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Ways YC has changed in the last year

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Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#61

Post by 7e »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #17
startupsfail wrote: post #7

YC is a one-trick-pony. If you have a simple product, it can guide you to get users, investors and to scale it up. But don’t expect anything else. It would not help, if you are outside of that scenario. It easily can screw you, by using any product ideas that you’ve refined and sharing these freely with a relevant startup in the batch.

One trick pony? They have created 5-10% of all unicorns in existence

Huh? The founders created these companies. YC just convinced these founders to give away a big share of their companies for almost nothing, in return for cult lulz. Accelerators are exploitative.

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#63

Post by xwdv »

airstrike wrote: post #38
xwdv wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on what data exactly? Gut feelings? What could be faster than communications across vast distances at the speed of light?

Nonverbal and unstructured, unplanned communication don't really translate well to the digital world (yet)

So the secret to working effectively is passive aggressive nonverbal cues and interrupting people frequently who may be busy doing something else and weren’t expecting an impromptu meeting?

Has the physical world discovered how to replay past conversations where important decisions were made? Has it become socially acceptable to have long silences of 5-10 minutes while people formulate thoughtful replies in a conversation?

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#65

Post by steveBK123 »

xkr wrote: post #59
steveBK123 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was determined the same way FAANG, Banks, and others have determined in-person is best: "haha, the economy is slowing, get back to the office you F*(&# losers". Absolutely breathtaking level of cynicism from executive class that as soon as interest rates went up, hiring market cooled, and the power balance between workers & bosses swung back their way, suddenly in-office was "most productive". 100% vibes and "beca…

I can’t speak for YC or FAANG management but as a regular software engineer I totally get where they’re coming from. I worked at a FAANG company through and after covid, the difference in teams productivity was noticeable. Not in the remote working favour. I understand some people are more productive at home but I’m yet to see a _team_ that is more productive being remote. I lack the experience working in remote-firs…

Depends on the project type and part of the lifecycle. Also depends on the team composition and office structure.

In my career I've generally been on teams spread across 3 continents and sit in open floorplan offices surrounded by other loud teams. So I commute into the office to be collocated with at-best 1/3 of my team, surrounded by unrelated noise.

In some ideal state where we were 100% in the same city, sat in a dedicated pod area without so much commotion & distraction, in-office might be great. I've never experienced this.

Even in that ideal state, it may likely turn out ideal team productivity happens at 3-4 days in-office, as there's time for coordination and then time for deep quiet work.

The top-down, C-suite level dictates are not based on what's most productive.

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#66

Post by version_five »

bsder wrote: post #53
mentos wrote: post #26

Would have liked to read why in person is better. I imagine the biggest reason is it raises the sense of commitment for everyone involved.

The primary (maybe only?) value of YC is the networking. Networking is fundamentally an in-person thing. The remote-only people can whine all they want, but that is simply an immutable fact. Building a startup requires most of your time on non-coding tasks.

Right, look at conferences, MBA programs, etc. There are/were "remote" options but they essentially have no value, it was just a placeholder we tried. Some kinds of work can be remote of course. But learning and networking only really works in person.

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#67

Post by airstrike »

xwdv wrote: post #63
airstrike wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonverbal and unstructured, unplanned communication don't really translate well to the digital world (yet)

So the secret to working effectively is passive aggressive nonverbal cues and interrupting people frequently who may be busy doing something else and weren’t expecting an impromptu meeting? Has the physical world discovered how to replay past conversations where important decisions were made? Has it become socially acceptable to have long silences of 5-10 minutes while people formulate thoughtful replies in a convers…

> Has the physical world discovered how to replay past conversations where important decisions were made?

Yes, they're called "minutes", memos or simply taking notes in meetings.

> Has it become socially acceptable to have long silences of 5-10 minutes while people formulate thoughtful replies in a conversation?

Yes, you can always say "let me think about that for a minute"

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#68

Post by dang »

debacle wrote: post #3

@dang, please change the root link to the nitter thread.

We want the canonical URL at the top. Alternate sources, so that more people can read ab article, are welcome as links from the thread.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37627964.

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#69

Post by ajkjk »

steveBK123 wrote: post #45
ajkjk wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine the actual reason is the complete opposite of everything you said except for 'vibes'. Just cause you can't imagine why anyone would care about being in person doesn't mean the only remaining reason is a greedy powertrip. You're just not being sufficiently imaginative.

Sure for a bootcamp or intensive project or whatever, in-person can have benefits. For juniors and mentorship and whatever, sure helps there too. But the lingering question is... Why is it that everyone was super cool with hybrid & remote, even past COVID danger, but as soon as FAANG had massive layoffs we went from 2days to 3days to majority back in office at many tech companies? And the east coast bank/fund/finance…

I can think of plenty of decent reasons that might be true? For instance perhaps over time a fully remote company, unless it employs mostly a certain type of very driven self motivated person, slows down and loses any semblance of a culture the longer it works remotely? That was certainly my experience.

Or perhaps all the managers, typically fairly extroverted people, get more depressed over time the longer their daily social interactions are just on video calls.

Or perhaps over time it's found that new hires do worse and worse without an office to bond with others in and a culture to absorb.

Etc. No shortage of plausible reasons.

Perhaps these companies were remote for a while because a lot of people were loud and annoying about it, and now a lot of them are quietly backpedaling to avoid offending the people who love it while reclaiming the benefits of an office?

Perhaps! I don't know. You'd have to ask them. One thing is for sure: there are a lot of plausible reasons besides 'evil'.

Re: Ways YC has changed in the last year

#70

Post by steveBK123 »

ajkjk wrote: post #69
steveBK123 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure for a bootcamp or intensive project or whatever, in-person can have benefits. For juniors and mentorship and whatever, sure helps there too. But the lingering question is... Why is it that everyone was super cool with hybrid & remote, even past COVID danger, but as soon as FAANG had massive layoffs we went from 2days to 3days to majority back in office at many tech companies? And the east coast bank/fund/finance…

I can think of plenty of decent reasons that might be true? For instance perhaps over time a fully remote company, unless it employs mostly a certain type of very driven self motivated person, slows down and loses any semblance of a culture the longer it works remotely? That was certainly my experience. Or perhaps all the managers, typically fairly extroverted people, get more depressed over time the longer their dai…

I didn’t use the word evil though you may have read it that way.

Simply stating that tech employers have the power back and now they are using it.

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