Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 290 posts

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#271

Post by guappa »

Kranar wrote: post #262
3pt14159 wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry but only at my most very dedicated periods of work did I work 100 hour weeks, and that was like 3 or 4 weeks tops. I highly doubt that anyone sustains a 100 hour work week for much longer. Eighty hour work weeks? Sure, that is doable, but sleeping at the job site because you are pulling a 100 hour work week is just not sustainable.

Rules changed in 2003, but until then medical residency programs routinely had doctors working 100+ hours a week or longer. In 2003 a cap of 80 hours a week was instituted along with a maximum of 24 hours in any given period, but programs found various loopholes around that cap which still had doctors working close to 100 hours a week. So further restrictions were placed so that over any 4 week period there's a hard…

I'm sure prisoners in labour camps work more than that. And the death toll for patients cured by overworked doctors is not insignificant.

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#272

Post by guappa »

cm2012 wrote: post #208
__loam wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting inexperienced kids with good credentials who are amenable to listening to a board in charge of these things is part of the yc business model.

As someone who has worked with many boards and execs, I cannot tell how wrong this way of looking at the world is. Execs universally love working with people who maximize proactivity and strong opinions. The opposite of what you think.

> Execs universally love working with people who maximize proactivity and strong opinions.

Only if they share the same strong opinions.

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#273

Post by guappa »

imiric wrote: post #139
deadbabe wrote: post #76

I think this is oddly predatory, and sends the wrong idea to graduating students who have not even entered the real world. There is no need to rush to get into YC, and it would help to get actual experience in a job before setting out to build a whole company.

Not just predatory, but irresponsible. The idea that someone fresh out of college should start and run a business is deeply concerning. These are kids who have just (hopefully) learned about ethics and what it takes to run a business, yet you expect them to be responsible stewards of their users' data, to comply with laws and regulations, while you throw $500,000 at them, give them minimal guidance, sell them fantasi…

Bill Gates was already from a rich family and got some nice early contracts due to his family connections.

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#274

Post by [deleted] »

mikestew wrote: post #248
boringg wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't part of your soul die when you start working for big tech? All that youthful energy and hope to push a potentially meaningless product. Such a sad thing to watch potential and idealism get crushed. I understand its provocative statement - your play is the risk free life route - perfect for many many people but not everyone. Certainly not people who want to build things that go into the wild.

Doesn't part of your soul die when you start working for big tech? I learned more at Microsoft than any of the startups I worked at. I shipped product to more users than at any startup I worked at. I understand its provocative statement… Meh, more of an example of “begging the question” than anything else.

[deleted]

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#275

Post by [deleted] »

3pt14159 wrote: post #259
FinnLobsien wrote: post #219

I think everyone criticizing this is comparing it to the wrong thing. Many ambitious students: -graduate and work 100 hour+ weeks as investment banking associates. -join other people's startups where they work crazy hours -work hellish hours in PhDs/med school/law school Yes, being a founder is hard and can be absolute hell at times. But so are some of the "normal" things ambitious students already do post-graduation…

I'm sorry but only at my most very dedicated periods of work did I work 100 hour weeks, and that was like 3 or 4 weeks tops. I highly doubt that anyone sustains a 100 hour work week for much longer. Eighty hour work weeks? Sure, that is doable, but sleeping at the job site because you are pulling a 100 hour work week is just not sustainable.

[deleted]

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#276

Post by bboreham »

cde-v wrote: post #32
barbarr wrote: post #21

To what extent is YC's current strategy a form of "cookie-licking"? I.e. capture a small fraction of every plausible startup created by the next generation of students?

100% at this point. The industry's leading AI for start-up ideas has run out of AI for _____ suggestions. It was pretty obvious they were scraping the bottom of the barrel a month ago when I made this list from their current batch: Acrely — AI for HVAC administration Aden — AI for ERP operations AgentHub — AI for agent simulation and evaluation Agentin AI — AI for enterprise agents AgentMail — AI for agent email infr…

This is art.

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#278

Post by cm2012 »

guappa wrote: post #272
cm2012 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has worked with many boards and execs, I cannot tell how wrong this way of looking at the world is. Execs universally love working with people who maximize proactivity and strong opinions. The opposite of what you think.

> Execs universally love working with people who maximize proactivity and strong opinions. Only if they share the same strong opinions.

I hear, "You're the expert, we're paying you a lot, tell us what to do" often!

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#279

Post by nostrebored »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #267
nostrebored wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 days / 16 hours or 7 days / 14 hours still leaves time for a normal sleep schedule. Many of the people in our YC batch were doing this for the duration of the batch. My cofounder and I both have families and managed to make a similar schedule work (with more peaks and valleys). The last few weeks have been a crunch where I’ve been getting a lot closer to a true 140ish. That is unsustainable and I’ve had to go into…

And somehow you seem to be defending it. Even though there is statistically a better return just working in a bank as a Java dev in a second tier city.

This is absolutely untrue. We pay ourselves and all of our employees competitive salaries.

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#280

Post by nostrebored »

himeexcelanta wrote: post #268
nostrebored wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 days / 16 hours or 7 days / 14 hours still leaves time for a normal sleep schedule. Many of the people in our YC batch were doing this for the duration of the batch. My cofounder and I both have families and managed to make a similar schedule work (with more peaks and valleys). The last few weeks have been a crunch where I’ve been getting a lot closer to a true 140ish. That is unsustainable and I’ve had to go into…

This is performance - the human brain doesn’t work like this.

I've frequently had points in my career where this is just life. It comes down to planning when you do which tasks. I'm absolutely not at peak decision making capacity, but sometimes you aren't making decisions, just executing on work that takes time.
Post reply on HN