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LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

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Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#161

Post by scrollaway »

whimsicalism wrote: post #63
nailer wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He seems to have not advocated lying though just showing up: https://www.reddit.com/r/oakland/comments/m4bqx9/comment/gqu...

I'm not going to necessarily trust that reddit comment, especially when I know there were plenty instances of people lying about eligibility, and I think it is largely unlikely that most YC founders would have been eligible for this mobile clinic in west Oakland in mid-March.

Let's make three things very clear:

- Lying to jump the queue, ahead of people who need it more is trashy, selfish, should be not just discouraged but heavily reprimanded.

- A lot of the vaccine distribution is awful and disorganized. This often leads to vaccines being thrown away.

- SHOTS IN ARMS. A vaccine in someone is better than a vaccine thrown away, even if it's not optimally distributed.

"Just showing up" is a thing here in Belgium as well, and I expect many countries. Here in Brussels for example for a while the major vaccination center had time and stock for 1000 shots a day, and so would plan for 1000 shots distributed per day and invite … 1000 people for that day, not one more. Over snail mail or SMS depending on where you lived. And 75% were going unused, and they were wondering why.

So yeah, we can spend time talking about how they should know better, overbook, etc but in the mean time vaccines were being thrown away and the distribution was slowing down. So people just showing up speeds that up, and is a net gain.

And yet, people complain and are outraged, claim the people showing up are skipping the queue, and I frankly wish they'd shut the fuck up about it.

If indeed Paul was denouncing someone who was bragging about jumping the queue or encouraging people to do so by revealing how they're Hacking Society™, that's just absolute trash and it's completely disgusting.

If he's complaining about an instance of someone saying "There's unused vaccines in centers, show up at the end of the day and you can get one", then have at it.

I'm not in YC / the forum in question, I've no idea, can't form an opinion. But yeah, needinfo.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#163

Post by truetraveller »

On a similar note: This does not give me confidence in startups and "accelerators". Some (many?) startups will do questionable things for growth. They will upvote one another. They will give fake five-star reviews for one another. And they will call it growth hacking. I remember Reddit's "fake user" growth hacking.

The depressing thing is: Founders who want to play by ethical rules, will ask. "May be I too should engage in this behaviour, just to level the playing field".

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#165

Post by ible »

dalbasal wrote: post #117
ible wrote: post #39

What an excellent demonstration of what values/norms a group really cares about. Biggar violated the all time favourite in-group rule: Don't talk out of school. Don't talk about fight club. Don't snitch. The other founders violated a norm against pushing yourself ahead and taking advantage of others that doesn't even seem to hold in many groups, especially upper class/wealthy ones.

Here's an analogy. You can get fired for always being late to work, but not get fired for bad behaviour (even crime) outside of work... say drunk driving. This doesn't mean that being late to work is worse than drunk driving, or that person A is worse than person B. Not everything is a general judgement on worth or character.

I don't think that analogy applies. Both parties in this story did things in a 'work' context.

If I go on a work forum and describe my bad behaviour, behaviour that is harmful to others, and advocate for others to do it, I'm going to get in trouble, and possibly fired.

If I publicly discuss private work information, I'll definitely get fired.

If I mention the bad behaviour of someone at work publicly, without naming names, I might get a talking to, but probably won't be fired.

How a group reacts to those different things over time defines the norms and culture of the group.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#166

Post by fruityrudy »

saltedonion wrote: post #19

I’m confused. So YC kicked out the guy who complained about it on Twitter and not the people who advocated for lying to skip lines? Wtf?

What’s so bad about skipping the line?

Priority groups don’t even make sense. It’s some egalitarian crap for the sake of it and more so for buying votes from older ppl.

Then we are left with: it’s simply against the rules. And as if people in SF care about that.

Why r so many people in SF on these moral crusades anyway. Getting high off enforcing rules and looking down on others.

Everyone should be equal…as long as I get my ridiculous salary and elite network. It’s like imposter syndrome for the privileged…so they need to pretend they are for the common man.

Good riddance to such crusaders. PG is a boss.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#167

Post by [deleted] »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #109
angry_octet wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has a real "snitches get stiches" vibe to it. You have no expectation of privacy if you announce (let alone advocate for, or instruct how-to) behaviour against public health policy _during_a_pandemic_. The contrast with people who have been working hard to match people with appointments couldn't be more stark.

At this point in the US, anyone who wants to get a vaccine can get one. That makes getting it a personal choice. Then you have this person try to damage Ycombinator because one of their founders spoke internally about the matter. Absolutely tactless. You'd expect future founders to be able to consider potential repercussions for biting the hand that's serving them.

[deleted]

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#169

Post by benlivengood »

rafaelero wrote: post #18

It's a bit distressing how organizations try so hard to keep a good reputation all the time. I mean, is it really that bad to publically admit that you are composed of people with questionable morals? For example, in the first company I used to work, I was always bitching about how things could improve. I got fired because I was "bringing the moral down" and was "working against the company". I could see why they wou…

Because organizations are composed of people with questionable morals they'll happily eat the weak by using public admissions of culpability to tank competitors or just randos for the lulz if nothing else.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#170

Post by [deleted] »

dasickis wrote: post #120

I'm the person this original tweet was about. None of you know any of the internal details but what I can state is that Paul has no idea what he's talking about and later admits to the fact I wasn't lying. Here's the order of events: 1. I went to a neighborhood clinic in Oakland, CA that's literally next door to my house, I can see the church from my window. Paul lives in NYC which is on the opposite end of the count…

[deleted]
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