites: in-person YC just really is the best. How was this determined to be best? (Obviously, they haven't controlled for variables like the switch to 4 smaller batches, and the high percentage of startups all doing one exciting thing (AI). And do they realize the costs. And is it be…

I am not surprised by that. Fully remote zoom based interaction only works for those who work in a silo and do not need much social interaction to get their job done. Some like a mid-senior software engineer. But many other roles really need social interactions and in-person time.

I have family members in SV who have started their own startup. Talking to them, "founder" seems to be a roll which needs a lot of social interactions and they are constantly networking. Right from raising money to making the first hires to finding the first customers. So no wonder YC batch finds in-person to be the best experience.

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#138

Post by Eumenes »

pyrophane wrote: post #100
neilv wrote: post #30

> We've now tried every point on the spectrum: fully remote, hybrid and fully in-person. So now we don't have to worry if we're being luddites: in-person YC just really is the best. How was this determined to be best? (Obviously, they haven't controlled for variables like the switch to 4 smaller batches, and the high percentage of startups all doing one exciting thing (AI). And do they realize the costs. And is it be…

Whereas in any thread about WFH it seems that 95% of HN has concluded that remote just really is the best. Case close. No further study needed. The only reason to think otherwise is corporate greed.

Pre-covid, and this WFH/RTO conversation, the focus was on hating the open office floor plan, which does suck, I agree ... The most repeated anecdote was how you're coding, in zen, and someone taps you on the shoulder or starts talking, and the entire day is lost. Thus, the alternative was to have your own office, like at Stack Overflow.

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#139

Post by satvikpendem »

startupsfail wrote: post #77
debacle wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> by using any product ideas that you’ve refined and sharing these freely with a relevant startup in the batch. Do you have an example of this happening in the past?

Yes. Took the idea, website, etc, down to the name. Planted on a team of “founders”, who grabbed 10M from VCs. They took it to some place in Texas to die. Was pretty annoying to watch, because it was quite clear that the idea was too early to try productizing YC-style at the time. It was essentially “code understanding” with early transformers, buck in 2017. But YC tried turning this into a product, while it was time…

You're saying you were in YC and then they took your idea, website etc and gave it to another YC team? Or were you unrelated to anyone in YC?

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#140

Post by ajkjk »

dilyevsky wrote: post #95
steveBK123 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure for a bootcamp or intensive project or whatever, in-person can have benefits. For juniors and mentorship and whatever, sure helps there too. But the lingering question is... Why is it that everyone was super cool with hybrid & remote, even past COVID danger, but as soon as FAANG had massive layoffs we went from 2days to 3days to majority back in office at many tech companies? And the east coast bank/fund/finance…

Because zirp was over

What is zirp?
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