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YC 120

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: YC 120

#61

Post by z2 »

uptownfunk wrote: post #38

The real question is, do I want to be in a room with 99 other people who wanted to be selected for this so much that they produced a video with answers to these questions? This whole thing is self-selecting for they type of person I'd rather not be having dinner with. YC produces a ton of great resources that are very helpful, but this is one that makes me scratch my head.

Anecdotally, having gone through some selective institutions, I've seen this more than a couple times (though maybe this also says something about myself too...). My unfounded theory is that gatekeepers (e.g. admissions, HR) are inherently fool-able because they don't live the 'greatness' in candidates they seek to find. As a result, while most who get in have traits correlated with future success, others are simply great at advertising having those traits without any real hard-won skills.

I'm curious how someone who is not a physicist can tell if someone has the potential to 'finally solve physics.'

Re: YC 120

#62

Post by erbium »

rubidium wrote: post #47

WHEW! Sama's worldview is so technocractic it's rather disturbing. The world is _actually_ shaped by mothers and fathers. Teachers and physical therapists. Doctors and pastors. Friends and romantic partners. ... I hesitate to write the following because I'm not going to express everything how I actually think. But it should add to the discussion... Here's an interesting spin on it. I'll give my "real" answers and my…

Something is fundamentally dishonest about the way Sam Altman recruits people. Something that PG never had problems with

Re: YC 120

#64

Post by burkaman »

staunch wrote: post #42

I think what we all want is a lot more more Elon Musks to push the world forward more quickly. But he was only able to create Tesla and SpaceX because he gained a massive windfall from PayPal. That payout could have easily been an order of magnitude smaller, or even gone to zero. He wasn't even involved in the company so he got super lucky with that. Even though he had a network of powerful friends, virtually all of…

Elon Musk did not create Tesla, and it succeeded thanks to a massive low-interest government loan.

If you want more Elon Musks, start electing politicians that are willing to invest in things that private citizens can't or won't, and stop caring about whose name is on top of the org chart.

Re: YC 120

#65

Post by avmich »

caljones1618 wrote: post #55
rubidium wrote: post #47

WHEW! Sama's worldview is so technocractic it's rather disturbing. The world is _actually_ shaped by mothers and fathers. Teachers and physical therapists. Doctors and pastors. Friends and romantic partners. ... I hesitate to write the following because I'm not going to express everything how I actually think. But it should add to the discussion... Here's an interesting spin on it. I'll give my "real" answers and my…

Agreed. It's easy to assume that technology is good for society when it's fun to build it, ship it, and backwards-justify what you've done. Are we sure that AGI will be good for society? If not, why should we try and push to develop it as fast as possible?

I once saw a presentation from Machine Intelligence Research Institute. The presentation listed global dangers to civilization, including AI. Then it was mentioned that, done right, AI could actually solve at least some other problems. That was justification for MIRI efforts.

Re: YC 120

#68

Post by caljones1618 »

avmich wrote: post #65
caljones1618 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It's easy to assume that technology is good for society when it's fun to build it, ship it, and backwards-justify what you've done. Are we sure that AGI will be good for society? If not, why should we try and push to develop it as fast as possible?

I once saw a presentation from Machine Intelligence Research Institute. The presentation listed global dangers to civilization, including AI. Then it was mentioned that, done right, AI could actually solve at least some other problems. That was justification for MIRI efforts.

Agreed that AI could have large positive or negative effects on society and I think the kind of work that MIRI does is incredibly important. I wish that this application took MIRI's outcome-driven approach rather than being tech for tech's sake.

Re: YC 120

#69

Post by briantmaurer »

jpwagner wrote: post #54
briantmaurer wrote: post #10

I personally like these questions together: • If you could have the resume you want , what would it say? • If you could write your eulogy, what would it say? (As the company/manager/advisor: How can we help you to get there?)

is your framework a reference to David Brooks' Ted Talk? https://www.ted.com/talks/david_brooks_should_you_live_for_y...

I had not seen this video, but it clarifies my thoughts on this topic quite a bit. Thanks for sharing!

Re: YC 120

#70

Post by jimkri »

This reminds me of charities and other organizations that only want to bring on experts. I really would like to join something like this but I feel that I'm not an expert in that area. I know I could provide a lot of value and show them ways to look at their problems differently, but I'm not what they are looking for.

I really think people can become experts (to a certain degree) and provide a lot of value and think differently about problems without having years of experience. A great example is the 4Chan user that solved the 25 year old permutation math problem by looking at it from a different lense.

Bringing people together to build their network is great. But I really think there is power in bringing people together who have a desire to change something regardless of how much greatness they think they have achieved.

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