YC Fellowship - <AUTHOR> http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-fellowship <comment><USER2> For me, the key is that they are even _considering_ remote. I think that really is the part that is needed to get to another 10x. I am not saying remote work is intrinsically 10x better in quality or quantity, I am thinking about it more from the point of view of people who cannot or will not travel, new people that can be reached this way.

Take myself for example: I do have this thing that I am working on.. but I also have a wife and a daughter whom I adore, and I would _hate_ to go away from them for any period of time. Having my wife close, playing with my daughter, these are the things that keep me going, not some dream of jets and fancy cars. I already have a job that I like, I am not running away from anything, I just want to do something better, because I know I can. I already work mostly remotely, and there is no going back to _old ways_ for me. If I ever found anything, it will be remote and remote only.

Maybe there are fewer people who really _get_ remote work, but in my personal experience, it is an absolute joy to work with them. And is it not repeated over and over again that you should not pursue something you do not believe in?

I have never considered applying because of the travel requirement, but now I am really tempted.

<comment><USER3> Well put. Geography is vastly underestimated as a limiting factor. Not simply for $ – living in the Bay Area is barely feasible for a young person without dependents – but also the many quality-of-life trade-offs that come with a move. I hope this is a successful experiment.

<comment><USER4> Moving to an area specifically for your startup, even if you were told to do so, can really show your dedication (not just by saying it). You are proving that you are willing to do whatever it takes. I've known many who have moved for the 3 months @ YC and then have rightfully moved back... I don't think any of them have regretted. YC may be looking for someone who can make it work, if there is a will, there is a way. THAT is what they are looking for.

There is a method to the madness. They have proven it.

<comment><USER5> One problem is that, for a lot of industries, San Francisco is the wrong place to be.

If you want to be in fashion-tech, for example, you want to be in New York (or possibly London). And, there are lot of other industries concentrated in specific areas around the world.

Limiting to San Francisco is limiting your industry. Sure you can get a ton of web developers, but you'll lose access & relationships to the REAL industry insiders that matter for your vertical.

<comment><USER6> I think that can be true, but YC has a model that works for them, so it seems ok to me to not try to cover every industry in the world. Some of them are quite different, to the extent that YC's networks and expertise might not be as immediately useful anyway. For example Houston has a lot of energy- technology startups, especially in oil & gas, doing anything from the "hardware" side to analytics to GIS type stuff. But it's basically its own world that has little overlap with the Bay Area startup world. Different investors, different types of customers, different production challenges, different employee demographics, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is a good idea and a great opportunity for many people. And I think it's fantastic that YC is doing this. However, I can't help feeling it really is intended for young people recently out of school, who have no other immediate financial obligations.

I would really love to see an option for people who are not in this group. Let's imagine someone who is married, with a couple of kids and a mortgage. Right away, YC Fellowship is not feasible.

If you really want another ten-fold increase in the number of startups, tapping into an older demographic could do it -- just because it seems to be a largely untapped resource. We're talking about people with years of experience working in the real world, on real products. We're talking about years of domain expertise, in all kinds of domains. We're talking about people with ideas, and the expertise to execute on them. And all this potential is being left on the table because they typically can't afford to quit their jobs for 3k a month (based on a two-founder team in YC Fellowship).

But if each founder had enough funding to be able to handle their financial obligations, and work full time on their startups, for a year, I think that would break open the flood gates, and you'd see a huge increase in viable startups.

There must be a sweet spot in terms of funding/equity for this scenario, in order to make it beneficial to everyone involved.

<comment><USER8> There's no question that having a low personal burn rate is an advantage when it comes to starting a startup.

That said, there are a lot of alternatives. There are more seed funds now than ever before. One of the reasons we did this program is that we believe there is hole in this part of the market--it feels like there are more people willing to write a $100k check than a $12k check.

Practically speaking, we also felt this was where we could make the most impact with dollars we're giving away. $12MM is the price of a small series B, or 1000 YC Fellowships.

<comment><USER9> I'm really excited about this move. When I was working on my startup, broke, fresh out of grad school, $12k could have been the lifeline we needed. Instead, we had to stop building while we tried to raise funds prematurely, and bled out before we could pick up momentum.

As long as you guys are as selective as you are with the startups you fund, I think we may well see a whole bunch of startups in 5 years that we can trace back to this fellowship. I think this is a great first step to leveling the playing field for those who don't come from / don't have a whole lot of capital, and might just need a shot. Very timely, in light of the recent Quartz article [1].

[1] [http://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special- gene-...](http://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special-gene-for- risk-they-come-from-families-with-money/)

<comment><USER10> This also keeps YC relevant even though the world in which they were created largely no longer exists:

\- In 2005, there were essentially no sources for early stage capital. Now you can't tell someone about your startup at a meetup without five people trying to throw money in your face.

\- In 2005, information about starting a startup was an oral tradition, and web technology was so primitive that making a scalable website basically required a CS degree. This meant that you really had to either be a business person or a CS person, whereas now being both is table stakes.

\- In 2005, not only was it essentially impossible to meet VCs without some sort of special connections, it was difficult even to figure out who they were. These days they're all on LinkedIn, blogs, angellist, mattermark, etc., and as soon as you have any sort of traction they already know about you.

\- In 2005, people still spent time dreaming about what the world would be like when everyone was connected to the Internet. Now the sociology is well understood, the infrastructure has matured, strategies and tactics have become commoditized, etc.

By giving away equity-free grants that come with access and advice, this basically positions YC as the next YC, regardless of what else is going on the world.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have to say that I love this idea. It addresses the biggest deficiency in the typical Silicon Valley VC funding model, in that it requires moving to Silicon Valley. It also bridges the gap in low-level seed funding which stops many ideas from becoming reality. Perhaps you could call this "catalyst-stage funding" since it will probably reduce the activation energy for getting many ideas started (to use a physics analogy).

So, in short, go YC, you rock!

That said, I have a few questions:

1) Any idea of how many slots are open for this round? I expect you will get many more applications than YC normally gets.

2) Some teams may have members with families who won't want to move to SV and will work remotely. Other teams may have members who can and want to move. Some teams may have a mix. What are your thoughts on splitting a team, having some remote and some in SV? Would this provide advantages over having no one in SV, or would splitting the team have so many downsides that it would be better to be all remote?

3) For a team that already has a prototype and is beginning to work on getting customers, but is not able to relocate, would YCF be a good choice?

<comment><AUTHOR> 1) Around 20 -- we want to keep this test batch small. If successful, we'd grow future batches.

2) I think it would depend on your company and what you're trying to do. I can think of advantages to either way, and if accepted it's something we can talk about.

3) If you're just starting to get customers (or struggling with it), still apply. It will be a judgement call on whether you're too far along and should just apply to YC W16, but relocating or not won't make a difference in that assessment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> _targeted at teams that are very, very early._

How about a version of this for companies which have been around for a while?

Seriously, it doesn't sound like Tarsnap would fit into this program at all, but I'd love to be able to participate in something "lighter-weight" than YC -- something which, like the YC Fellowship, would allow me access to advice and contacts without taking funding or relocating.

Of course, I'm guessing the YC Fellowship are largely a recruiting tool for YC ($12k is a small price to pay for the opportunity to extensively vet candidates prior to offering them a YC investment), so it wouldn't make sense for YC to invite me into that particular structure; but I'm not looking for money and I'd like to think that I could help YC by being "part of the family" and being someone companies could be pointed at to help with questions relating to my areas of expertise.

<comment><USER13> Is "advice" really what Tarsnap needs? It got a lot of it (really terrific advice, too) from patio11. Looking at the home page, it doesn't appear any of that advice has been taken.

<comment><USER12> Patrick's advice (both in that article and otherwise) has been very useful to me. But when I said "access to advice", I meant in a pull sense rather than a push sense: Patrick (and other people who I consult from time to time) is great within his area of expertise, but he doesn't know everything -- whereas I get the impression that at YC, for every problem there is someone who has relevant expertise and can offer advice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I started my first business (web design) at 15 with a £1,000 grant from The Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust. It was a very significant amount for me. Without it I wouldn't have been able to start.

My family were on income support so the money went straight on a PC, internet, phone line, business cards and public transport to reach my clients to pitch them. Thankfully I still lived with my parents: no rent until I was earning.

$12k is a very substantial amount for an underprivileged kid who's making the Airbnb vs. large corp choice.

My grant was (lightly) means-tested. Did you consider means-testing as a way to make more of an impact past the ideological one?

<comment><USER15> I find this an interesting point to bring up. My family were also on income support when I was younger, and I also applied for the Youth Opportunity Funding grant in the UK and was awarded £1,250.

Similar to drsim I intended to start my own media business using the money, so I purchased a cheap PC, a camera, business cards, etc

In order to apply for the money I had to go through what was quite a lengthy process, which overall took three months to complete. I had to choose every item in advance with photocopies of the catalogue; this was to prevent people cheating the funding and spending it on other things. This also made it difficult to include consumables such as an internet subscription and transportation costs.

Does YC plan to background check and make sure the $12,000 would actually be spent on what it's intended for?

Also, does YC still consider applicants based in Asia, or is it US-based for the time being?

<comment><AUTHOR> No. You're completely free to do with the money what you want, we just try you'll focus on your company.

And yes! You can apply from anywhere (and no need to move here for this program if you want to stay remote, though we still encourage that you do).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Kat from YC here. Sam, Matt Krisiloff and I are happy to answer any questions about the Fellowship. You can also send questions to firstname.lastname@example.com.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi! Matt here -- I'll be managing YC Fellowship. I'll be answering questions here throughout the day alongside Kat and Sam.

<comment><USER17> Does YC ever consider ideas that aren't designed to be billion-dollar companies? For instance, if someone was working on a next-gen diagnostics tool for VoIP, they might realistically be able to get to $10-20M, maybe 10x if things go really well. But it's hard to see that becoming a billion+ company under any circumstances.

What advice do you have for such ideas?

<comment><AUTHOR> YC funds startups. Startups to us are companies designed to grow fast. Read this if you haven't: [http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html)

It's OK to be working on something that's hard to imagine how it would grow to be a really big thing, that's how most ideas start out. (Apple made hobbyist computers, Google was another search engine of 1000 -- how big of a deal could they have thought these would become?). It's important to be open-minded to the pathways of how your idea could become something big as it keeps growing though, and it's good to stop and think about those ideas every once in awhile.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm not sure why it is repeated over and over that 12k is small sum of money.

12k can easily pay off 2-3 months rent, server costs, marketing stuff, even a few flights. That's mental peace for 12 weeks to build something with 100% focus. That's an extremely high value priviledge.

This should make sense for a lot of startups.

<comment><USER19> [http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/networth/article/Average...](http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/networth/article/Average- S-F-rent-hits-shocking-new-high-3-458-6232039.php)

12k is a small sum of money in SF. Assuming the founders don't want to live together in a studio, looking at >5k month in just rent. Other costs of living are also high. This leaves almost nothing for any actual start up costs.

Makes some sense if you're 22 and have no dependents, but 12k wouldn't be persuasive for a Bay Area founder with a family.

<comment><USER20> There is plenty of less expensive real estate along BART. Take a look at San Leandro, for example.

Other costs can be reduced as well.

I consider living in SF as an unnecessary luxury.

<comment><USER21> Plus the pitch doesn't even encourage people to move to SF; it encourages them to move to Silicon Valley, which is also where YC is based. It's not super- cheap either, but there is plenty of Valley housing <$3k.

<comment><USER22> > It's not super-cheap either, but there is plenty of Valley housing <$3k.

You're right. You can find studio and one bedroom apartments sub-$3K in places like Redwood City. The problem for starving founders is that landlords aren't going to lease to you when you can't show a sufficient, reliable income source (read: a real job) and sufficient credit score/history.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This is exactly why Y Combinator is the best. This is what leadership is (and what those other accelerators do, is follow the lead).

> but as always we'll consider solo founders too.

Please be extremely open minded about solo founders. I feel that is one consideration that hasn't been adapted with the changing tech landscape.

<comment><USER24> > Please be extremely open minded about solo founders. I feel that is one > consideration that hasn't been adapted with the changing tech landscape.

This is something I always worry about too. I have several really amazing people that I could partner with on a few different things but due to financial obligations there isn't anyway they'd be able to join full time unless there was an investment. So pitching as a solo always makes me nervous that I'll be immediately discounted even if I could bring in a partner shortly thereafter.

<comment><USER25> > I have several really amazing people that I could partner with on a few > different things but due to financial obligations there isn't anyway they'd > be able to join full time unless there was an investment. So pitching as a > solo always makes me nervous that I'll be immediately discounted even if I > could bring in a partner shortly thereafter.

It's a fair point, but you have to take into account the fact that a lot of those people won't join you when you do get investment. It's the same thing as when two founders show up and talk about their rolodex of talent they have waiting to be hired as soon as there's money in the door - it's a useful data point, and certainly something to consider, but a good percentage of those people will typically not work out, or won't like the terms, or will want too much money, etc. So you can't treat it the same as the people who have the team onboard _now_.

<comment><USER24> Oh I completely agree and understand just commiserating with the previous poster as I have some of the same concerns but I don't blame YC either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> If you're like me and prefer to draft writing elsewhere, here's a Google Doc you can copy with the questions and word limits: [https://goo.gl/K5M3LM](https://goo.gl/K5M3LM)

Update: Document is fully public now.

<comment><USER24> Can you open up access to everyone versus everyone asking for permission?

<comment><USER27> ^ "The app is currently unreachable." I'd like access too!

<comment><USER26> Try now: [https://goo.gl/K5M3LM](https://goo.gl/K5M3LM)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> A very interesting proposition! I am thrilled to see this kind of model come to life.

> Selected teams are strongly encouraged to move to the Bay Area for the > program, but it's not required.

I wish it wasn't so strongly encouraged. To move anywhere on a whim for 8 weeks is crazy to me, especially since the processes and tools for remote work are so readily available. It's becoming increasingly important to know and understand how to work with team members and stake holders all over the globe, so why not encourage that mindset from the very beginning?

<comment><USER29> From my point of view this is very much aimed at the just graduated crowd. These are young people thattypically just graduated in May, maybe took the summer off or had a summer internship and are debating what to do next. 12k to them is more than plenty for living with Mom and Dad for a few more months or going on an 8 week adventure to SF.

Of course this will be a great opportunity for someone debating quitting a job or something, but it seems the most available people will be those just out of college.

To that end it will be interesting to actually see what types of people that this program works for and are accepted.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Don't underestimate that 12k + YC network and help. Most unicorns that came from the YC program started with 20k not long ago. Too much money can kill a small and inexperienced team, be lean, scrappy and bootstrap to prove then raise to grow.

<comment><USER31> If I hear that word "scrappy" one more time, I won't have any veins left in my neck to pop.

<comment><USER32> That's rough. How on Earth do you make it through Scooby-Doo?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> > "...kickoff and end events in Mountain View where teams will present to the > YC community. We'll fly out remote teams for those."

YC community? Is this going to be like Demo Day but without investors? I know this is an experiment, but what is envisioned here? Is it envisioned that the Fellows will/will not be ready for funding at the end of the fellowship...or completely unknown at this point?

Starting with idea/prototype where are Fellows expected to be at the end of 8 weeks?

</comment><comment><USER34> Could you clarify what sort of access to YC office hours fellows get? Will they be able to sign up for office hours with any of the partners, or will all contact have to go through a single dedicated partner (and if so, which partner is handling this)? The blog post implies that there's "a dedicated partner", but the FAQ implies they get normal access to "YC partners" and office hours.

</comment><comment><USER35> The announcement's discussion of 'good founders' led me to view this as supporting individuals, as well as teams. In contrast to YC's stance on only really exceptional solo founders, could this program be more tailored to a solo founder, perhaps still looking for a co-founder?

<comment><USER8> We will be slightly more open to solo founders because we think at this stage you still have a good chance of finding a cofounder.

But the bar will still remain higher for solo founders given all of our historical data.

<comment><USER36> I'm glad you will be slightly more open to solo founders. I also like that you are open to a more remote experience.

I think this project could be very helpful in my situation, I have a great idea that is progressing (Deep Learning/AI Image Recognition SaaS) but would have a hard time putting together a suitable team that could survive with our current obligations in San Francisco (families, house payments, etc.) Maybe getting myself working on it full time could get it to the point where it could sustain itself enough that YC proper could work out financially for a bigger team. Very excited, I'm definitely going to apply.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> So, I read through the description three times. And I'm puzzled as to what the real differences are between a YC Fellowship, and traditional YC investment.

Are the key differences - that the Fellowship is a grant, not an equity investment (for $12K, rather than the larger YC investment), that it lasts for only 8 weeks, and that the Fellowships aren't required to move to the Bay Area?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's also designed for prototype and idea-stage teams in mind. Also, there won't be a traditional Demo Day at the end, but there will be an end event where teams will come to Mountain View to present to YC partners and alumni.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I'm not sure about the US, but in India this would be huge. The early stage ecosystem is fairly broken, but the startup scene is crazy hot - everyone is doing a startup and the talent pool is huge.

Early stage investors put around 20-50K USD and take 30% of equity (yes equity - convertible notes are shunned in India).

A USD 12K grant and the YC cred, would go a long way in rebalancing the ecosystem.

I personally believe that early stage pre-prototype money is so easy in the US... or the Kickstarter ecosystem is so effective (cant do a kickstarter from India).... or the university aided startup infrastructure is so mature, that this would not _materially_ impact as many people as it would in India/Asia.

<comment><USER39> I was thinking the same thing as I read the post. This would be huge in Nigeria and other African countries. I'm rooting for this to be a success.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> There's a lot of focus on $12K that I think is a red herring. This isn't a substitute for seed funding, it's not masquerading as a full-fledged accelerator, it's a chance to borrow some of the momentum of an organization that seems to have a pretty remarkable record at moonshots.

I've been working out of Denver and Vegas for several years now and the timing of this couldn't be better. After all, why iterate on the same dimension over and over and not try something new? I turn 50 on July 27. I've been working on fun projects for pretty much all of my adult life and I have better things to do than worry about things I can't control.

</comment><comment><USER41> > $12000

France gives you a lumpsum of your unemployment benefits if you start a business. If you were paid an average engineer salary, 2200€ net pm, it makes 42000€, and it's called ACCRE. The condition is to be fired, and not on our heavy fault. Most of my friends negotiate giving cash to their employers to get fired, so they could get ACCRE.

There are other grants (e.g. 6000€ for being a woman) and loans (28000€ for being a woman, and others named CIR if you employ PhDs). For all of that, you don't even need to have a good project, as opposed to applying to YC.

What I mean is, YC isn't targetting France, or is it?

<comment><USER42> YCF offers office hours for 8 weeks, two events with the partners and the alumni network. And the $12k and €42k are not mutually exclusive.

How many €10M+ companies got started with ACCRE money? Probably not even as many as there are $1B+ YC companies.

<comment><USER41> Do we even have €10M+ startups in France? Besides Gemalto which is 30 years old.

There's just no way we could create an Apple in France. It's too agressive, therefore we would forbid it.

<comment><USER42> Iliad is a €10B telco started about 20 years ago by a twenty-something. There was Business Objects which sold for some billions circa 2000. Criteo started in the 2000s and is worth billions. In tech, there are also DailyMotion, Deezer, BlaBlaCar, Withings and Sigfox in the €100M+ range.

YC certainly fares better in a decade than France in 30 years. But you shouldn't be self-deprecating, or you may start to believe it's impossible to start a startup in France. When there's a will, there's a way.

Anyhow, we're getting off-topic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> 12k gets them first dibs on an individual and/or a team ... a smart idea.

Essentially a variation of Cialdini's "reciprocity" principle (among others..)

[http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/six-principles- influe...](http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/six-principles- influence.htm)

People are free to do whatever they want with the grant and not go any further with YC but it's obvious that the good will and grant will cause a large percentage of them to not do that.

<comment><USER44> I love Cialdini, thanks for linking. I recommend his book on Influence to everyone.

I did think about this reciprocity initially when I heard no equity involved, however I don't think YC & Co's problem is getting startups to agree take their money after mentoring? Their issue is likely getting enough investment opportunities to put cash into as fast as they can raise it. ( ie-pretty fast ). For that they need a bigger opportunity pipeline.

So, i basically agree that they are getting first dibs, but due little to Cialdini's rule on reciprocity. I'd point more towards 'Liking' (ie building the trust early) or 'Authority' since they are getting in the door first with founders and are likely the initial startup mentor.

What I see, is that this program is just a simple (relative) way to ignite some ideas that are on the cusp of being implemented, remove some of the founding barriers, and start a conversation with their team earlier on in the process (no one wants to be the third on the list to call to invest in a great co.). The standard YC class schedule and size limitations are likely the gating factors to their growth, especially when interest in 'startup investing' isn't declining, and YC has already made moves to make it easier for non-accredited investors to invest.

Maybe this is in line with what you were referring to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> This is great. It's the natural evolution of going earlier and earlier into lifecycle of a startup (or even idea).

As a next move, I'd like to see them go "pre-team" and put talented individuals with complimentary skill sets together behind a single idea.

<comment><USER46> If you are interested in 'pre-team' you should check out EF in London (joinef.com). They are all about helping technical co-founders meet. Some of the companies have raised amongst the largest seed rounds in Europe.

Full disclosure: I have worked with them

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> What kind of progress are you expecting teams to make during the 8 weeks?

How greatly do you anticipate this program impact getting into the "real" YC winter batch? Do you expect that after 8 weeks most good startups would be "ready" to be accepted into the winter class?

Do you expect that after completing the 8 weeks, teams will be ready to raise funds?

<comment><AUTHOR> We want teams to make as much progress as possible based on wherever they're starting at (ie for an idea-stage team, it could be building a prototype and getting it into the hands of some users, for a prototype team, launching and getting customers)

We hope we'll be able to help teams a lot -- YCF teams will be held up to the same standards as all other YC applicants though if they choose to apply. There won't be special treatment for YCF teams.

Maybe -- we at least hope they'll apply for funding from YC!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> The application form was getting hit pretty hard -- it's temporarily offline while the Submittable team migrates it to its own server. Should just be a few minutes -- will update when it's back up!

Edit: The application servers are back up! Look forward to reading your apps :)

<comment><USER48> It seems to be back up, but I lost my draft application, which I saved multiple times.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm sorry that happened :( I hope you'll still be willing to write it again -- the system should work smoothly now.

<comment><USER48> Not a problem! :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> This could shift how technology is funded on a scale much larger than YC already has. Teams probably need more like $50k, but even $12k is going to be the difference for some great people. Congrats to YC for pushing things forward, again. Let a million flowers bloom!

<comment><USER50> 12K is more than I'd make in a month (because I'm a terrible negotiator when it comes to money - and old) but what do they want you to get done in what 5 or 6 weeks?

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> Note to the organizers -- this sounds awesome, and I'd even love to apply, but something announced now is too short notice for a round that starts in September for those of us living in Germany and who currently have jobs (maybe this applies to all of Europe? Not sure).

I have a work contract through the end of December and must give at minimum three months notice to my employer if I leave before then, in order for them to have time to find a replacement. And three months is the legal bare minimum; better to plan more like 6 months out. Pretty sure this is the standard timeframe throughout the country, if not continent.

Just a heads up -- I'd guess there are at least a handful of others in my position.

</comment><comment><USER52> This seems really close to what YC started as. Why the spinoff?

<comment><USER53> I think as the popularity and # of applications of YC has increase over the years, YC has naturally leaned towards startups who were further along. This way they can make that shift official without losing the original vision of YC.

<comment><USER54> I like this idea. But I agree, it's a problem and this is probably one reason for experimenting with this. It sounds like the number of apps are already crazy, so not sure how YC will be able to sort through them all with more than a crap shoot probability of success.

According the PG, the big ideas are not obvious at first, so how can you make good decisions on so many ideas in so little time? Probably YC is going to filter the apps through 1-2K YC founders or something and then have a score sheet, silos of expertise, etc. Basically selection by committee.

Though I like the concept, I am skeptical of the judging, as well as the sheer number of apps coming in worldwide - too much white noise which hurts the ability of the many US based startups trying to get a seat at the table.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> (Posting from a throwaway account)

> for some people, [YCF] may be the difference between going to work at a big > company and starting the next Airbnb

This is me. I applied to the YC summer batch and was rejected (I applied late, as a single founder, with only an idea). I've tried to push ahead anyway with my idea/startup and built a small prototype, but in the end decided to find a job. I have just now gotten a job offer from big G.

YCF looks really interesting to me. What should I do? Accept the job at G and then if accepted to YCF quit my job after 1 month? Any advice is appreciated

<comment><USER56> Do you really want to be a googler or an entrepreneur? Visualize yourself one year from now, have you made progress towards what you really want to be?

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> Was there any reason why this wasn't timed for the summer months?

It seems like a lot of entrepreneurial college students would love to spend their summer working on their ideas. Perhaps it just came together at this time but in hindsight I wonder if summer is a more logical time since students have the free time anyway. The 12K would allow them to easily live/eat too.

I can even imagine involving college professors and students. Then it might disrupt entrepreneurship education in higher ed.

</comment><comment><USER58> This is really interesting, and seems like a great opportunity for people in a position to take advantage of it. Particularly the ability to work remotely. An 8-week relocation could have been a major sticking pint for many groups.

If I wasn't tied down at my job for the foreseeable future I would jump at this chance to go hard on an idea out of my "future/dream projects" design docs folder that I only get to sporadically put time towards.

</comment><comment><USER59> What about a situation where one cofounder is willing to go full-time with this YC Fellowship but the other would only work part time? How does that work out?

<comment><USER60> This was the same question I was wanting to ask. $12K would be enough for one founder living in a non SV part of the world for one year, but it's not enough for two. What this implies is that the startup should be making money from the get go.

So, I imagine, they are after startups that work and have some revenue but have no initial funding.

</comment></comment><comment><USER61> If anyone is looking for another person for their team or wants to join a team, consider me! If you're interested in discussing further after reading this, send me a message and we'll talk.

I am currently self-employed as a startup consultant and freelance web developer. I have extensive Computer Science, Sales, Account Management, and Customer Success experience and have successfully started 2 small businesses in the past with revenues of a half-a-million dollars combined. The last company I worked at had 14 people and negligible market saturation when I joined. I was instrumental in growing it to the #1 most used software system in its industry, with over 200 employees and a valuation increase of 20x (2000%) over 3 years.

I am comfortable working in both a programming/product role or on the business end of things—whatever will best serve the team. I have two ideas for which I have already done market validation, but I'm perfectly happy to go with your idea instead if you can sell me on it.

If you think I'd be valuable to your team, or if you think you'd be a valuable partner or member of _my_ team, send me a message. Let's talk. Cheers

<comment><USER62> Hi Tyler - you don't have an email listed - could you post one so I can send you a message? I'm a developer and it'd be nice to work with someone who has some experience like you.

<comment><USER61> Hey, thanks for reaching out. Shoot me an email at email@example.com

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER63> Another great initiative from YC, which I'm sure will yield incredible access to talented entrepreneurs. Surely there will be signal-to-noise issues, but if any group is equipped to sift through for (and help develop) talent, it's YC.

$12k _is not_ a lot of money in the grand scheme, but it is a _huge_ grant to many talented founders/teams who otherwise wouldn't be able to take this leap.

</comment><comment><USER64> Do you foresee this being available at other times in the year, like the YC program itself? A winter fellowship would be ideal for me.

<comment><USER16> We're going to see how this initial experiment goes before we make any decisions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER65> Hi Mat and Kat, thanks for this wonderful initiative. Two qs.

1) This line: _" We'll encourage but not require that Fellows later apply to Y Combinator."_ Will this lead to YC fellowship being a pre-req to get into YC in the future years?

2) Will this garner similar scrutiny of getting into YC? if not can you share a few major differences in the selection criteria?

<comment><AUTHOR> 1) Definitely not -- they're separate programs

2) It's still going to be pretty competitive, but it's primarily for earlier stage teams (idea and prototype). YC is for companies of all stages (idea to fast growth).

</comment></comment><comment><USER66> Is there a catch? What does YC gain from this? A larger pool of applicants to chose from for YC? Or is this philanthropic?

<comment><AUTHOR> No catch. We believe it's incredibly important to keep growing the number of startups throughout the world -- they're the largest drivers of innovation and change.

</comment></comment><comment><USER67> YC is an entire team and as with every great team, the most influential work is being done by people we shall never know. Kudos to everyone there.

That being said, this Sama is one freaking impressive DOer. From the time he came in to now, this feels like the YC you would expect 10 years from now.

</comment><comment><USER68> I submitted my application for my artificial general intelligence project, see you guys soon!

</comment><comment><USER69> This is my throw away account for privacy reason. I would like to have some advice about my career path (and to echo Sam's post regarding "it may be the difference between going to work at a big company and starting the next Airbnb")

I am a 22 software engineer working at Facebook right now. With the current stock raise, my annual compensation comes out to be a bit over 200k/year before bonuses. I am much more excited about the start-up scene and building product. But to throw away that non-trivial income away is a really tough decision. I am wondering if anyone has done it before or if you have a more general advice. Much appreciated!

<comment><USER70> I'm a 24 year old UI/UX designer who just left my non-trivial income. Think about it in these terms, you have 8 weeks to try something with YC or not. Maybe more maybe less. You'll probably easily find a job right after with the same amount of compensation and something new to add to your portfolio.

Many big companies also are fine if you take a non paid leave of absence. And you can come back later with the same compensation. This was offered at my company (although I didn't take it) and perhaps something you can work out with Facebook. Perhaps ask a trusted advisor, all my managers were thrilled that I wanted to work on something on my own. And that it was "the best reason to leave a company."

<comment><USER69> Thank you hannaxu! It's an encouraging feeling to know that other people are willingly taking a big leap of faith.

My family and loved ones also think I should go for it. Their main reason is: 1\. I should accumulate awesome experience right now and do what I love. 2\. A big/small income does not have any immediate impact on my lifestyle right now.

I may as well just go for it :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER71> $12k might not seem to be a lot of money for many. But, from the place where I come from(India) it really means a lot. We are a team of two at concept stage. We have around $20k in savings. Assuming a worst case that we don't make any revenue for an year, we would need an other $30k for our runway. I was thinking about raising this money from F&F round. But now, applying to YC seems to make more sense to me. Though the money will not cover our expenses for an year, I am excited about the acquaintance we will be gaining through this program.

</comment><comment><USER72> What I found to be a really interesting differentiating factor between the YC Fellowship and other VCs is that they were open to companies in the idea stage. It has taken me on and off about 3 years to come up with a fashion social media platform named MyStylist and I appreciate the chance to compete even though I have not been able to fully execute it. I think that choosing a company in the idea stage definitely has its risks but it can turn up to be a very rewarding venture.

</comment><comment><USER73> We are not actively searching for investments yet, I think the YC Fellowship could be a great opportunity to get advices and contacts.

But I'd need some feedback: do you think we could be eligible for the fellowship?

Here are some details:

\- startup in the SaaS space (collaboration tool for remote teams)

\- 2 founders + 2 full time employees

\- money: 300K USD from a previous exit by the founders

\- private alpha in jan 2015, public beta since may 2015, service is still free for everybody (so: no revenues :)

\- few hundred users

I'm not sure about the "no money _from investors_ " requirement, what do you think?

<comment><USER71> As long as you didn't take any money from outside, I believe you can make it to fellowship.

Just curious. How are you planning to monetize from this point. When you start charging for your service, how much churn do you expect?

</comment></comment><comment><USER74> How would YC validate on if the company has received any funding (angel, seed) yet ? Is it not hard to validate as one of the requirement is for a company to apply with no funding?

</comment><comment><USER75> Wow. I am super impressed that this is being allowed remotely. I really hope this is foreshadowing a shift in being more supportive of remote teams for the larger YC program.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's an experiment we're eager to try with this. We'll have to see how it goes!

</comment></comment><comment><USER76> I really wish Sam Altman et all would stop both encouraging and requiring teams they fund to move to the Bay Area, because it is distorting the life out of the economy here and ruining the lives of everyone not employed in the tech industry. And before you ask, no, the attendant increase in service industry jobs does not balance out the damage done by the software industry. There are other places that need the economic boost, and we're full. Thanks.

<comment><USER77> I think yours is a very selfish attitude. The people and the atmosphere in San Francisco and Silicon Valley are some of the biggest assets and they cannot be found in the same way in any other cities.

<comment><USER76> I'm assuming "the people and the atmosphere" you're referring to are the people and the atmosphere that has completely displaced the social life of this part of the world that existed before it became a colony of billionaires playing monopoly. Many of us moved here seeking a different 'people and atmosphere' which, having been displaced, now only exists as a memory.

<comment><USER76> And caveat emptor to anyone responding to this, "you have to embrace change!!!" is exactly equivalent to "I don't give a shit what happens to poor people."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER78> Love to see YC branching out to those unable to migrate to SF immediately. As someone that's been through other incubators and been extremely underwlemed by my experiences; this is a fantastic idea. I know YC is open to all types of ideas and companies, but there is obviously a concentration on software/hardware related ideas. I'm curious if YC has funded any non- hardware/software startups? Any examples?

</comment><comment><USER79> I only hope that YCF get's back to those accepted and denied quickly.

I see this as a great program for students and if they wait too long, students may end up in an awkward position where they are unsure whether they should drop out for the semester, without hearing anything back from YCF.

I think it's a great program. $12,0000 is a lot of money to sit in your apartment and hack for 2 months on whatever it is you want. Great idea.

<comment><AUTHOR> We plan to notify teams about interviews on August 15.

<comment><USER80> Hi Matt. My co-founder and I are trying to figure out how much time we would have to make a transition to full time. If you could give us any more dates like this, that would be very helpful. For example, over what time period will interviews take place? When would we be notified of our acceptance or rejection? Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER81> I find it interesting that people are finding issue with the $12K. Personally I have kids and mortgage and I will be applying with my healthcare startup which as it happens is in very early stages. I would have applied even if there was no $12K since, YC is not taking any equity in this case, and, is providing access to its network which is worth much much more than $12K to me.

<comment><USER82> _> access to its network which is worth much much more than $12K_

Very true. But do not forget that this time there would be aspiring candidates from outside USA too. For them $12K would be a huge enabler (Ex.: adjusted for purchasing power $12K = ~$75K, for somebody who is in India).

</comment></comment><comment><USER83> In one of his essays, PG wrote about the paradox of knowing that the success rate of YC companies indicated that YC could absorb a lot more risk, yet was unable to do so because spotting good ideas that look like bad ideas (or bad ideas that could become good ideas) was incredibly difficult. I believe that critique has been sufficiently answered.

</comment><comment><USER84> Do teams have to pay taxes on the grant money? I'm asking because I know prize money from things like hackathons are taxed.

$12k can last 2 months full-time for a team of 2 ($3k/mo/founder). But if there are taxes, taking home only 65% of $12k ($8k, or $2k/mo/founder) would probably not be enough, at least not in or around major cities.

<comment><USER85> it's in the faq, you have to pay taxes if your team is not incorporated.

</comment></comment><comment><USER86> How does this work with founders who are on a visa that does not allow them to work in the U.S.? Does YC sponsor visas for them?

</comment><comment><USER87> Why is there a requirement of having a video ?

</comment><comment><USER88> Are any startups around London, or Paris, interested in trying for a local group ? In which case, it could make sense to staple applications together. Please contact me (see profile), including your answer to "Please tell us in one or two sentences about the most impressive thing that each founder has built or achieved."

</comment><comment><USER89> BTW, there are places, like Nepal, where $12k could buy a lot more for a team.

Kathmandu could be a hub for backpacker coders and small teams. It is an ideal place for coding camps and sprints - rentals are cheap.

Also it is an education hub of a small country, so there is no shortage of English speaking CS students.

Nepal needs new visitors after earthquake.

<comment><USER90> I'm in Chiang Mai, Thailand right now, and $12k would also go a lot further here. Maybe I'll look at Nepal next, and it would be interesting both for personal adventure and to help the local economy recover... but what puts me off is the internet speed - how fast is it out there?

<comment><USER89> It is rather slow, due to limited bandwidth (Hymalayas) and lots of customers, but it is good-enough for web, git and ssh.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER91> Wow! It's good to see YC sticking its neck out to grow the startup community. I have a quick question though: as this is a remote program, will you be willing to consider candidates living outside the United States? My team and I are in Canada, and are currently unable to move to the States.

<comment><USER16> Yes - we're happy to consider teams from anywhere in the world (as long as you have a good internet connection).

</comment></comment><comment><USER92> I currently have a job at Microsoft and am considering applying. The application says I don't have to quit my job until I am accepted. However Microsoft requires me to give a 45 day notice. So I might not be available full time in the first week or so, will that be a problem?

</comment><comment><USER93> This reminds me a lot of government entrepreneurship grants (ex: Singapore) that similarly have few strings attached, if any. I'm not sure if I've ever heard of any such things in the US (other than those related to science research spin outs), so this seems to fill a needed gap.

Kudos.

<comment><USER94> > I'm not sure if I've ever heard of any such things in the US (other than > those related to science research spin outs), so this seems to fill a needed > gap.

Many universities have such programs, but they're usually limited to their students.

</comment></comment><comment><USER95> I think this would be a really cool thing to take part in for a couple of months after leaving my current job. Not that I plan on doing that any time soon, but I think it would be the perfect time to do so. Hopefully this succeeds and YC decides to do it on an ongoing basis.

</comment><comment><USER96> This is a great idea. I would apply, as I'm actually planning on launching in the coming weeks, but I'm a solo guy. I'm also going back to college next month; which necessarily isn't a bad thing, as my startup is aimed towards college kids.

</comment><comment><USER97> [off-topic question] I know YC asks the oversea team which got YC investment to move to Bay Area. But how do they deal with the visa? I don't think all of them have H1B or L1 visa. I heard a team moved to Bay Area with B1/B2 visa. Is it legal?

<comment><USER97> Any idea?

</comment></comment><comment><USER98> 1) Will YC Fellowship companies be more keen to be accepted to the YC traditional program?

<comment><USER99> According to FAQ on the website, no bias as such.

</comment></comment><comment><USER100> Are the questions different from regular YC applications? I don't see the "Please tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non- computer) system to your advantage" question I've read about

<comment><USER101> Looks like they cherry-picked a condensed list of the "most important" questions, likely out of respect to the fact that there are only 7 days to complete the fellowship application

</comment></comment><comment><USER102> Hi Everybody,

We are trying to do a startup fellowship list in this link :) [https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=9956732](https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=9956732)

</comment><comment><USER103> Definitely will be applying to this; I was going to apply for the regular funding cycle as well (still will apply because I want a few more months of my own time to work on an idea).

Glad to see YC experimenting with new ideas :D

<comment><USER104> I am in a similar boat, I need some time to work on my project and introspect on the actual product before I can even think about growth not to mentioned growth on steroids is months/a year away. I was targeting for YC16 or later, but I still applied thinking YC community may help with the feedback and vendors (its a hardware project/startup), and overall pointing me in the correct direction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER105> YC is so great at pushing VC in the right direction. Thanks for doing this.

</comment><comment><USER106> This is exciting, and appears to be just for me.

One of the hardest things to do is get enough past the idea stage to get to a prototype to attract an investor. A little cash can make that happen a whole lot faster.

</comment><comment><USER107> My school requires a financial commitment by mid-August so unfortunately, I'm not able to apply without taking a risk. Something to consider if you continue with the program.

</comment><comment><USER108> Commenting on just the first couple of lines: I'd say that what YC has contributed to, is to change the definition of what a startup is - which has had a multiplying effect.

</comment><comment><USER109> What qualities do you look for in founders? Is it the same set of qualities you look for in the normal YC application? A little bit more relaxed? A little bit more strict?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's the same. Read this: [http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER110> Great program, well done YC.

Also a good case study on what makes a good intro/landing page for a product. Quite a few "so how is this different" questions in these comments.

</comment><comment><USER111> A truly incredible opportunity. Thank you for your leadership.

</comment><comment><USER112> Can an applicant apply within two teams? I read not possible for a team apply with two projects, I am asking if a member can be mentioned into two different teams.

</comment><comment><USER113> This is awesome.

YC reputation has grown in the last few years. Raising the bar quite high, making it much harder to get in at the earliest stages. I believe this is the reason for this.

</comment><comment><USER114> A silly question, but do you have exact dates for kickoff, etc? This is both awesome and serendipitous, but I have a family wedding in roughly mid- September :)

</comment><comment><USER115> Quick on the funding constraint. I've raised money on Kickstarter recently and am still in prototyping phase. Would I be able to apply? Thanks so much. :)

</comment><comment><USER116> Well if nothing else, applying to the fellowship introduced me to Hacker News. I thought it must only be programming-related, but this is awesome.

</comment><comment><USER117> This is great. Doing YC remotely sounds like a good plan for founders with children and a job that won't allow them to take time off.

</comment><comment><USER118> This sounds similar to my HN proposition from a couple years ago, only 10x better for the applicants. Damn you Ycombinator! :)

<comment><USER119> How did it turn out? As far as I can tell, the last time you published something about it was the blogpost[1] from 9th February 2013 where you said that 5 MVPs were greenlighted. Did any of them gain any significant traction?

[1] [http://hnproposition.blogspot.cz/2013/02/first-5-mvps- green-...](http://hnproposition.blogspot.cz/2013/02/first-5-mvps-green- lighted.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Thank you, this is ideal for my product. I am going to submit the application as soon as I am done with the video.

</comment><comment><USER120> can people working on side-projects/ideas while having a Full time job take part in this?

<comment><AUTHOR> You can definitely apply while still having your job, but you must be willing to work on it full-time for at least the duration of the Fellowship program. We hope you'll commit to it longer than that too -- if your startup is promising, you'll be working on it for many years to come.

<comment><USER120> sweet. thanks !

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER121> Flying to Bay Area is still recommended. The odd for an application out of U.S is low.

</comment><comment><USER122> This is a great. Finally, early stage ideas can get some support. Good one YC.

</comment><comment><USER123> How important is it for this Fellowship to have a flushed out Business Model?

<comment><AUTHOR> If you have good ideas, that's great, but it's not that important. We primarily want to see that you and your co-founders are a very determined, smart team working on an interesting idea. We expect a lot of ideas to keep evolving as teams work on their companies, and any business models would of course change with that as well.

Don't try to send us business plans -- we won't look at them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER124> Are you guys willing to accept a solo hw startup founder from USA?

</comment><comment><USER125> The "Save Draft" feature does not work on Submittable. FYI

</comment><comment><USER126> going thru the comments, its seems that the remote consideration is going to be the charm as well as the biggest challenge.

</comment><comment><USER127> this is great, but the real obstacle for me is the green card. I'm on h1b, can't do anything. :(

<comment><USER128> You can still do the fellowship: the h1b rules say you're not allowed to take other paid employment, but the fellowship will not be employment. Think of it as working for free on your project + winning a (very small) lottery :)

<comment><USER127> no, I can't. they said I have to work full-time during that 8 weeks.

<comment><USER129> You can take vacation as much as you can take or go on a 8 week trip to India. I mean If YC takes you under it arms are you not willing to carve out 8 weeks for it?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER130> Golden. Neat idea!

</comment><comment><USER131> We will be applying with www.todoed.co and www.myidealist.co

</comment><comment><USER82> I compiled some Q&A from YCombinator partners that were relevant for me.

 _Is this US-only?_

Nope, welcome to apply from anywhere. But..

Unfortunately we don't have the bandwidth to get involved with visas before or during the program :( If you can't do it from the Bay Area though, you can still apply to do it remotely--we want to try working with remote teams!

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>-

 _" We encourage you to come to Mountain View if you can make it, but remote interviews over video chat will be okay too ..." For remote teams with viable ideas that YC is interested in funding, how remote can such teams be? Can teams apply from outside the US; from Europe, Asia or Africa?_

Yes absolutely. Teams from anywhere in the world are welcome to apply. We just ask that you have a strong internet connection that allows for clear, reliable video chats.

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>-

 _How many teams are you hoping to accept into the fellowship for the first round?_

About 20 -- we want to keep it a small experiment for this test batch.

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>-

 _What are key differences b /w the fellowship and the YC incubator?_

It's a 12k equity-free grant, it lasts for 8 weeks, you can do it remotely, and it's primarily meant for idea and prototype-stage companies. No dinners and no formal Demo Day, but there will be kickoff and end events in Mountain View where teams will present to the YC community. We'll fly out remote teams for those.

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>-

 _Will we have to pay taxes on the grant?_

If you've already incorporated, you shouldn't have to; as long as you are spending the grant on expenses for your business, you should be able to write it off. If you have not yet incorporated, you will have to pay some taxes. We'll go over this in more detail with accepted teams.

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>-

 _What kind of progress do you expect founders to make by the end of the Fellowship? Put another way, if the goal of participation in Y Combinator is for companies to build enough traction to become top-tier candidates for an institutional fundraise, what is the outcome that participants in the Fellowship should hope to achieve?_

We'd like teams to make as much progress as possible during the 8-weeks of the fellowship. If you have a prototype, that would mean launching and getting your first customers. If you're at idea stage that would mean building a prototype and talking to users. At the end of the 8-weeks we hope the teams will be ready to apply for YC W16 (it's not a requirement -- but we'll encourage it).

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>-

 _What qualities do you look for in founders? Is it the same set of qualities you look for in the normal YC application? A little bit more relaxed? A little bit more strict?_

It's the same. Read this: [http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html)

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>-

</comment><comment><USER132> This is fairly aligned with what I described before, making tiny bets or investments across large number of individuals or startups.

Having said that $12,000 is too small of a figure to make a realistic impact. Rather it would be better to focus on boostrapping and making that amount every month, and continually reinvest in your business.

<comment><AUTHOR> YC's first batch, the Summer Founders Program, was just 6k per founder for 5-7% equity -- teams were expected to make that last for three months (as opposed to YCF's two), and were required to pick up and move on top of that. That funding was enough for Reddit to get started, and we think there will be other great founders who will be able to start good companies with this amount too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER133> Any mention of health insurance, or other things like that? One of the biggest reasons people do go to work for large companies instead of starting their own business is things like that. Without them, you're really only targeting the young kids right out of school, most of whom (but not all) don't really need that much in healthcare.

<comment><USER134> Older people are more likely to have a spouse with insurance or to already be freelancing/contracting and used to providing their own insurance. Even in the days before Obamacare, I think there was a short time you were allowed to be uninsured without being excluded by insurance companies. COBRA also helps fill the gaps (in addition to Obamacare itself).

<comment><USER133> Right, but the COBRA premiums could easily eat up a significant chunk of that grant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER135> >We understand that $12,000 is not a lot of money, and this won't make sense for everyone. But for some people, it may be the difference between going to work at a big company and starting the next Airbnb.

Maybe if the founders of AirBnB had been given $12,000 they wouldn't have needed to make money though illegal spamming.

<comment><USER136> Interesting, I haven't heard about this. Could you speak more to the illegal spamming allegation?

<comment><USER135> [http://gawker.com/5853754/the-seedy-spammy-past-of- airbnbs-c...](http://gawker.com/5853754/the-seedy-spammy-past-of-airbnbs-co- founder)</comment></comment></comment>


Codename: Chilbom - <AUTHOR> https://read.atavist.com/codename-chilbom <comment><USER2> A better title would be: "Codename Chilbom - An Investigation of the Assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, DC"

<comment><USER3> Thanks!

Off topic: _I frequently click on ambiguous titles due to FOMO. This is exploitable; I don 't like it; one solution would be to disambiguate every title. ...But that would remove the art from some cool, worthwhile titles._</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Teaching online? - <AUTHOR>

I've been around for a while and I've learned a bit about a lot of things, and a lot about a few things (e.g. programming, compilers, math, etc.)  I'm looking for other (better?) ways to share what I've learned online and, in turn, better ways to learn.  Of course, I'm aware of many ways to share: Wikipedia, blogging, math/stackoverflow, HN, various forums and email lists, etc., but none are quite what I'm looking for.  In particular, I'd like something where I connect with people directly who have a problem or content they are trying to understand where I have expertise, the scope is not too small so you have a chance to build a relationship, and there is an ongoing dialog.  Perhaps the closest is math/stackoverflow, but even there, I find many of the questions superficial and most questions have less of a back-and-forth/dialog than I would like.  Ideas? <comment><AUTHOR> University of Reddit seems like one possibility:

<http://universityofreddit.com/>

Feels a bit hacked together. Has anyone taken a class there? What was your experience?

</comment><comment><USER2> Sounds like what you want is a long-term, subject-oriented (not single tasks), mastery-directed (aiming to build real skill), social learning context and tool. Would that be a fair summary of the high-level requirements?

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, put that way, it sounds like I'm asking for a lot.

Medium-term, at least. I'm not exactly certain what "social learning context" means. Online. Tool, I don't care so much. I care more about connecting with people. If a tool facilitates that, then sure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Check out the Art of Problem Solving

<http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/>

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm working on a site for that. It's Curious Reef: <http://curiousreef.com>

It's pretty geared towards programming now, with the OCW Intro to Comp Sci class being the most popular, followed by SICP. I would be interested to hear if that's the kind of website you're looking for.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks imp! I'll take a look and let you know what I think.</comment></comment>


Five bugs in a single line of JavaScript - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jgc.org/2009/01/single-line-assignment-filled-with-epic.html

<comment><USER2> _In the UNIX world execute permission on a directory means that you can CD into it; with it removed the directory cannot be accessed (i.e. you can't get a list of the files in the directory)_

Strictly speaking, you can get a list of files in the directory. i.e., opendir() and readdir() will not return "Permission denied". However, you can't access any of the files within the directory.

BTW, sounds like something you'd see in an Adobe installer.

<comment><USER3> _Strictly speaking, you can get a list of files in the directory. i.e., opendir() and readdir() will not return "Permission denied". However, you can't access any of the files within the directory._

Yes, and this is commonly used for the parent directory of a publically readable directory.

Fore example, you can't read or write anything in my home directory but you _can execute through it_ to read stuff form my public_www directory. If the execute bit form my home is removed, that breaks my webpage.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was expecting a bug that had some subtle relation to the Javascript language... this example would apply to any language and is essentially demonstrating a strong lack of knowledge and/or carelessness with file permission masks / chmod and unix filesystems generally.

</comment><comment><USER5> I guess these just don't match my personal definition of a software bug... I was expecting an unexpected result as a product of good programming. This is just "5 reasons this line of javascript shouldn't have been written" and seems to be more about UNIX permissions than code.

<comment><USER6> I don't know anyone who defines a "bug" as "an unexpected result as a product of good programming." Bugs are when code is wrong: when it doesn't do what it says, when it doesn't do what was asked of it, when it doesn't do what the user reasonably expects. Bugs are not the result of good programming.

<comment><USER7> I disagree. I would say there is a distinction between an error and a bug. There's certainly some grey area there, but, for example, if my code sets permissions for a directory instead of a file, I made an error. If my code sets permissions for a file, but produces unexpected results in certain cases because of an implementation detail, then that's a bug.

<comment><USER8> A bug is code that doesn't behave as the author intended it to. It doesn't matter if the bug is due to some subtle interaction in the language, or just plain bone-headedness on the part of the programmer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'd really like to point fingers and scold, but other than the octal/decimal bug I feel like I've been in enough product-manager-screaming-for-a-fix positions to understand how code like that can make it into a production environment.

Really this should be posted on wherever _those_ guys hang out than hacker news, where we're unlikely to write code like that (even under duress)

</comment><comment><USER10> There are only two bugs in the code:

1\. Setting the permission on the wrong thing (directory instead of file)

2\. Setting the permissions to 666 instead of 0666.

A design "bug" is only a bug if it was unintentional. The other two "bugs" are pedantry that you'd only expect out of a compiler that spits out tons of cascading "errors" resulting from a single actual error.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is an example of pedantry going to the absolute extreme.</comment>


Ask HN: Do Autonomous vehicles profile other vehicles? - <AUTHOR> Here's what I mean. Humans have anxiety when they drive, if we can detect the "anxiety level" of a specific driver then we can better predict how to drive with them. Driving ing on the road is a team sport, the better you know your teammates the better the whole team (cars on the road with you) works. Any info on this topic would be super appreciated! <comment><USER2> Looking at "Driver Style Recognition" on google scholar seems to return some results including a few GM patents. The papers appear to mostly focus on accelerometer data over longer periods of time, so they don't seem to be directly relevant to labeling the behavior of other nearby cars. There might however be some newer extensions of the work which could be more relevant to self driving cars, though it wouldn't be unsurprising if it was not published information.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Giving this a second shot.</comment>


Why productivity fades with age: The crime–genius connection - <AUTHOR> http://www.academicproductivity.com/2008/why-productivity-fades-with-age-the-crimegenius-connection/

<comment><USER2> Bah... Academia heaps prestige upon the person who hits it big early, and from then on they don't get the same kind of feedback.

Imagine at Google: "Of course, Sergey, that's an awesome idea". But if it's not then everyone is wasting a lot of time. Chances are it isn't. Sergey had a lot of bad/mediocre ideas before he came up with PageRank, and has had a lot of bad/mediocre ones since.

The point is that ideas are more a function of being at the right place at the right time and acting on it than they are about some particular genius.

A good analogy is Scrabble. When you hit an awesome word early on it can still result in a loss, b/c you keep trying too hard and over thinking things. Also, in life, like Scrabble, some of it has to do with the letters that happen to be in your tray.

This is part of the myth that genius is a phenomenon of the young. That is luck. True genius involves sweat and perseverance.

<comment><USER3> "This is part of the myth that genius is a phenomenon of the young. That is luck"

So then, luck is a phenomena of the young?

We were told of the "genius graph" in psychology in the lectures about evolutionary psychology. The explanation goes something like, we need to reproduce hence our ambition is more to do with getting a partner, hence why we do great works in early age, because once we have a partner we don't bother about it?

It clearly is a theory, but one can hardly argue with the statistics, except that there are " lies, lies and damn statistics"

<comment><USER2> I think that's an example an evolutionary "just so story".

There may be some truth to it, but "genius" impacts such a small percentage of the population, that I think calling it genetic is quite a stretch.

Ambition, yes. Few people are ambitious enough to want anything more out of life than a 30+ inch TV.

But to take the leap into the territory of tremendous accomplishment, and to claim that it is a function of sex drive, cheapens it a bit in my opinion.

I think more likely there are just some people whose natural skills are called "genius" by society when they are young, and so they are society's "young geniuses". Who do we have today, Zuckerberg? Some kid who got into MIT?

Most of this is just hype. I think the true genius is someone who adapts over time and creates something tremendous that can't be credited to a social fad or a bubble.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Direct link to paper: <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/MES/pdf/JRP2003.pdf></comment>


Ask HN: Review my "Teach Myself Programming" project, Getset (Please be gentle) - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN community,
www.getsetapp.com
Getset helps you find the cheapest method of travel, whether by air, bus, or driving, to get to your destination. I got the idea from the frustration I experienced going to different sites and manually calculating and comparing the costs of travel (should I drive there, or take the bus? Train or plane?). I'd like to one day turn it into a monetizeable venture, but it's mainly meant as a learning tool to help me obtain the skills necessary to build my own start up in the near future.
I've been teaching myself how to program via this project for the past 7 months or so part-time. It's a rails app (no surprise there), and I would greatly appreciate your feedback (technical, marketing, monetization, and features).
I know that there are a number of issues with it in its current state, but I hope that it provides some value to you. As this is the first thing I've actually built, please be gentle with the feedback! :-)
Thanks a bunch! <comment><USER3> For the cities with multiple airports (DC, NY, Chicago, etc.), just have once choice - "NY" as opposed to "NY - JFK" and "NY - LGA". Your target user seems to be someone who is more interested in getting from point A to point B by the cheapest means possible, as opposed to someone who's going to fly there - <USER2> which case they would think of their origin as (for example) New York, as opposed to La Guardia.

I would also add travel time in there - time is money, and it's not much good saying that it costs $70 in gas to drive somewhere if you don't also mention that it takes five days.

If you really want to get fancy, add an option for the full cost of the trip, for lack of a better word - meaning that the plane price includes travel to/from the airport (making reasonable assumptions about cost) and the car price includes accommodation as needed.

<comment><USER4> Or maybe offer one choice: "NY", and present the different results alongside car and bus options.

Plane: $119 from JFK, $134 from LGA.

Car: $52 in gas.

Bus: $68

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't think about presenting it in that fashion, thanks for helping out!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> First off, congratulations, this seems like a cool tool, and the landing page is nice and clean.

Second, I'm seeing some problems with the site right now. It was quick to load, but then it seems like it takes forever to do the search (Charlotte, NC to SLC, UT) then just ends in an error. It's done this the few times I've tried.

Also, if searching does take a while (I imagine it would) a nice 'loading' page might be a useful addition to tell users what it's doing (did it actually start searching? should I click the button again?).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback, a loading page would be useful. What specific error are you receiving? Or is it different errors everytime? I'll have to scour my log file to see what's actually going on. Thanks again!

<comment><USER5> It waits a while, then goes to a page that says:

We're sorry, but something went wrong.

We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly.

As a quick look at the page source, it looks like a 500 server error. Is the site working for you? I've tried a few other searches and they don't work. I'm on Windows 7 with Google Chrome, in case you're curious.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Well - good job! Nothing like scratching your own itch, is there?

I'd say the biggest priority would be adding time estimates - the people who are going to be using this kind of service are probably uncertain of the geography. I don't think you necessarily need to add fillers at this stage, everybody knows air travel automatically adds 3 hours or whatever. But the length of the actual trip itself would definitely tip the scale into real usefulness.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! It sure does feel good to built something. The time estimates are something I'm currently working on as well, thanks for helping validate the feature list priority :-).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Very nice! Some thoughts: Is the average fuel efficiency really 30 MPG? Seems kind of high. Maybe you could select your car with the average MPG per model? Could you check local gas prices for more real-time accuracy instead of a stock $2.50? I think the list should just be cities, and on the results page, you could have NY - LGA: $$$ / NY - JFK: $$$ because as a traveler bound to New York, I would have to select each NY option, submit, go back, re-submit, just to see which airport would be cheaper. One stop shopping, and all that. Great job with it so far!

</comment><comment><USER8> Very cool first app! Congratulations on shipping something awesome.

One feature you could add is the ability to set your mpg. My car, unfortunately, gets nowhere near 30mpg.

You could also have a google maps display that shows the calculated route by car, bus, or airplane.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER9> I tried Boston -> SF, and got an error 'The change you wanted was rejected. 422'

<comment><AUTHOR> A quick google search and test leads me to believe the app isn't playing well with Noscript. I'll have to dig down further on what the underlying issue might be. Thanks for catching that bug!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable: <http://www.getsetapp.com>

</comment><comment><USER10> put in the same city for from and to and you get an error. nice job for a first app!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I need to add that to validations :-)</comment></comment>


Ford to Test Cooling System That Could Improve the Range Electric Vehicles - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/513466/novel-heating-system-could-improve-electric-cars-range/ <comment><AUTHOR> How does this not violate conservation of energy? Anyone know?</comment>


Pompeo tells China to stop stealing Covid-19 research - <AUTHOR> https://sociable.co/technology/pompeo-tells-china-stop-stealing-covid-19-research/ <comment><USER2> How can you steal research to stop a disease causing global catastrophe? There's no good reason this research shouldn't all be publicly accessible.

If China were withholding research, I would applaud anyone who stole it from them. I see no reason I shouldn't do the same for China here.</comment>


Trumpnomics Working: Leading Indicators Up - <AUTHOR> https://www.marketwatch.com/story/economy-speeds-up-in-march-but-not-at-a-very-fast-pace-leading-indicators-show-2019-04-18 <comment><USER2> Actual headline: "Economy speeds up slightly in March, leading indicators show"

Back in my day trolling meant something....

</comment><comment><USER3> I expected comparison data with obamanomics. How to dislike HN story? And person posted that.</comment>


Google moves closer to letting Chrome web apps edit your files - <AUTHOR> https://www.techrepublic.com/article/google-moves-closer-to-letting-chrome-web-apps-edit-your-files-despite-warning-it-could-be-abused-in-terrible-ways/ <comment><USER3> > Consent by the user

Like Android permissions hell?

Why do Google do this kind of things? Can't they see it's not worth it? How could my 12 years old daughter understand that her farm, barbie or chicken whatever don't need access to read and write her files?

<comment><USER4> Google pushes these concepts because they want Chromium to be the operation system that will replace Linux/Windows/Mac. Something like Chrome - <USER2> Control Edition.

Why, I dont know - but in the 90s people said Microsoft was after world domination. Similar reasons might apply.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This could be one of the hardest and most gamechanging UX challenges since email. Because if they get the security model right and allow _informed_ user consent for an app to access a folder it shares with others... then it's a quick step towards POSIX and mmap APIs for WebAssembly. Then the web literally has parity with operating systems.

<comment><USER6> I used to be so enthusiastic about stuff like this. Sadly, I don't think this will be cool at all.

I don't think this will ever reach parity with desktop operating systems, because they don't want us using desktop operating systems at all. I would not be at all surprised if the only code that has access to this is signed by Google and maybe hosted on their servers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I like this.

Currently, webapps can read files from disk using an upload dialog and write them to disk by triggering a download, but this is clumsy enough that it only really works as an import/export feature. Webapps are essentially forced to have their "native" document storage be an online service, usually bespoke to that specific app.

Files on my disk are files under my control. I can back them up myself, pay for their storage myself (rather than be subject to inflated cloud rates), and easily bring them to other web or native apps. Files hosted on my account on some website are... less so. If you're lucky, the storage costs are reasonable. If you're lucky, there's an API. Often there isn't.

</comment><comment><USER8> Given the problems in the past with extensions being sold and exploited by the new owners, this could get really ugly.

Of course it could also be very useful, but I'm going to wear my tinfoil hat until proven wrong.

</comment><comment><USER9> it's not great but not terrible

</comment><comment><USER10> "This is fine."</comment>


Why Facebook and Instagram are currently down - <AUTHOR> https://itblogr.com/top-social-media-giants-facebook-instagram-currently-down/ <comment><USER2> Click bait... title should be "Facebook & Instagram currently Down!"

there is absolutely not an explanation why they are/were down</comment>


Great Works in Programming Languages - <AUTHOR> http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/courses/670Fall04/GreatWorksInPL.shtml

<comment><USER2> A very impressive list. I wondered how accessable these articles are and searched for the first one. My first hit was a retrospective written by C.A.R. Hoare in 2009. It too is a very interesting read. Haven't found the original though...

[http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1562764.1562779](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1562764.1562779)

<comment><USER3> [http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~worboys/processes/hoare%20axio...](http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~worboys/processes/hoare%20axiomatic.pdf)

The title + filetype:pdf seems to find them all.

<comment><USER2> Awesome, thanks! I hadn't looked too hard but now that you point out how easy it is you just gave me something to do this weekend.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Benjamin Pierce was my CS advisor freshman year, it's great to see him on the front page of HN. I'm definitely going to try to get through the papers in the "greatest of the great" section

</comment><comment><USER5> Not a single woman, unless I am mistaken. (Am I?) Not sure what that says.

<comment><USER6> I don't think it says anything. The vast majority of the seminal papers were written in the 60's and 70's, when few women were even in academia in the first place. A good number are from the 80's, during which you can argue very little emphasis was placed on women in engineering at all. By the nineties we were trying harder to equalize the gap, but it was not yet a priority in the field of CS. The last papers on here are from 2000. Basically, if you know the history of women in academia, the lack of women on this list is absolutely no surprise.

What do you expect people to do, pretend that there was a surplus of female researchers when the really widely applicable research was happening? That's simply not true, and it wouldn't be true in any field.

<comment><USER7> Perhaps include an apology and treatise on historical sexism? Maybe go hunting for a handful of papers by women from that era, and include them in the interests of inclusion?

The former would be irrelevant at best, and the latter is usually called tokenism, but both are options. If that's actually the goal. Personally, I suspect neither is helpful.</comment></comment></comment>