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What I Didn't Say

paulgraham.com

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Re: What I Didn't Say

#471

Post by rimantas »

Grokit wrote: post #462
jsmthrowaway wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like the cult-like reverence for the pseudo-intellectual issues commentary on Twitter and Medium? The people who have less than a decade in the industry but are experts on compensation, ocracies, power dynamics, and psychology? The ones who work at Silicon Valley startups and lecture the entire industry about how things work, then surround themselves with like-minded people to have strength in numbers? You a…

I suppose you wouldn't listen to Einstein when he was under 40 too, hmmm? There are numerous examples of younger, less experienced people being in the right while the older, more experienced are at fault because of one thing or another. Of course, this is the exception, not the rule. However, less experienced people often have an interesting take on things that more experienced people miss. When you're 35 you might b…

Did Einstein say something profound about social issues or people interactions when he was younger than 40? I don't say I agree that younger people have nothing of value to say in these areas, but I think you are mixing a bit different things there, experience in some field and life experience. And while age has some correlation with life experience it does not mean that someone older will be wiser at all.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#472

Post by RRiccio »

_delirium wrote: post #91
crazygringo wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blind applications would be great if they were possible, but I suspect they would be as helpful as a blind audition for concert conductors -- i.e., not at all. When you evaluate a team, you need to be able to judge their confidence, see how they interact with each other, get a feel for the trustworthiness, the way they look at you when they answer a question, and so on. If you can't see them, and their voice is disto…

That's a plausible hypothesis, but it'd be interesting if someone were willing to test it experimentally. Some evidence for the hypothesis could be found if a "blind" YC batch did much worse than a typical YC batch, measured say 3 or 5 years in the future. Of course, with relatively small sample sizes nothing is likely to be proved beyond doubt, but it'd be interesting to know, and the amount of money needed to test…

While that might be worth experimenting, there's a high cost to it. Having high selection standards makes the network (YC's or any other) exponentially more valuable to those already in it. If you add a few not-so-good apples by mistake, there's no going back.

Also, you have to consider how much quantitative and qualitative experience YC has accumulated, the partners are pretty good at telling in a couple minutes conversation if you're a strong founder. This advantage would be lost with blind interviews.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#473

Post by [deleted] »

yetanotherphd wrote: post #459
thenerdfiles wrote: post #377

Don't women pick up concepts faster than men? I mean, it's pretty clear that women excel at language acquisition over men, and these are just computer languages . Let's say, ceteris paribus, 10,000 hours for adolescent boys, 8,000 hours for adolescent girls . Supposing this is the case, given the history of computer science, I doubt really any one of us is in a position to define credibility on solely that metric of…

Yes the evidence is clear: Girls score better at boys in language, therefore they are biologically advantaged. Girls score worse than boys at math, therefore they are being discriminated against and discouraged by society. You can't argue with evidence.

[deleted]

Re: What I Didn't Say

#474

Post by jacalata »

hobs wrote: post #450
jacalata wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no age limit for going to college either, but I have seen many people feel reluctant to begin/return to college later in life, for many reasons - they think they won't fit in with other students and hence will miss out on shared experiences, they think it's "too late" to get any use out of the degree by the time they finish, they think other people will think they are slow/stupid for being in college at thei…

I agree that people fear to do something if they think they might fail or have that the something might have a bias against them. However, I would argue YCom graduates are people who do a thing even if THEY ARE TERRIFIED. Being afraid of failure is not a justification for not trying, it is in fact a thing any healthy person has. The successful among us are the ones who operate even though they are afraid of failure.…

That mindset could justify any arbitrary barrier to y combinator, but I don't see pg instituting a mandatory cliff dive as part of the application even though startup founders need to be able to show courage and deal with unexpected and crazy obstacles.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#475

Post by thenerdfiles »

yetanotherphd wrote: post #459
thenerdfiles wrote: post #377

Don't women pick up concepts faster than men? I mean, it's pretty clear that women excel at language acquisition over men, and these are just computer languages . Let's say, ceteris paribus, 10,000 hours for adolescent boys, 8,000 hours for adolescent girls . Supposing this is the case, given the history of computer science, I doubt really any one of us is in a position to define credibility on solely that metric of…

Yes the evidence is clear: Girls score better at boys in language, therefore they are biologically advantaged. Girls score worse than boys at math, therefore they are being discriminated against and discouraged by society. You can't argue with evidence.

I thought I was arguing from environment, and not biology. I thought that was clear when I said "environment plays a significant role here."

Does "environment" mean "nature" to you between "nature/nurture"?

Granted, I'm making big assumptions, but they don't have anything to do with biology.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#476

Post by jsmthrowaway »

johnbm wrote: post #449
jsmthrowaway wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sets you up to be labeled at best ignorant and at worst sexist/racist/intolerant/etc. Indeed. Here's a reply to my comment[1] from yesterday: https://twitter.com/ashedryden/status/417475900850974720 There is no racism, misogyny, or meritocracy worship anywhere in my comment. To be clear, after that comment, a person who has never met me felt the appropriate conclusion was "that guy hates people who aren't white, ha…

"Your misogyny is visible from space." So is her hair.

Thank you for that, really. It's bad enough I have the opinion that goes against the grain and it's an uphill battle, and then you come along and softball a dumbass comment like that. And now that you've left it in close proximity to me, it's fairly easy for most people to draw the conclusion that HN is a cesspool and the opinions are automatically undermined. You're a real peach for that.

See, when they talk about dicks who have dicks, they're talking about you. You are illustrating exactly what they (and I) are so fed up with. Now the rest of us look bad because you had to piss your tripe in the comments.

I'm done with this account and I've said what I mean to say.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#477

Post by jacalata »

coldtea wrote: post #433
School-Cotton wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you honestly not know what a Ph.D is, or are you just making a flabbergastingly disingenuous argument? He has a doctorate in CS, not philosophy, despite the ceremonial Latin name of the degree.

Instead of going on about a "flabbergastingly disingenuous argument" and blaming it on him not understanding that a Ph.D is not a philosophy degree (seriously? you think he doesn't know that?), it would have been much more productive, and correct, to assume he made the simple mistake of thinking pg has a Ph.D in philosophy, where in fact he has a B.A.

Yes, I think he doesn't know that, and the way the comment was written seems to make that the obvious reading. What makes you so certain he does?

Re: What I Didn't Say

#478

Post by bambax »

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…

As you observe yourself, PG's credibility didn't work in this case; I'm not sure it ever does.

For example, how does the non-credibility of the press work? We all know from experience that the actual business of the press in general is to produce catchy headlines based on a forced interpretation of the "facts" (or based on no facts at all).

And yet, we're always ready to trust an article and get all upset as if the press was doing its theoretical job of uncovering some hidden truth (last sentence of PG's post: "even now I'm still fooled occasionally.")

Why is that? Why does the press still have any credibility left?

Re: What I Didn't Say

#479

Post by ooohooo »

In the end, there will be no winners in the feminist or forced approach to trying to increase the number of women programmers. It's a lose-lose situation.

Re: What I Didn't Say

#480

Post by johnbm »

jsmthrowaway wrote: post #476
johnbm wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Your misogyny is visible from space." So is her hair.

Thank you for that, really. It's bad enough I have the opinion that goes against the grain and it's an uphill battle, and then you come along and softball a dumbass comment like that. And now that you've left it in close proximity to me, it's fairly easy for most people to draw the conclusion that HN is a cesspool and the opinions are automatically undermined. You're a real peach for that. See, when they talk about d…

Get over yourself. When someone throws a tantrum on twitter with the regularity of clockwork, mockery is a completely valid response, and often the quickest way to get the point across. Logos, pathos, ethos. The former has no effect without the latter two to back it up.

You are dealing with a mob of righteous indignation that refuses to ever consider that they might be wrong. If you think the appropriate response is to perpetually tiptoe around them and apologize profusely, you are sorely mistaken.

They are toxic, and should be labeled as such until they themselves grow up.

The fact that all these SJWs seem to care so much about their appearance that their impeccably groomed avatars rotate faster than the seasons makes it a doubly delicious burn.

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