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We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

biddingforgood.com

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Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#61

Post by chongli »

selmnoo wrote: post #27
michaelochurch wrote: post #12

This idea that parents can buy YC connections for their kids is the final nail in the coffin of the idea of Silicon Valley meritocracy.

Oh, for goodness' sake. You could have made a legitimate point if you hadn't been so abruptly cut-throat. The fact of the matter is that connections, luck, etc. rule pretty much everywhere. It's useless and unproductive to cast this blame to specific, ultimately small entities. If I had been born about 5 miles north of where I was born -- in the ghettos, vs. to a household that valued education, I would have been liv…

That is the way it is. You could chide YC and all the VC world, and I'm not sure if you'd get anywhere.

This is it, isn't it. The scale of the problem is so vast that it's easy for everyone to shrug off their share of the responsibility. This seems to be the case with all civilization-scale problems and one of the deepest flaws of our species.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#63

Post by pg »

swalkergibson wrote: post #39
pg wrote: post #18

Since there will no doubt be a lot of the predictable complaint that this gives an advantage to the kids of people rich enough to buy it, I want to make it clear that this auction is to fund scholarships to the Bing nursery school. Since going to Bing helps kids a lot more than going to a YC dinner would, it's a net win for parents with less money. We knew when we decided to offer this item for auction that people wo…

Do you feel that the concerns expressed are not legitimate? If attending Bing is more beneficial than a YC dinner, why not make an unconditional donation to Bing and then open up these dinners to teenagers willing to apply/write an essay for them, regardless of ability to pay? It would have the added benefit of self-selecting out those people whose parents think it is a good idea for them to go to such a dinner and r…

I do make unconditional donations to Bing as well, and larger amounts than this auction is likely to generate.

Yes, frankly, I feel like the concerns expressed here are a kind of moral bikeshedding. What harm does it do if one rich kid gets to come to a YC dinner?

It's too much trouble to armor oneself against cheap shots. People who want to misunderstand you have an almost endless ability to do so, so you'd have to devote correspondingly endless energy to replying.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#65

Post by cinquemb »

nostromo wrote: post #28
michaelochurch wrote: post #12

This idea that parents can buy YC connections for their kids is the final nail in the coffin of the idea of Silicon Valley meritocracy.

It's not that hard to get a free meeting with pg. Scroll down, click apply.

I wonder if someone will apply to YC S14 with this idea? I mean, raising funds for charities like these for access to the people behind YC and taking a small cut could be the next IPO! I can see the tagline now: "Watsi but for addressing the growing inequalities in the 'developed' world" and for growth would be just buying up the clones that pop up in the rest of the world.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#66

Post by conanbatt »

pg wrote: post #18

Since there will no doubt be a lot of the predictable complaint that this gives an advantage to the kids of people rich enough to buy it, I want to make it clear that this auction is to fund scholarships to the Bing nursery school. Since going to Bing helps kids a lot more than going to a YC dinner would, it's a net win for parents with less money. We knew when we decided to offer this item for auction that people wo…

I just wished there was a solution to this that made everyone happy. The mere idea of bestowing knowledge to someone who has a resource advantage creates discomfort.

I know the amount of places is limited, but would it be possible for the next time to offer a differential attendance? For example, donators get front-seats and the non-resourceful can participate farther-back or standing up, a la kickstarter.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#67

Post by gojomo »

pg wrote: post #18

Since there will no doubt be a lot of the predictable complaint that this gives an advantage to the kids of people rich enough to buy it, I want to make it clear that this auction is to fund scholarships to the Bing nursery school. Since going to Bing helps kids a lot more than going to a YC dinner would, it's a net win for parents with less money. We knew when we decided to offer this item for auction that people wo…

I'm OK with auctions, price-based-rationing of scarce goods, and your analysis of the net good this will do.

But, you might also consider an occasional raffle'd spot, or a spot otherwise drawn from an eligibility pool with a lower economic barrier-to-entry.

You might raise as much or more, and it would be easier to mix in things like donated-tickets or third-party-sponsored-tickets.

And, the pool of losing-entries would itself be valuable, as a community with expressed interest in YC. Perhaps the drawing-winner(s) and some volunteer YCers could throw a followup separate, larger-audience event for them: passing on the good wisdom and fortune, in the YC style.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#68

Post by tnuc »

pg wrote: post #63
swalkergibson wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you feel that the concerns expressed are not legitimate? If attending Bing is more beneficial than a YC dinner, why not make an unconditional donation to Bing and then open up these dinners to teenagers willing to apply/write an essay for them, regardless of ability to pay? It would have the added benefit of self-selecting out those people whose parents think it is a good idea for them to go to such a dinner and r…

I do make unconditional donations to Bing as well, and larger amounts than this auction is likely to generate. Yes, frankly, I feel like the concerns expressed here are a kind of moral bikeshedding. What harm does it do if one rich kid gets to come to a YC dinner? It's too much trouble to armor oneself against cheap shots. People who want to misunderstand you have an almost endless ability to do so, so you'd have to…

What harm does it do if only rich kids get to go to a YC dinner?

A place for some more deserving poor kid would be nice.

Re: We're auctioning off a chance for your kid to come to a YC dinner

#70

Post by nostrademons »

chongli wrote: post #61
selmnoo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, for goodness' sake. You could have made a legitimate point if you hadn't been so abruptly cut-throat. The fact of the matter is that connections, luck, etc. rule pretty much everywhere. It's useless and unproductive to cast this blame to specific, ultimately small entities. If I had been born about 5 miles north of where I was born -- in the ghettos, vs. to a household that valued education, I would have been liv…

That is the way it is. You could chide YC and all the VC world, and I'm not sure if you'd get anywhere. This is it, isn't it. The scale of the problem is so vast that it's easy for everyone to shrug off their share of the responsibility. This seems to be the case with all civilization-scale problems and one of the deepest flaws of our species.

Sort of yes, but not exactly.

It is the scale of the problem that's the problem, but not in the "everybody just shrugs their shoulders way". People are working on it. The problem is that nobody can fix the problem all at once, and so in the process of creating new winners, they also create new losers.

Think about it this way: YC did not exist 8 years ago. There was no way for someone like the Reddit founders or Brian Chesky of AirBnB to create their companies; after all, they lacked connections too. There was no way for people to gain income by renting out their spare rooms (I have at least one friend who is financially kept afloat by this).

But when you solve that problem, you leave behind all the other folks who think they could also found a billion-dollar company, if only given the chance, but for whatever reason don't make it into YC. And so they get bitter and complain about how unfair the world is. Which is true; their number didn't come up on the dice, but complaining about it is not doing themselves any favors.

Keep in mind that people are upset because one rich kid will get to pay $20K to go to a YC dinner, while a couple poor kids get scholarships to attend an elite private school they wouldn't otherwise be able to go to. This is about as close to a strictly-positive-for-everyone deal as possible.

I think that one of the deepest flaws of our species is that we measure ourselves by relative accomplishment instead of absolute accomplishment. If you are reading Hacker News, you are probably in the top 1% by opportunities available worldwide. But we compare ourselves to the lucky sops who cash out for billions (even though there are only a handful of them), rather than the people around us.

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