What I Didn't Say • Hacker News Board

Re: What I Didn't Say

#401

Post by brc » Tue, Dec 31, 2013, 3:36 AM UTC

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…

This whole episode is the first time I have ever picked up on a gender discussion in relation to yc applications. The general feeling here seems to be that some type of affirmative action of quots needs to be applied. But there already is a quota - those with the most promising teams and ideas get to go.

The last thing a successful female founder wants or needs is a quota or lower bar of entry for things like yc. Because once that happens, you're going to have to work twice as hard to get respect, because now you have to prove your place wasn't just because the quota needed to be filled. if you get picked fair and square, then being there is a strong signal that you are worthy.

There are times and places for intentionally creating diversity, but a start up incubator is a bad fit for that type of intervention.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#402

Post by ajslater » Tue, Dec 31, 2013, 3:37 AM UTC

mjburgess wrote: post #236

grellas wrote: post #229

A word about credibility. It comes from the Latin word credo , meaning "I trust." Its value exceeds that of money because it marks you as a person - as someone who is respected, who is trustworthy, and whom you would want to count as a friend. It marks you not as perfect but as special. It makes others ponder not so much that they did the last deal with you but that they would want to do the next deal too. Just as we…

Fine, he was mischaracterized and he replied. But jesus, > pg's response is actually priceless: it is like a soft-spoken witness upending a bullying lawyer who had just viciously attacked him, leaving the attacker reeling for all to see. What's with the almost cult-like reverence for this largely pseudo-intellectual entrepreneur?

>What's with the almost cult-like reverence for this largely pseudo-intellectual entrepreneur?

Who, pray tell, are the real intellectuals?

Re: What I Didn't Say

#403

Post by jasonzemos » Tue, Dec 31, 2013, 3:40 AM UTC

scythe wrote: post #393

mjburgess wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of his achievements as an entrepreneur give him insights into philosophy, political economy or anything else he writes on. I granted him "entrepreneur" status. He can have "compu-sci" intellectual too. You can see my comment here on his pseud-osity: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6988150 to save repeating myself.

The comment you linked fails to substantially address the article you claim to critique. You basically quoted him once on a rather controversial point and said "I disagree with this quip!". This particular sentence is hilarious: > if you have any serious reading on the last two hundred years of economic, political and sociological critiques of capitalism, wealth and power It seems like you're calling Paul Graham a ps…

The irony here is how you're able to leverage the publications[1] of PG to explain how the arguments in the parent-post are falling short in substantively criticizing the publications by PG.

Head: explode.

1: http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html

Re: What I Didn't Say

#404

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 31, 2013, 3:43 AM UTC

mjburgess wrote: post #236

grellas wrote: post #229

A word about credibility. It comes from the Latin word credo , meaning "I trust." Its value exceeds that of money because it marks you as a person - as someone who is respected, who is trustworthy, and whom you would want to count as a friend. It marks you not as perfect but as special. It makes others ponder not so much that they did the last deal with you but that they would want to do the next deal too. Just as we…

Fine, he was mischaracterized and he replied. But jesus, > pg's response is actually priceless: it is like a soft-spoken witness upending a bullying lawyer who had just viciously attacked him, leaving the attacker reeling for all to see. What's with the almost cult-like reverence for this largely pseudo-intellectual entrepreneur?

[deleted]

Re: What I Didn't Say

#405

Post by dinkumthinkum » Tue, Dec 31, 2013, 3:43 AM UTC

hooande wrote: post #158

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…

A reputation can be a blessing or a curse. YCombinator has a great reputation as the best startup incubator and it's founders have sterling reputations as being the people you absolutely need to talk to if you're considering a tech startup. It takes a lifetime to become known as superlative, the proverbial gold standard. It's as true on the mean streets as it is in the halls of power: You are what people think you ar…

I think you're discounting her experience, maybe you don't mean to but it comes off that way.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#406

Post by yetanotherphd » Tue, Dec 31, 2013, 3:47 AM UTC

mjburgess wrote: post #319

mjburgess wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"pseudo" was a little strong. But if you have any serious familiarity with his "off-topic" rants, youll see he writes about issues glibly and with a severe lack of information. I dont mind "academic journalism", I do it a lot myself: write on difficult topics for a lay audience and maybe sacrifice a little accurasy a long the way. I think pg likes be seen making points more than he wants further understanding/truth/e…

I seem to have been down-voted, maybe some dont see the problem. Here's a randomly picked example: http://paulgraham.com/inequality.html Randomish quote from end of article, "The problem here is not wealth, but corruption. So why not go after corruption? We don't need to prevent people from being rich if we can prevent wealth from translating into power." Umm... how about in a capitalist society money is the vehicle…

I agree with you that reducing inequality is important in order to correct imbalances of political power. But if that is just an off-hand point, then what is your actual point? You said "if you have any serious reading on the last two hundred years of economic, political and sociological critiques of capitalism, wealth and power that whole article will just seem silly." Are you going to give us anything to go on there, or just assume no one will speak up for fear of appearing equally gauche as pg?

Re: What I Didn't Say

#407

Post by dinkumthinkum » Tue, Dec 31, 2013, 3:48 AM UTC

marquis wrote: post #78

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…

As another female founder I concur: blind applications would make me more comfortable to consider applying to funds in general, not just YC. As an audio processing geek, getting male and female voices to sound the same is actually pretty hard without losing diction, but at least having the application have a separate cover-sheet for the founder's names and any information that might give away identifiers about gender…

Well, honestly if they're going to do this why bother with distortion and just interview via chat, what is the difference at that point?

Re: What I Didn't Say

#408

Post by dinkumthinkum » Tue, Dec 31, 2013, 3:50 AM UTC

MartinCron wrote: post #213

001sky wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This raises a good point, but informal inferences about age, ethnicity, and sex can be made from other parts of the application. Statistics on the discrimination of Ivy league schools show that (east) Asian face a stacked deck in college applications at "selective" schools[0]. Its plausible that much of this is inferred from ethnic names. To the extent it impacts the short-lists for interviews (ie, before candidates…

The last time I was hiring, I wished I could easily review resumes without seeing the names, email addresses, physical addresses, school names, or even telephone numbers as I felt that I was bringing in my arbitrary bias. Telephone numbers? I found that I identified a lot more with area code 206 than 425 or 253, just as I identify a lot more with an @gmail.com address than @hotmail.com or @aol.com.

Don't you think, though, if you have such arbitrary biases, it would be better to work on them than hide the problem?

Re: What I Didn't Say

#409

Post by ars_technician » Tue, Dec 31, 2013, 4:00 AM UTC

mjburgess wrote: post #350

jswinghammer wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing he said is out of line with what a lot of classical liberals were saying throughout the 19th century and they were refining ideas that basically go back to Aristotle. If echoing their thoughts qualifies one to be a pseudo-intellectual then I'm going to guess in horror at what you consider to be genuine intellectual thought.

He isnt "echoing their thoughts" any one who has read Adam Smith systematically would know that the very first few lines of this are explicitly rejected by him. They're childish research-lite versions of a 50s-style classical liberalism. It is much the same as Ayn Rand another amateur philosopher who knew very little on the topics she was writing about. I dislike the "talking head" approach to serious topics. I dont…

>I dislike the "talking head" approach to serious topics.

Similar to your unsubstantiated comment about Ayn Rand?

Re: What I Didn't Say

#410

Post by dinkumthinkum » Tue, Dec 31, 2013, 4:04 AM UTC

freyrs3 wrote: post #36

I'm not sure I want to work in an industry where some offhanded quip can lead to the kind witchhunt and character assassination like we saw over the last few days. Paul Graham may have some views that seem controversial to some people, but don't we all? I really blame the tabloidization of the tech press and the "twitter controversy of the day" bandwagon effect for these kind of incidents.

Keep in mind, the industry is really bigger than this. There are many tech people for which this story is not even on the radar.