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What I Didn't Say

paulgraham.com

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Re: What I Didn't Say

#161

Post by nashequilibrium »

Crito wrote: post #137
nashequilibrium wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol.....25+ is considered old? This is why most of the big startups of this year are social like snapchat, tumblr, etc. The opportunities where customers are willing to spend shitloads of money like enterprise, hardware are not funded anywhere near as well as social. This is beacuse 19yr olds dont know much about HR or disrupting the Investment Banking software industry. This requires some exposure to the problems fi…

I would not say that 25+ is old, but I would say that it is slightly older . Slightly older than the people typically interested in a "fratty" culture.

You should read "The fall of Long Term Capital Management by Robert Lowenstein". Fratty culture is not limted to the young or inexperienced.

John William Meriwether - born August 10, 1947

Myron Samuel Scholes - born July 1, 1941

Robert Cox Merton - born 31 July 1944

Re: What I Didn't Say

#162

Post by Dewie »

Perihelion wrote: post #133
kremlin wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is undeniably the case that men are more...cautious about what they say and how they behave around women, particularly in the workplace. As a man, I'd have to say that such caution has precedent - you may be an exception, but (this incident being a great example) in my experience women are much more easily offended. And I could see how that could make things less enjoyable for women who aren't so up tight; women w…

You're exactly the sort of person I'm talking about. People like you are afraid to be comfortable in a work environment for fear that they'll be fired for saying or doing the wrong thing. Provided you aren't a sexist/rapist, I see no reason why you need to be walking on eggshells all the time at a place where you spend a large percentage of your day. It makes me sad that my presence would make you uncomfortable when…

> While you and you alone have the power to change your behavior (and it would be awesome if you gave women the benefit of the doubt because we're not all this way...promise), I really can't place 100% of the blame on you either.

Yet this seems to imply that you place most of the blame on him... though it seems that you are both (potential) victims here.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#163

Post by marquis »

sp332 wrote: post #144
marquis wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pressure of not being a 25 year old guy, basically. Or 25 for that matter.

What would make you feel more comfortable? Edit: Is this a bad question? I was trying to be empathetic.

Blind applications would make me more comfortable to consider applying.

A lot of this has to do with impostor syndrome which is why the idea of a blind applications would, in my opinion, help many other talented founders think of applying.

Thanks for your comment on empathy. That is something that makes me feel really welcome to comment here.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#164

Post by pdonis »

davidp wrote: post #117
crassus wrote: post #10

At the heart of the matter is that witch-burnings are popular (turn into clicks) and that Gawker has a witch quota to keep up. I'm glad to see such a thorough, intelligent reply from PG. He is extremely careful and precise in his language, without coming across as robotic or inhuman. It's impressive. But this kind of thing is going to continue to happen. There is no market for taking an honest man at his word without…

> The talkers have gained power over the doers, and it is wrong. Somehow critics have grown in power to be able to extract punishment and concessions from people actually on the ground. Agreed, although I don't think it's the talkers vs. the doers; it's the talkers' audiences vs. the doers. Here's your "somehow": The lack of critical thinking skills in the general population (not new), combined with the power of inst…

I blame the listeners, not the talkers.

I blame both. The listeners for not exercising critical thinking, as you say, and the talkers for spending their time and effort (not to mention sucking in the time and effort of many other people) on these useless witch hunts instead of adding actual value.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#165

Post by nostromo »

ericabiz wrote: post #32

As a female founder, I think this is a well-thought-out, articulate response, and I appreciate pg stepping up to say something about women in tech. In a similar vein, I'd love to see YC take on one or both of the following: 1) Do at least one application cycle completely blind. How could you accomplish this? Much like in the concert auditions where this was first tried, put people behind a curtain--and then use techn…

Self-selection, as you have done, is a hard problem to solve.

Not just in tech, but in our entire culture. As noted elsewhere, Americans are sorting themselves by demographics.

It feels awkward to be a woman in a predominantly male organization. It feels awkward to be a republican in San Francisco. It feels awkward to be gay in Mississippi. It feels awkward to be black in Portland. And so we place ourselves in locations (and organizations) where it's less awkward to be ourselves, and the problem gets worse.

What's difficult about this problem is that it's nobody's fault. There's no conspiracy behind this trend. (In fact there is a conspiracy to try and reverse it! But to little avail.) Counterintuitively, perhaps it's the fault of the people who choose the comfort of sameness over diversity, but that feels too close to victim blaming.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#166

Post by davidw »

> [3] The controversy itself is an example of something interesting I'd been meaning to write about, incidentally. I was one of the first users of Reddit, and I couldn't believe the number of times I indignantly upvoted a story about some apparent misdeed or injustice, only to discover later it wasn't as it seemed. As one of the first to be exposed to this phenomenon, I was one of the first to develop an immunity to it. Now when I see something that seems too indignation-inducing to be true, my initial reaction is usually skepticism. But even now I'm still fooled occasionally.

I think we could do with fewer of those stories on HN, truth be told. They seem to generate a lot of heat and little light, and are generally about "off-topic" subjects without being intellectually gratifying.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#167

Post by mdisraeli »

marquis wrote: post #123
sp332 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

blind applications would make me more comfortable to consider applying What kind of pressure are you feeling about applying to funds now?

The pressure of not being a 25 year old guy, basically. Or 25 for that matter.

This. Although there is no age limit on YC applications, there appears to be a natural bias towards younger candidates. Women, however, tend to move into being an entrepreneur later in life, when they have more experience.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#168

Post by crassus »

nashequilibrium wrote: post #116
crassus wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that nobody is mentioning is that many "fratty" companies have been wildly successful. That's why VCs aren't cracking down on startups to make them more professional. (Although it is a good idea to become more professional as your startup grows, for cultural appeal to the median tech worker) This fratty culture certainly drives away slightly older founders (by that, I mean 25+!) and others who don't appreci…

lol.....25+ is considered old? This is why most of the big startups of this year are social like snapchat, tumblr, etc. The opportunities where customers are willing to spend shitloads of money like enterprise, hardware are not funded anywhere near as well as social. This is beacuse 19yr olds dont know much about HR or disrupting the Investment Banking software industry. This requires some exposure to the problems fi…

I observed an incubator program where there was an early-20s founder who was very fratty, taking shots in the office with his team to celebrate releases and stuff like that. That team all lived together. As founders age into their late 20s, they seem to become less enamored of that lifestyle.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#169

Post by jeffdavis »

kyro wrote: post #102

Something needs to change about this industry's obsession with sensationalist journalism. If this industry is truly as forward-thinking and progressive as it is, and hopes to make strides in issues like gender/minority equality, then we need to build defenses against severely twisted, unfounded, and intentionally heinous hit-pieces by nobody bloggers who are trying to break into the industry by being edgy and aggress…

I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of experience the readership has to this kind of "journalism". Sensationalist and highly opinionated journalism loses its impact on individuals over a few years of exposure. After a while, people start to realize that such things are almost never the full story, and you need to wait for more information and analysis to come forward before forming an opinion of your own.

The reason this kind of journalism works is simple: because there is a steady supply of new people who aren't resistant to it yet.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#170

Post by pdonis »

bambax wrote: post #132
gingerlime wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a confusing sentence, but I think it's correct. I think it would be clearer if it said "whether we could, in effect, accept women (who are not hackers) we would have accepted if they had been hackers" The stuff I added in brackets is implied. The main question is accepting women who are not hackers, as if they were, given the (challenged) assumption that you can turn them into hackers in YC.

You may be right but if you are, it means being a hacker is a (necessary) criterium of the YC's approval process: is it?

is it?

It is if you are seeking funding for a startup based on hacking. The context in the article makes it clear that this condition was implied.

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