Linkseed/hacker_news_with_comments · Datasets at Hugging Face

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50,528	50,334	tuukkah	Microsoft Pondering iPhone Killer?	nreece	There's no question they are pondering - and pondering. Beating Apple in appliance design is something else than manufacturing mice and keyboards.	null	0	1	2007-09-05 16:28:03 UTC
50,533	50,325	tuukkah	The Morning Norm - What Do All Entrepreneurs Have in Common?	ordersup	There's an extra "#more" in the link.	null	1	2	2007-09-05 16:33:14 UTC
50,534	50,456	henning	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	the idea that college is necessary is a relatively recent aberration that from what I can tell dates back to the end of WWII and the GI Bill. before that, going to college was rare.college is not for everyone (we need good plumbers and auto mechanics, fer chrissakes). i didn't apply myself as well as i could have at college, but about 40% of the value I got was from reading interesting books I found in the library, which I could have got for $100 a year while working in the real world and gaining money and experience -- which is what I'm doing now.that said, some things are very hard to learn outside of a classroom and the mathematical maturity I gained from taking math classes will serve me for a life time.	null	29	103	2007-09-05 16:34:56 UTC
50,536	50,456	prakash	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	PG: Here's a good way to test this: Please ask the next round of applicants to NOT mention the school they went to.What do you think?	null	11	103	2007-09-05 16:36:52 UTC
50,537	50,456	marrone	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	I liked this article, if for the simple fact that it can only help my cause (I graduated, though not from a prestigious school)!The whole time I was going to school I was super impatient to get done so I could actually get working on something real. I was really just after the piece of paper they give you at the end (though I never attended my graduation to get that paper, and the original was sent to the wrong house).Once I graduated I started my own project so that I would have some work to show when applying for jobs. I found that that experience led to as much or more knowledge gained as my best year in school. And that is not a knock against the school I went to (I thought the staff there was awesome).I am always reminded of a quote from some movie (cant think of the name of it now)... "You spent x thousands of dollars on an education you could have got for 2 dollars in library late fees"	null	21	103	2007-09-05 16:37:42 UTC
50,538	50,456	dpapathanasiou	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	The second paragraph reminded me of this Alan Watts talk: http://www.freshminds.com/animation/alan_watts_life.html.But unlike the Watts talk, the essay does converge to a very rigid notion of "success".	null	22	103	2007-09-05 16:38:03 UTC
50,539	50,456	davidw	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	As someone who took 1 term of a bad C++ class at a community college, and primarily studied Italian prior to dropping out of the University, I can't help but vote this one up.	null	27	103	2007-09-05 16:39:13 UTC
50,541	50,456	bluishgreen	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	I have thought about this a lot.In fact lot of my teen years were spent thinking about this. I went to an elite school in India. And I leave a comment here just to confirm that its the same all over the world. These lines are gold. ( I mean very valuable :)"The unfortunate thing is not just that people are judged by such a superficial test, but that so many judge themselves by it. A lot of people, probably the majority of people in the America, have some amount of insecurity about where, or whether, they went to college. The tragedy of the situation is that by far the greatest liability of not having gone to the college you'd have liked is your own feeling that you're thereby lacking something. Colleges are a bit like exclusive clubs in this respect. There is only one real advantage to being a member of most exclusive clubs: you know you wouldn't be missing much if you weren't. When you're excluded, you can only imagine the advantages of being an insider. But invariably they're larger in your imagination than in real life."	null	9	103	2007-09-05 16:41:41 UTC
50,544	50,460	henning	Peter Norvig: Global Climate Change Consensus	abstractbill	Root problem: journalists are fucking morons who don't report important issues properly. And then they wonder why we don't read their blessed newspapers.	null	1	22	2007-09-05 16:42:22 UTC
50,547	50,519	jsjenkins168	Facebook comes out of the walled garden.	Readmore	So long as they can act as a gate keeper for facebook applications, they are still a walled garden, IMHO.	null	0	1	2007-09-05 16:46:16 UTC
50,548	50,509	aston	Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...	juwo	Healthcare might actually be a pretty interesting option. It's cost-prohibitive for small companies, but reasonable for a program as large as YC.	(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.	6	18	2007-09-05 16:46:30 UTC
50,550	50,456	mdakin	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	One hundred years from now will an "elite college" still exist? The reputations of today's elite colleges stem from a perceived legacy of alum achievement 25, 50, 100 years ago. Are factors operating now that will more evenly distribute this achievement in the future? Or is this "legacy of achievement" and conferred eliteness already BS?	null	20	103	2007-09-05 16:47:14 UTC
50,569	50,367	cstejerean	Japan's Government to Waste $130 Million Fighting Google	staunch	I'm not sure if I buy that Japan is trying to fight Google. That might very well be what the author of the article understood from the whole thing but to me it seems they are simply trying to support a move by Japanese companies into services. Adding decent search to a car navigation system is not exactly competing with Google. As long as they don't try to make a general purpose search engine I'm not sure if they are really competing with Google, just making their devices more attractive and differentiated from the replicas that South Korea and Taiwan are pumping out.	null	1	8	2007-09-05 17:03:29 UTC
50,573	50,456	alex_c	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	But it DOES matter where you go to college, and the essay itself argues for that.In this context, we can say there are three things that can determine someone's success:1) confidence others have in you2) self-confidence3) actual abilityGoing to a "good" college affects 1 and 2 the most, and arguably 3 the least. In a startup 3 and 2 are arguably the most important, and 1 the least - so I guess that agrees with pg's argument. In the corporate world, 1 and 2 matter the most, and 3 the least - aligned with what a brand-name college provides.So the argument seems a bit circular: based on the yc sample set, college doesn't matter because college doesn't matter to the yc sample set. Even if that SHOULD extend to the world at large, it doesn't.	null	6	103	2007-09-05 17:08:09 UTC
50,581	50,456	Alex3917	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	When I was taking an education theory class we had to do simulated admissions. We had to do three applicants every ten minutes, which works out to just over three minutes per app. In that amount of time you can quickly scan over the grades and SATs, and maybe read the first paragraph of each essay if you're lucky. The other thing I learned is that the real admissions officers got statistics updates twice a day for the average GPA and SAT score, and also the projected US News rank. This means that whether or not your grades and SATs were good enough depended largely on whether your app was read before or after lunch, because what it took to get into the college completely changed every time they were handed the new report.For low income minority students there was an option to set the app aside for a second reading in order to learn more about the student's situation and if there were an ameliorating factors, but for the rest of the students the admissions officers were expected to make a decision on the first pass after the three minutes. Athletes also largely got pre-approved by the academic department they were applying for, so they pretty much knew whether they'd be accepted before they ever applied. The flip side is that they only got an edge in admissions if they applied early decision, because if they were going to bring down the average GPA then they had to bring up the average matriculation in order to not affect the overall US News rank.I think it's one of those things like eVoting. That is, people with no CS experience think eVoting is totally secure whereas CS experts know it isn't. Similarly, I highly suspect that anyone who thinks getting admitted to an Ivy shows a certain baseline level of respectability has never worked in admissions. I'd guarantee it.As for the importance of college GPA, if you want to see something funny then apply for a wall street job. If they ask you what your GPA was in college, ask them how GPA correlates with alpha. :-)The craziest thing was that Google did a massive HR survey and determined that there was basically zero correlation between college GPA and value created for the company. Because of this they decided that they would give jobs to five or six people with sub 3.0 GPAs each year. Well if there is little or no correlation, why should it matter what GPA is at all? I suspect the psychology behind the Google hiring process has a lot in common with the psychology of female circumcision. That is, it was done to me so it must be a good thing. And if it's a good thing, then by definition it must be good to do unto others.edit: fixed a few grammatical errors	null	0	103	2007-09-05 17:16:16 UTC
50,584	50,456	henning	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	"The curve for faculty is a lot flatter than for students, especially in math and the hard sciences; you have to go pretty far down the list of colleges before you stop finding smart professors in the math department."I wish this would be repeated more often. I've implemented many interesting algorithms based on papers written by people at, like, Louisiana State University. Noname places.	null	14	103	2007-09-05 17:21:22 UTC
50,585	50,456	whacked_new	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	It doesn't take a Paul Graham to realize this nor do I think this is the first time the thought hit him. There are also things that I, and others, would argue about, in favor or not, but nonetheless,thank you for writing this.	null	25	103	2007-09-05 17:22:02 UTC
50,587	50,456	edw519	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	Here's another dirty little secret: Your grades don't matter either.I still chuckle when I think of the drones in my fraternity that missed the best 4 years of their lives because their heads were stuck in their books. Sure, they got 4.0 averages, but who cares now?	null	37	103	2007-09-05 17:28:57 UTC
50,588	50,456	Neoryder	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	For me the biggest thing about going to an elite school is expectation.The more you expect for yourself, the more others expect from you the more you are driven to succeed or make something of your life.Elite colleges are like the newsweek article on octopart, it makes you want to beat the expectations on you, only several order or magnitudes less.I think getting an education is secondary in college. Finding people who live with passion used to be a problem when we didn't have the internet. And working/studying in elite institutions gave you a higher chance of meeting passionate people.	null	17	103	2007-09-05 17:29:56 UTC
50,589	50,440	jkush	Why Writing Your Own Search Engine is Hard	darragjm	Is it just me or is this a silly article? I'm not really sure what the point is. There's the overweighted focus on hardware which isn't what makes writing a search engine hard. Then there's the pseudo code towards the end which really made the whole things bizarre.	null	0	13	2007-09-05 17:33:25 UTC
50,590	50,456	gojomo	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	Though as a reader I start sympathetic to both the thesis (it matches my priors) and the author (always enjoy PG's essays), this struck me as hand-waving. For all the talk of, "I have a lot of data" and "[w]e're just finally able to measure it," there are no supporting numbers, just general impressions. C'mon, give this topic the rigorous Bayesian treatment. How does the population of YC market-successes compare with YC-chosen and YC-applicants, along the 'prestigious college' dimension? How do these compare with the college-graduate population as a whole, and the college-graduate population succeeding in other competitive fields?Those numbers would be great, and I'm rooting for the "college-doesn't-matter" result.	null	24	103	2007-09-05 17:34:19 UTC
50,592	49,785	Jd	Observations from 10 Months Working at a Small Startup	a-kill-ease	"The common failing of programming groups today is too little management control, no too much" -F. Brooks in the mythical man-monthA-kill-ease, Is this still true today? True in your experience? Would it have been corrected simply by the addition of technically-skilled managers, as you suggest, or were there too many other things wrong to begin with?	Observations about startup life and manager after working for 10 months at a small venture-capital funded startup.	1	58	2007-09-05 17:38:58 UTC
50,601	50,372	abstractbill	So I got a startup job	tempo	Congrats! Me too (I start at justin.tv on Monday).The most important piece of job-seeking advice I can think of: You are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. If you don't ask hard questions, and pay attention to the answers, you risk taking a crappy job and regretting it.	Hi. This, my first blog post, explains what I learned in the process of getting a startup job in the Valley. Feedback of all kinds is welcome: from typos and style to things I'm so wrong about.	1	23	2007-09-05 18:01:08 UTC
50,603	50,098	webwright	My startup. Comments?	joe	TAGLINE- Say what it does right next to the logo. Or as a headline.SCREENSHOT - Show what it does, first thing. Show a screenshot of the data collection screen at a table. Next to that (not in a flash sequence-- two pics), should the admin interface, etc. Something like BlinkSale's home page, mebbe? http://www.blinksale.com/homeOverall tho-- nice niche, pretty design. Congrats!Speaking of the logo, I'm not sure how much the "it" part of it is clear. I'd go with a simple wordmark.URL with a dash isn't wonderful, but I know how painful domains are.	Wondering what you all think of this. Does it make sense? Would you use it? Comments in general?	12	31	2007-09-05 18:04:53 UTC
50,604	50,440	bharath	Why Writing Your Own Search Engine is Hard	darragjm	Its seems that search (at least text search) is more or less a solved problem. Trying to innovate in the search space today is more or less as futile as trying to innovate in the operating systems space about 10-12 years ago. Noone really cares given that the state of the art works quite well.	null	1	13	2007-09-05 18:07:50 UTC
50,605	50,456	nanijoe	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	I always wondered if boso getting into YC had anything to do with the founders having gone to Oxford.	null	28	103	2007-09-05 18:07:59 UTC
50,608	50,456	voidstar	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	ha, this is true. i go to rutgers for 4k/yr after a certain ithaca ivy wanted 43k/yr or whatever it was, so i get to keep a college fund's worth of seed money for whatever i do post-grad. and the "elite college" types i meet in the summers are no better-educated than me (and incidentally, drink a lot more...)	null	32	103	2007-09-05 18:13:00 UTC
50,618	50,509	pg	Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...	juwo	We've thought of it. Unfortunately insurance cos don't have any provision for investors wanting to do this. They'd only talk to us if we made all the founders YC employees, which would mess up things for future investors, acquirers, etc.	(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.	1	18	2007-09-05 18:27:18 UTC
50,620	50,431	comatose_kid	We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?	rwebb	A few thoughts:What about searching? I might want to see all articles with Citigroup in the headline for example...Why not add regular news as well - news that affects the finance world? Actually, on a totally different topic, it would be really neat to create a site which somehow reads the news and correlates it with stocks that could be affected. For example, Apple's ipod news caused shares in SNDK to get whacked (the ipod nano's didn't use as much flash as SNDK investors hoped).	thoughts?	4	17	2007-09-05 18:30:35 UTC
50,625	50,456	epi0Bauqu	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	I was amazed initially (though that quickly faded) how few truly "smart" undergraduates there were at MIT in the 9 years I hung around there. I put smart in quotes because I really don't like that word, but I don't have a great substitute either. Obviously they were smart enough to get in. But most were significantly lacking in at least one necessary area to be labeled "smart" IMO (often several), including intuitiveness, creativity, being a self-starter, analytical thinking, breadth and depth of knowledge, intellectual curiosity, etc.Putting exact numbers on it is difficult due to the self-segregation at MIT and subjectivity obviously at play. However, I would say perhaps 30% fall into the seriously lacking category, another 30% in a substantially lacking category and another 25% in a good but not great category (perhaps lacking only one major thing). That leaves only 15% or so of people I came across I would say were "smart" in the sense described above. When you move to people with the essential qualities necessary to work successfully at a really early stage startup, I would say it drops to 7% or so. I'm not saying found one, just work at one as one of the first employees. When you move to people with all the founding qualities, the % probably drops to 1-2%. I know this first hand after trying to start companies with people in the "smart" category.The above has really hit home other times as well. Here are two more occasions. First, when graduating, 62 people in my class out of about 1,080 (~6%) were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. I was shocked at a) how many of these people were my friends at MIT; b) how many of these people I had come across (given that I didn't meet all 1,080; and c) that this list included pretty much all of the people I had previously labeled "smart" myself in my class that I had come across. Second, my wife taught statistics at MIT for several years. One time a kid came up to her complaining about an exam grade and told her it was not possible to have gotten an A on this exam. He said all his friends studied real hard and yet they all ended up with Cs and Ds. To which she replied, actually roughly 30% of the class got As. The point is, they were completely self-segregated by "smartness" and didn't even really know it.All that being said, an MIT degree really does go a long way in terms of impressing the average person/company. I have done independent consulting and applied for jobs where they basically stopped researching me when they saw MIT. That is the rule, not the exception. And that was in Boston. Now that I live in PA, it seems even more shocking to people to come across someone from MIT. Given the above, and in agreement with PG, this behavior is unwarranted. I of course am thankful, but it also annoys me that so many people are free-riding on the name.	null	1	103	2007-09-05 18:42:38 UTC
50,628	50,431	byrneseyeview	We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?	rwebb	I like this a lot. It's much more professional than http://digstock.com/ , which never really took off.	thoughts?	9	17	2007-09-05 18:45:54 UTC
50,632	50,595	brett	Comparison of two Ruby approaches to Facebook API	DocSavage	When I see non-idiomatic Ruby code, it tells me one of two things. The first assumption I make is that whoever wrote the code is not a Ruby programmer. That's usually the case.I've been using rfacebook lately and this is definitely the case. I'm constantly going back to the rfacebook source to figure out how to use it and every time I come across code that strikes me as highly unrubyish (what's with all the gratuitous "return"s?). I did not know facebooker existed. I will be looking into it very soon.	null	0	16	2007-09-05 18:55:46 UTC
50,634	50,509	far33d	Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...	juwo	This is one of the few benefits of a single-payer system.. It might actually encourage entrepreneurship, since healthcare is so prohibitively expensive.	(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.	4	18	2007-09-05 18:58:56 UTC
50,635	50,380	mikesabat	Sunday's Solutions	augy	I love it. No development, just come up with a name that makes sense and post the link for the article. People can leave their ideas for a business that solves the problem in the comments. The top vote getter wins ice cream.	In the essay Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas, PG states"Reading the Wall Street Journal for a week should give anyone ideas for two or three new startups. The articles are full of descriptions of problems that need to be solved."This statement gave me an idea for YCnews. What if every Sunday (usually a slow news day) PG posts an article from the Wall Street Journal or any other publication, but instead of people just giving their opinions they gave their solutions to the problems presented in the article? People could then up-vote the solutions they liked the best. This would get everyone's thoughts flowing in the right direction, which is forward towards creation and innovation.	2	12	2007-09-05 19:02:17 UTC
50,637	50,436	garbowza	I Think You're Fat: The Radical Honesty Movement	charzom	I resent him for creating a "difficult to learn" lifestyle that conveniently requires people to spend $2,800 per workshop to learn. The reason I resent that is because I'm jealous of how much money he makes.	null	0	53	2007-09-05 19:03:35 UTC
50,643	50,638	pg	Fame/Reputation building seems key motivating factor for user uploaded content.	ranparas	Register now to read this article? What are they thinking?	null	1	5	2007-09-05 19:11:51 UTC
50,644	50,456	epi0Bauqu	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	PG: have you noticed that a) GPA matters (at any school); b) that GPA matters at so-called elite schools in particular; c) any other consistencies with regards to college activities and/or honors, e.g. Phi Beta Kappa, having had started clubs or groups, etc.?	null	31	103	2007-09-05 19:13:36 UTC
50,645	50,436	oconnor0	I Think You're Fat: The Radical Honesty Movement	charzom	Besides the issues you have with how he's popularizing/selling his ideas, what do you think about the concepts he's presenting? Are they useful, dangerous, morally superior/inferior?	null	2	53	2007-09-05 19:14:56 UTC
50,649	50,372	dfranke	So I got a startup job	tempo	I think your experience is atypical. Most people I know who work at startups, myself included, got their job through a personal introduction to one of the founders. We have one employee whom we hired from Monster, but he wasn't specifically looking to work at a startup; he just applied for jobs that sounded interesting regardless of the size of the company. I don't know anyone who has gotten a job at a startup by sending resumes to twenty of them and getting lucky on one.	Hi. This, my first blog post, explains what I learned in the process of getting a startup job in the Valley. Feedback of all kinds is welcome: from typos and style to things I'm so wrong about.	0	23	2007-09-05 19:24:14 UTC
50,656	50,509	ph0rque	Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...	juwo	Isn't CA thinking of doing universal healthcare anyway?	(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.	7	18	2007-09-05 19:32:31 UTC
50,660	50,431	byrneseyeview	We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?	rwebb	I see no indication of how many comments a story already has.	thoughts?	15	17	2007-09-05 19:37:10 UTC
50,663	50,460	gibsonf1	Peter Norvig: Global Climate Change Consensus	abstractbill	I've read recently that this same study was repeated this year (don't have the link), and the result dramatically different given the recent findings on the solar impact of global warming.http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.B... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/03/030321075236.ht... http://www.aip.org/pnu/2003/split/642-2.htmlStudies: http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelid=B18307... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070801174450.ht... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070801175711.ht...	null	0	22	2007-09-05 19:39:56 UTC
50,665	50,431	byrneseyeview	We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?	rwebb	Also, there doesn't appear to be any indication of who submitted a story.	thoughts?	14	17	2007-09-05 19:43:08 UTC
50,669	50,580	portLAN	As Prostitutes Turn to Craigslist, Law Takes Notice	brett	I detect a start-up opportunity.	null	0	6	2007-09-05 19:49:39 UTC
50,670	50,509	SwellJoe	Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...	juwo	While I don't think this is a particularly good idea--as pg pointed out, you have to be an employer of people to insure them in any reasonable scalable way, because that's just the way the world of insurance works right now--I do think that this (not just insurance, but all of the boring crap like that) is perhaps the biggest single pain point of building a business. In the first months or year or whatever it takes, you don't have enough to pay for the problem to go away, but you can't ignore payroll, insurance, income taxes, franchise taxes for the corporation, basic bookkeeping and accounting.I'm not even sure what kind of person to hire for some of these tasks. Obviously an accountant is expensive overkill for payroll and bookkeeping, and the accountants I have known outsource it. Administaff doesn't seem to like very small companies (or at least they charge as though they don't like them). The online services I've used for payroll have ended up with me doing most of the hard work by hand (they're glorified calculators with all the percentages already punched in, but they don't handle actually paying people or getting the taxes paid).And, of course, no one should ever be without health insurance for any period of time. It's just too much risk. But I haven't found health insurance to be the hardest part to deal with: just call up Unicare. They provide individuals with reasonable health care plans for reasonable price. I pay $84/month for a crappy plan (but I'm in good health, with no bad or dangerous habits, so I just want to know that if I go to the hospital it won't bankrupt me).Also, as for aston's point, you might be surprised. Group health insurance is much more expensive than individual plans for young healthy people (most of what YC funds). I looked into it and group insurance for me would cost about $280/month, vs. the $84 I'm paying now. The insurance a company buys for you has to deal with pre-existing conditions, dependents, all ages, etc. and generally doesn't even discriminate based on smoker/non-smoker status. Of course, the group rates I was looking at were for a 2-10 person company, while YC would be covering 50 or so people, so the rates might be considerably lower at that scale.Anyway, it's not a bad idea for YC to do something about all of these stupid but necessary aspects of business. The days I'm doing bookkeeping or payroll or taxes are days that are really painful...I can't think of anything in my day to day life that I hate more. I'm now in a position to pay someone for them to go away, but I'd have to find that someone or someones...But that's just me complaining. ;-)	(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.	0	18	2007-09-05 19:52:12 UTC
50,671	50,509	portLAN	Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...	juwo	Just add it to your monthly expenses -- apply to eHealthInsurance.com and get either short-term insurance (cheaper, doesn't cover normal visits) or one of the PPOs.The only trick is you don't know exactly where you'll be living at first, so if you could use YC's address to get the process started then you could apply and get accepted before you move so you don't have a gap in coverage.	(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.	3	18	2007-09-05 19:55:11 UTC
50,675	50,436	portLAN	I Think You're Fat: The Radical Honesty Movement	charzom	This is why people like dogs better than other humans. They have more tact.	null	7	53	2007-09-05 20:06:45 UTC
50,677	50,638	steffon	Fame/Reputation building seems key motivating factor for user uploaded content.	ranparas	I completely agree with this article. And a startup that could efficiently tap into people's hunger for fame and recognition on a broad basis could become a destination for user generated content that far outdoes current web 2.0 offerings. "We observed that users cite a variety of reasons for posting content online--chief among them, a hunger for fame, the urge to have fun, and a desire to share experiences with friends"What's interesting about the notion of reputation and fame is that, for a user to feel like they belong or are "having fun" or a held in esteem by a group of people, that group needs to be a compatible reference group meaning, they need to have things in common (this idea was touched upon in the article "The Problem with Social News" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50015 and the discussion of homophily, meaning loosely birds of a feather flock together). For examples, entrepreneurs are much more likely to be concerned about the opinions of other entrepreneurs than other people. I take more seriously the music suggestions of people that have the same tastes as me (obvious, right?).So if everyone on a site could be plugged into a compatible reference group, the fame and reputation motivation could be leveraged across much larger populations of users, not just the ones that want to be, for example, on the top viewed videos on youtube. Each user would be compared against those users with which they have common interests, so the idea of having a reputation becomes more salient, so people spend more time contributing, and the content becomes better for everyone at an individual level. Lots of sites are able to harness the reputation motive on subject specific areas (like Y Hacker news), but no site has tried to harness the motivation for reputation across all interest groups. Definitely email me if this interests you because it fascinates me and I have plans to build such a site.	null	0	5	2007-09-05 20:13:50 UTC
50,693	50,685	steffon	The New iPod Touch	luccastera	An iphone without the phone.	null	0	10	2007-09-05 20:51:45 UTC
50,699	50,456	portLAN	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	"Good" colleges are a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the best students organized online and randomly picked some backwoods institution and applied there, it would instantly become the place to be. Meanwhile the previous top schools would be left with the second-stringers.It bears repeating: out of the top 10 richest "U.S. Americans", 4 inherited it; of the six who didn't, one has a degree (Warren Buffett), and 5 are drop-outs: Bill Gates, Sheldon Adelson, Larry Ellison, Paul Allen, and Michael Dell. Woz dropped out to start Apple (he went back to school only after he was done working there) and Jobs dropped out of Reed College here in Portland. (We're all very proud of him.)	null	23	103	2007-09-05 21:00:10 UTC
50,701	50,431	qvtqht	We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?	rwebb	I like the color scheme.You should allow logging in with the user name as well as the e-mail address.The upgrade/downgrade links give me no feedback, but that may be because I'm using Opera.I'll be checking up over the next week or two. The news is good from what I've seen so far.	thoughts?	5	17	2007-09-05 21:01:48 UTC
50,704	50,685	run4yourlives	The New iPod Touch	luccastera	only 16 GB?	null	1	10	2007-09-05 21:09:22 UTC
50,705	50,437	Goladus	MySpace: Hot or Not?	charzom	Next, let's take a look at random MySpace profiles to see how active they are. Personally, I find it mind boggling that people can be looking at these ugly and disorganized pages, but there is no mistaking it: MySpace users are very active. The mistake is assuming that people spend a lot of time admiring the pages. The homepages are absorbed quickly, at which point pople move on to listening to music, looking at pictures, commenting/messaging, or looking for more people. You can waste hours browsing through profiles, it's a lot like wikipedia clicking. It's also a lot like people-watching on a busy street.I log into facebook if I get a message from someone, or meet someone new irl and want to add them. I putter around for a little while, maybe play with a couple of gimmicky mashups for a few minutes. Then I log out and don't check it again for weeks.	null	0	5	2007-09-05 21:11:24 UTC
50,706	50,431	blored	We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?	rwebb	Looking good !!!	thoughts?	18	17	2007-09-05 21:12:06 UTC
50,712	50,710	dood	The Python ORM Problem	dood	Adam Gomaa suggests writing your own mapper around SQLAlchemy. Django [http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2007/sep/04/orm-wars/] and Pylons [http://groovie.org/articles/2007/09/04/sqlalchemy-declarativ...] devs share their thoughts.[seems to be a bug, I tried to add this as 'text' for the submission, but it didn't show up]	null	1	1	2007-09-05 21:19:17 UTC
50,716	50,715	mhb	Child robot with biomimetic body (video)	mhb	Another video: http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=61204&videoCha...	null	0	1	2007-09-05 21:25:44 UTC
50,718	50,456	cstejerean	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	I'm surprised it took Paul this long to realize this about universities. A little less than half way through high school I realized that the entire process (get good grades to go to a good school, get good grades there so you can get a good job) is crap. I decided that it was more important to spend my time in high school learning what I cared about then to obsess over GPA.I never got around to finishing my college degree, I left about 2 years into it and got a job because I ran out of things to learn in college. I've worked for a series of both small and large companies and I've found that most companies also don't care where one went to college (Google is a big exception to this). Most companies simply don't value people that are fresh out of college because colleges don't teach people the right skills.It's true however that in good schools there are more smart people and you are more likely to meet interesting people, but that doesn't mean you need to go to a top school, just live close to one.	null	16	103	2007-09-05 21:27:20 UTC
50,722	50,710	cstejerean	The Python ORM Problem	dood	Well, this article may very well defined the Django ORM problem, but calling it a Python ORM problem might be pushing it a little. Also, I'm not sure who declared the Django ORM the clear winner of the Python Web Frameworks.Also, the next Google won't be using SQL Alchemy either. The truth is when you get that big the law of leaky abstractions comes to bite you in the ass. You can only ignore the fundamental issues that these "frameworks" abstract away for so long. This allows you to build prototypes and medium sized applications easily but sooner or later you need to learn the details and most likely build a custom framework around it that solves your problem. As your application becomes larger chances are YOUR problem is significantly different from the AVERAGE problem and as such you can't use average tools.	null	0	1	2007-09-05 21:36:36 UTC
50,723	50,710	mattculbreth	The Python ORM Problem	dood	I posted back on programming.reddit about this. The correct move is to use Elixir and SQLAlchemy. They're different tools and you can really put each of them to work.	null	2	1	2007-09-05 21:36:41 UTC
50,726	50,595	michaelneale	Comparison of two Ruby approaches to Facebook API	DocSavage	Wow that is a lot written about very little. Some abstraction == good, brittle == bad.	null	1	16	2007-09-05 21:40:49 UTC
50,731	50,431	menloparkbum	We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?	rwebb	Now that all that information is aggregated into one convenient place, it doesn't really provide an edge, does it? ;-)	thoughts?	12	17	2007-09-05 21:50:03 UTC
50,741	50,431	ulvund	We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?	rwebb	Loads slowly	thoughts?	19	17	2007-09-05 22:13:03 UTC
50,750	50,098	sammyo	My startup. Comments?	joe	I know what it was about instantly, but software geeks are not your customer. Your demographic probably needs some flash glitz but get to the point quicker.	Wondering what you all think of this. Does it make sense? Would you use it? Comments in general?	18	31	2007-09-05 22:51:00 UTC
50,756	50,690	blored	A demo of I'm in like with you, which CN fails to understand	tuukkah	I am a big fan of IILWY and I think they have a fantastic product. That said, the presentation didn't go well.	null	0	12	2007-09-05 23:22:48 UTC
50,765	50,509	uuilly	Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...	juwo	Almost everyone here is a young healthy male. Pretty much the only thing we really need health insurance for is car accidents. If you ramp up your deductable > $1000 health insurance will cost less than your cell phone bill. Your company could give everyone high deductable insurance and agree to pay their entire deductable if they get in an accident. Barring a freakish number of accidents you'll probably save a bundle of money. Of course this doesn't account for people with chronic health problems. But they're not likely candidates for startups anyways.	(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.	2	18	2007-09-05 23:40:00 UTC
50,770	50,580	jsmcgd	As Prostitutes Turn to Craigslist, Law Takes Notice	brett	Whats the point in making this form of soliciting illegal again?	null	1	6	2007-09-05 23:53:20 UTC
50,772	50,438	jsmcgd	Loss of Arctic ice leaves experts stunned	charzom	Scary shit	null	0	10	2007-09-05 23:57:32 UTC
50,777	50,773	aaroneous	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	I'm 24, my biz partner just turned 32.	null	7	14	2007-09-06 00:06:08 UTC
50,779	50,773	blored	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	23 and 25.	null	16	14	2007-09-06 00:08:45 UTC
50,781	50,773	rms	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	21 and 22	null	15	14	2007-09-06 00:09:29 UTC
50,783	50,773	run4yourlives	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	32	null	28	14	2007-09-06 00:11:59 UTC
50,785	50,773	vegashacker	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	29 and 29	null	14	14	2007-09-06 00:12:06 UTC
50,789	50,773	samson	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	22	null	27	14	2007-09-06 00:16:44 UTC
50,792	50,773	portLAN	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	69	null	25	14	2007-09-06 00:18:34 UTC
50,793	50,767	rms	The #1 Most Important Resume Tip	marrone	yes, that's pretty good advice.	... make sure you type your phone number right.#2 - If you are going to mis-type it, at least make sure to correct it before sending out 25 of them, and agreeing to 3 or 4 phone interviews.Those are just my two-cents. Take them or leave them, but I will say from experience, it is good advice!!!	1	11	2007-09-06 00:19:22 UTC
50,794	50,773	DocSavage	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	43 and 43. (My first startup was at 31. My partner/wife's first startup was at 20.)	null	3	14	2007-09-06 00:19:52 UTC
50,797	50,773	cellis	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	20	null	44	14	2007-09-06 00:22:44 UTC
50,799	50,431	kingnothing	We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?	rwebb	Black on white text > white on black text.I won't even look at it long enough to find out what it is supposed to do with that color scheme.	thoughts?	10	17	2007-09-06 00:29:38 UTC
50,800	50,773	gustaf	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	26 when we started, turned 27 in June	null	4	14	2007-09-06 00:33:09 UTC
50,802	50,436	rokhayakebe	I Think You're Fat: The Radical Honesty Movement	charzom	This shit is fucking truth. I am no saint, but i tell the truth most of the time, when I know it will get me in trouble. I cannot stand fucking liars. It's like being scared of someone or what they are going to do. What you will realize is that by always telling the truth everybody around you will envy you for it.	null	9	53	2007-09-06 00:33:38 UTC
50,806	50,773	chadboyda	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	28	null	24	14	2007-09-06 00:37:14 UTC
50,807	50,776	migpwr	An Interview With Paul Graham...	blored	Dont forget #7...7) Are my lips hurting your ass?	Hi Mr. Graham, I would like to ask some questions and possibly publish the results on my blog. I thought that YC news would be the best way to answer the questions, that way we can all read the answers right here.1) Has YC ever considered investing in a not-for-profit start-up?2) To your recollection, are there any ideas that were rejected by YC that have made it big? If so, can you name them.3) You seem to be one of Silicon Valley's busiest/most influential/hard-working persons, why all the fuss? Haven't you earned a respite?4) Have you ever thought about franchising the YC brand?5) In your spare time, what does Paul Graham like to do?6) Rumor has it that you studied the Arts in University, at what point did you realize that you were more capable with the keyboard, if ever?Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. They are as much a personal interest of mine as I'm sure they are for many others.	1	42	2007-09-06 00:37:54 UTC
50,809	50,773	kashif	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	26 and 27(me)	null	11	14	2007-09-06 00:41:36 UTC
50,810	50,776	pg	An Interview With Paul Graham...	blored	1) No. We'd do charitable donations individually, not through YC.2) I don't know of any, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.3) I like the stuff I work on. You don't need a respite from work you like.4) We wouldn't trust anyone else enough. We'd rather see if we can cook up some clever way of doing everything ourselves.5) Write essays.6) I haven't given up on painting. But the web has opened a window for writing essays that never existed before, so I decided I'd spend a couple years mostly writing.	Hi Mr. Graham, I would like to ask some questions and possibly publish the results on my blog. I thought that YC news would be the best way to answer the questions, that way we can all read the answers right here.1) Has YC ever considered investing in a not-for-profit start-up?2) To your recollection, are there any ideas that were rejected by YC that have made it big? If so, can you name them.3) You seem to be one of Silicon Valley's busiest/most influential/hard-working persons, why all the fuss? Haven't you earned a respite?4) Have you ever thought about franchising the YC brand?5) In your spare time, what does Paul Graham like to do?6) Rumor has it that you studied the Arts in University, at what point did you realize that you were more capable with the keyboard, if ever?Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. They are as much a personal interest of mine as I'm sure they are for many others.	0	42	2007-09-06 00:41:57 UTC
50,811	50,773	motoko	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	23	null	42	14	2007-09-06 00:43:59 UTC
50,818	50,773	chaostheory	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	29 and 30	null	17	14	2007-09-06 00:55:32 UTC
50,821	50,773	aarontait	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	19... Looks like I'm the youngest one... Suckers!	null	46	14	2007-09-06 00:58:30 UTC
50,824	50,707	kingnothing	ActiveState announces the Open Komodo initiative (nice IDE for RoR, PHP etc)	nickb	Reading through the feature differences between the free edition and the $300 edition, I'm not sure why anyone would choose Komodo Edit over the Ruby project for Netbeans.I'll download it and give it a shot, though.Netbeans ruby project: http://deadlock.netbeans.org/hudson/job/ruby/Komodo Edit Feature Comparison: http://www.activestate.com/Products/komodo_edit/edit_vs_ide....	null	0	4	2007-09-06 01:10:13 UTC
50,828	50,773	rbitar	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	26	null	22	14	2007-09-06 01:13:48 UTC
50,829	50,773	pg	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	The avg for the last YC batch was 24.5. Range: 19 to 35.	null	0	14	2007-09-06 01:15:46 UTC
50,834	50,773	nostrademons	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	24 and 26 (me).	null	9	14	2007-09-06 01:28:51 UTC
50,838	50,690	rokhayakebe	A demo of I'm in like with you, which CN fails to understand	tuukkah	I never tried IILWY. I think, as Blored mentioned, that the problem here is their presentation. At the same time the quality of this videop is poor, so that is working against them. Maybe we need to see a good presentation b4 we can judge. That being said, I still think that online dating stuff is for teenagers and really old people. Anyone in the middle can do fairly ok by wearing a bleu shirt (most attractive color to women), a nice watch, going to a bar and shut up. You will find soon more women trying to figure you out, then you can find online.	null	3	12	2007-09-06 01:31:58 UTC
50,848	50,773	thejefe711	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	17	null	47	14	2007-09-06 01:45:14 UTC
50,856	50,850	mattculbreth	screencast suggestions?	rwebb	I recently used http://www.shinywhitebox.com/home/home.html for this very purpose. I did a very simple demo of our application with me talking, merely for the purpose of showing a remote colleague what we were doing. Worked great.If you go here: http://seankelly.tv/videos/tools-of-the-trade/ you'll see a great post about some good tools. This fellow created a nice cast of different web development frameworks that's become a must-see on the web. Might even post it here as a separate item for folks.	I'm launching an app soon and think a screencast would be very useful for users. I'm looked at demogirl.com but our users are going to be middle aged men using the service for business purposes...molly's peppy voice probably isn't a good fit. any other good services out there? or any good free software to do this myself? preferably for a mac?	0	2	2007-09-06 01:56:37 UTC
50,863	50,767	chengmi	The #1 Most Important Resume Tip	marrone	...and if you're listing a cell phone number, make sure your phone is charged and not silent!	... make sure you type your phone number right.#2 - If you are going to mis-type it, at least make sure to correct it before sending out 25 of them, and agreeing to 3 or 4 phone interviews.Those are just my two-cents. Take them or leave them, but I will say from experience, it is good advice!!!	0	11	2007-09-06 02:02:53 UTC
50,872	50,773	pc	What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)	rokhayakebe	18	null	8	14	2007-09-06 02:10:46 UTC
50,873	50,822	mattculbreth	Rails' Unusual Architecture	nickb	I like Rails. Works well for quick CRUD apps, especially when combined with ActiveScaffold.But trying to dig into the source of the framework is a bit hairy. I'm a fan of AOP myself so I generally like to see it, but I always get a bit confused looking through the Ruby/Rails/ActiveScaffold code. Pylons, TurboGears, SQLAlchemy, Elixir and other Python-based frameworks seem easier to grok to me.	null	0	12	2007-09-06 02:11:32 UTC
50,877	50,776	guest	An Interview With Paul Graham...	blored	For PG: Outside of the internet, what would you say is another disruptive technology platform that is worthy of investigation?	Hi Mr. Graham, I would like to ask some questions and possibly publish the results on my blog. I thought that YC news would be the best way to answer the questions, that way we can all read the answers right here.1) Has YC ever considered investing in a not-for-profit start-up?2) To your recollection, are there any ideas that were rejected by YC that have made it big? If so, can you name them.3) You seem to be one of Silicon Valley's busiest/most influential/hard-working persons, why all the fuss? Haven't you earned a respite?4) Have you ever thought about franchising the YC brand?5) In your spare time, what does Paul Graham like to do?6) Rumor has it that you studied the Arts in University, at what point did you realize that you were more capable with the keyboard, if ever?Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. They are as much a personal interest of mine as I'm sure they are for many others.	3	42	2007-09-06 02:17:08 UTC
50,880	50,330	euccastro	With Apologies to Robert Frost	divia	Uh-oh, another reddit deja vu. xkcd is consistently great, so why don't we all just subscribe to the RSS feed, rather than racing to post every new entry here?	null	0	26	2007-09-06 02:23:44 UTC
50,885	50,456	sethjohn	Paul Graham: News from the Front	mattculbreth	I've noticed the same thing about top-tier chemists. Grad schools tend to have a good mix of Ivy kids and others, but the most brilliant scientists always seem to come from some mid-level state university or a little liberal arts college.Success at the highest levels of scientific research takes an odd mix of creativity, intuition, and intellegence that has little to do with academic success in high school or undergrad.	null	18	103	2007-09-06 02:34:44 UTC

50,528

50,334

tuukkah

Microsoft Pondering iPhone Killer?

nreece

There's no question they are pondering - and pondering. Beating Apple in appliance design is something else than manufacturing mice and keyboards.

null

0

1

2007-09-05 16:28:03 UTC

50,533

50,325

tuukkah

The Morning Norm - What Do All Entrepreneurs Have in Common?

ordersup

There's an extra "#more" in the link.

null

1

2

2007-09-05 16:33:14 UTC

50,534

50,456

henning

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

the idea that college is necessary is a relatively recent aberration that from what I can tell dates back to the end of WWII and the GI Bill. before that, going to college was rare.college is not for everyone (we need good plumbers and auto mechanics, fer chrissakes). i didn't apply myself as well as i could have at college, but about 40% of the value I got was from reading interesting books I found in the library, which I could have got for $100 a year while working in the real world and gaining money and experience -- which is what I'm doing now.that said, some things are very hard to learn outside of a classroom and the mathematical maturity I gained from taking math classes will serve me for a life time.

null

29

103

2007-09-05 16:34:56 UTC

50,536

50,456

prakash

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

PG: Here's a good way to test this: Please ask the next round of applicants to NOT mention the school they went to.What do you think?

null

11

103

2007-09-05 16:36:52 UTC

50,537

50,456

marrone

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

I liked this article, if for the simple fact that it can only help my cause (I graduated, though not from a prestigious school)!The whole time I was going to school I was super impatient to get done so I could actually get working on something real. I was really just after the piece of paper they give you at the end (though I never attended my graduation to get that paper, and the original was sent to the wrong house).Once I graduated I started my own project so that I would have some work to show when applying for jobs. I found that that experience led to as much or more knowledge gained as my best year in school. And that is not a knock against the school I went to (I thought the staff there was awesome).I am always reminded of a quote from some movie (cant think of the name of it now)... "You spent x thousands of dollars on an education you could have got for 2 dollars in library late fees"

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103

2007-09-05 16:37:42 UTC

50,538

50,456

dpapathanasiou

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

The second paragraph reminded me of this Alan Watts talk: http://www.freshminds.com/animation/alan_watts_life.html.But unlike the Watts talk, the essay does converge to a very rigid notion of "success".

null

22

103

2007-09-05 16:38:03 UTC

50,539

50,456

davidw

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

As someone who took 1 term of a bad C++ class at a community college, and primarily studied Italian prior to dropping out of the University, I can't help but vote this one up.

null

27

103

2007-09-05 16:39:13 UTC

50,541

50,456

bluishgreen

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

I have thought about this a lot.In fact lot of my teen years were spent thinking about this. I went to an elite school in India. And I leave a comment here just to confirm that its the same all over the world. These lines are gold. ( I mean very valuable :)"The unfortunate thing is not just that people are judged by such a superficial test, but that so many judge themselves by it. A lot of people, probably the majority of people in the America, have some amount of insecurity about where, or whether, they went to college. The tragedy of the situation is that by far the greatest liability of not having gone to the college you'd have liked is your own feeling that you're thereby lacking something. Colleges are a bit like exclusive clubs in this respect. There is only one real advantage to being a member of most exclusive clubs: you know you wouldn't be missing much if you weren't. When you're excluded, you can only imagine the advantages of being an insider. But invariably they're larger in your imagination than in real life."

null

9

103

2007-09-05 16:41:41 UTC

50,544

50,460

henning

Peter Norvig: Global Climate Change Consensus

abstractbill

Root problem: journalists are fucking morons who don't report important issues properly. And then they wonder why we don't read their blessed newspapers.

null

1

22

2007-09-05 16:42:22 UTC

50,547

50,519

jsjenkins168

Facebook comes out of the walled garden.

Readmore

So long as they can act as a gate keeper for facebook applications, they are still a walled garden, IMHO.

null

0

1

2007-09-05 16:46:16 UTC

50,548

50,509

aston

Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...

juwo

Healthcare might actually be a pretty interesting option. It's cost-prohibitive for small companies, but reasonable for a program as large as YC.

(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.

6

18

2007-09-05 16:46:30 UTC

50,550

50,456

mdakin

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

One hundred years from now will an "elite college" still exist? The reputations of today's elite colleges stem from a perceived legacy of alum achievement 25, 50, 100 years ago. Are factors operating now that will more evenly distribute this achievement in the future? Or is this "legacy of achievement" and conferred eliteness already BS?

null

20

103

2007-09-05 16:47:14 UTC

50,569

50,367

cstejerean

Japan's Government to Waste $130 Million Fighting Google

staunch

I'm not sure if I buy that Japan is trying to fight Google. That might very well be what the author of the article understood from the whole thing but to me it seems they are simply trying to support a move by Japanese companies into services. Adding decent search to a car navigation system is not exactly competing with Google. As long as they don't try to make a general purpose search engine I'm not sure if they are really competing with Google, just making their devices more attractive and differentiated from the replicas that South Korea and Taiwan are pumping out.

null

1

8

2007-09-05 17:03:29 UTC

50,573

50,456

alex_c

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

But it DOES matter where you go to college, and the essay itself argues for that.In this context, we can say there are three things that can determine someone's success:1) confidence others have in you2) self-confidence3) actual abilityGoing to a "good" college affects 1 and 2 the most, and arguably 3 the least. In a startup 3 and 2 are arguably the most important, and 1 the least - so I guess that agrees with pg's argument. In the corporate world, 1 and 2 matter the most, and 3 the least - aligned with what a brand-name college provides.So the argument seems a bit circular: based on the yc sample set, college doesn't matter because college doesn't matter to the yc sample set. Even if that SHOULD extend to the world at large, it doesn't.

null

6

103

2007-09-05 17:08:09 UTC

50,581

50,456

Alex3917

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

When I was taking an education theory class we had to do simulated admissions. We had to do three applicants every ten minutes, which works out to just over three minutes per app. In that amount of time you can quickly scan over the grades and SATs, and maybe read the first paragraph of each essay if you're lucky. The other thing I learned is that the real admissions officers got statistics updates twice a day for the average GPA and SAT score, and also the projected US News rank. This means that whether or not your grades and SATs were good enough depended largely on whether your app was read before or after lunch, because what it took to get into the college completely changed every time they were handed the new report.For low income minority students there was an option to set the app aside for a second reading in order to learn more about the student's situation and if there were an ameliorating factors, but for the rest of the students the admissions officers were expected to make a decision on the first pass after the three minutes. Athletes also largely got pre-approved by the academic department they were applying for, so they pretty much knew whether they'd be accepted before they ever applied. The flip side is that they only got an edge in admissions if they applied early decision, because if they were going to bring down the average GPA then they had to bring up the average matriculation in order to not affect the overall US News rank.I think it's one of those things like eVoting. That is, people with no CS experience think eVoting is totally secure whereas CS experts know it isn't. Similarly, I highly suspect that anyone who thinks getting admitted to an Ivy shows a certain baseline level of respectability has never worked in admissions. I'd guarantee it.As for the importance of college GPA, if you want to see something funny then apply for a wall street job. If they ask you what your GPA was in college, ask them how GPA correlates with alpha. :-)The craziest thing was that Google did a massive HR survey and determined that there was basically zero correlation between college GPA and value created for the company. Because of this they decided that they would give jobs to five or six people with sub 3.0 GPAs each year. Well if there is little or no correlation, why should it matter what GPA is at all? I suspect the psychology behind the Google hiring process has a lot in common with the psychology of female circumcision. That is, it was done to me so it must be a good thing. And if it's a good thing, then by definition it must be good to do unto others.edit: fixed a few grammatical errors

null

0

103

2007-09-05 17:16:16 UTC

50,584

50,456

henning

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

"The curve for faculty is a lot flatter than for students, especially in math and the hard sciences; you have to go pretty far down the list of colleges before you stop finding smart professors in the math department."I wish this would be repeated more often. I've implemented many interesting algorithms based on papers written by people at, like, Louisiana State University. Noname places.

null

14

103

2007-09-05 17:21:22 UTC

50,585

50,456

whacked_new

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

It doesn't take a Paul Graham to realize this nor do I think this is the first time the thought hit him. There are also things that I, and others, would argue about, in favor or not, but nonetheless,thank you for writing this.

null

25

103

2007-09-05 17:22:02 UTC

50,587

50,456

edw519

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

Here's another dirty little secret: Your grades don't matter either.I still chuckle when I think of the drones in my fraternity that missed the best 4 years of their lives because their heads were stuck in their books. Sure, they got 4.0 averages, but who cares now?

null

37

103

2007-09-05 17:28:57 UTC

50,588

50,456

Neoryder

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

For me the biggest thing about going to an elite school is expectation.The more you expect for yourself, the more others expect from you the more you are driven to succeed or make something of your life.Elite colleges are like the newsweek article on octopart, it makes you want to beat the expectations on you, only several order or magnitudes less.I think getting an education is secondary in college. Finding people who live with passion used to be a problem when we didn't have the internet. And working/studying in elite institutions gave you a higher chance of meeting passionate people.

null

17

103

2007-09-05 17:29:56 UTC

50,589

50,440

jkush

Why Writing Your Own Search Engine is Hard

darragjm

Is it just me or is this a silly article? I'm not really sure what the point is. There's the overweighted focus on hardware which isn't what makes writing a search engine hard. Then there's the pseudo code towards the end which really made the whole things bizarre.

null

0

13

2007-09-05 17:33:25 UTC

50,590

50,456

gojomo

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

Though as a reader I start sympathetic to both the thesis (it matches my priors) and the author (always enjoy PG's essays), this struck me as hand-waving. For all the talk of, "I have a lot of data" and "[w]e're just finally able to measure it," there are no supporting numbers, just general impressions. C'mon, give this topic the rigorous Bayesian treatment. How does the population of YC market-successes compare with YC-chosen and YC-applicants, along the 'prestigious college' dimension? How do these compare with the college-graduate population as a whole, and the college-graduate population succeeding in other competitive fields?Those numbers would be great, and I'm rooting for the "college-doesn't-matter" result.

null

24

103

2007-09-05 17:34:19 UTC

50,592

49,785

Jd

Observations from 10 Months Working at a Small Startup

a-kill-ease

"The common failing of programming groups today is too little management control, no too much" -F. Brooks in the mythical man-monthA-kill-ease, Is this still true today? True in your experience? Would it have been corrected simply by the addition of technically-skilled managers, as you suggest, or were there too many other things wrong to begin with?

Observations about startup life and manager after working for 10 months at a small venture-capital funded startup.

1

58

2007-09-05 17:38:58 UTC

50,601

50,372

abstractbill

So I got a startup job

tempo

Congrats! Me too (I start at justin.tv on Monday).The most important piece of job-seeking advice I can think of: You are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. If you don't ask hard questions, and pay attention to the answers, you risk taking a crappy job and regretting it.

Hi. This, my first blog post, explains what I learned in the process of getting a startup job in the Valley. Feedback of all kinds is welcome: from typos and style to things I'm so wrong about.

1

23

2007-09-05 18:01:08 UTC

50,603

50,098

webwright

My startup. Comments?

joe

TAGLINE- Say what it does right next to the logo. Or as a headline.SCREENSHOT - Show what it does, first thing. Show a screenshot of the data collection screen at a table. Next to that (not in a flash sequence-- two pics), should the admin interface, etc. Something like BlinkSale's home page, mebbe? http://www.blinksale.com/homeOverall tho-- nice niche, pretty design. Congrats!Speaking of the logo, I'm not sure how much the "it" part of it is clear. I'd go with a simple wordmark.URL with a dash isn't wonderful, but I know how painful domains are.

Wondering what you all think of this. Does it make sense? Would you use it? Comments in general?

12

31

2007-09-05 18:04:53 UTC

50,604

50,440

bharath

Why Writing Your Own Search Engine is Hard

darragjm

Its seems that search (at least text search) is more or less a solved problem. Trying to innovate in the search space today is more or less as futile as trying to innovate in the operating systems space about 10-12 years ago. Noone really cares given that the state of the art works quite well.

null

1

13

2007-09-05 18:07:50 UTC

50,605

50,456

nanijoe

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

I always wondered if boso getting into YC had anything to do with the founders having gone to Oxford.

null

28

103

2007-09-05 18:07:59 UTC

50,608

50,456

voidstar

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

ha, this is true. i go to rutgers for 4k/yr after a certain ithaca ivy wanted 43k/yr or whatever it was, so i get to keep a college fund's worth of seed money for whatever i do post-grad. and the "elite college" types i meet in the summers are no better-educated than me (and incidentally, drink a lot more...)

null

32

103

2007-09-05 18:13:00 UTC

50,618

50,509

pg

Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...

juwo

We've thought of it. Unfortunately insurance cos don't have any provision for investors wanting to do this. They'd only talk to us if we made all the founders YC employees, which would mess up things for future investors, acquirers, etc.

(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.

1

18

2007-09-05 18:27:18 UTC

50,620

50,431

comatose_kid

We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?

rwebb

A few thoughts:What about searching? I might want to see all articles with Citigroup in the headline for example...Why not add regular news as well - news that affects the finance world? Actually, on a totally different topic, it would be really neat to create a site which somehow reads the news and correlates it with stocks that could be affected. For example, Apple's ipod news caused shares in SNDK to get whacked (the ipod nano's didn't use as much flash as SNDK investors hoped).

thoughts?

4

17

2007-09-05 18:30:35 UTC

50,625

50,456

epi0Bauqu

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

I was amazed initially (though that quickly faded) how few truly "smart" undergraduates there were at MIT in the 9 years I hung around there. I put smart in quotes because I really don't like that word, but I don't have a great substitute either. Obviously they were smart enough to get in. But most were significantly lacking in at least one necessary area to be labeled "smart" IMO (often several), including intuitiveness, creativity, being a self-starter, analytical thinking, breadth and depth of knowledge, intellectual curiosity, etc.Putting exact numbers on it is difficult due to the self-segregation at MIT and subjectivity obviously at play. However, I would say perhaps 30% fall into the seriously lacking category, another 30% in a substantially lacking category and another 25% in a good but not great category (perhaps lacking only one major thing). That leaves only 15% or so of people I came across I would say were "smart" in the sense described above. When you move to people with the essential qualities necessary to work successfully at a really early stage startup, I would say it drops to 7% or so. I'm not saying found one, just work at one as one of the first employees. When you move to people with all the founding qualities, the % probably drops to 1-2%. I know this first hand after trying to start companies with people in the "smart" category.The above has really hit home other times as well. Here are two more occasions. First, when graduating, 62 people in my class out of about 1,080 (~6%) were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. I was shocked at a) how many of these people were my friends at MIT; b) how many of these people I had come across (given that I didn't meet all 1,080; and c) that this list included pretty much all of the people I had previously labeled "smart" myself in my class that I had come across. Second, my wife taught statistics at MIT for several years. One time a kid came up to her complaining about an exam grade and told her it was not possible to have gotten an A on this exam. He said all his friends studied real hard and yet they all ended up with Cs and Ds. To which she replied, actually roughly 30% of the class got As. The point is, they were completely self-segregated by "smartness" and didn't even really know it.All that being said, an MIT degree really does go a long way in terms of impressing the average person/company. I have done independent consulting and applied for jobs where they basically stopped researching me when they saw MIT. That is the rule, not the exception. And that was in Boston. Now that I live in PA, it seems even more shocking to people to come across someone from MIT. Given the above, and in agreement with PG, this behavior is unwarranted. I of course am thankful, but it also annoys me that so many people are free-riding on the name.

null

1

103

2007-09-05 18:42:38 UTC

50,628

50,431

byrneseyeview

We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?

rwebb

I like this a lot. It's much more professional than http://digstock.com/ , which never really took off.

thoughts?

9

17

2007-09-05 18:45:54 UTC

50,632

50,595

brett

Comparison of two Ruby approaches to Facebook API

DocSavage

When I see non-idiomatic Ruby code, it tells me one of two things. The first assumption I make is that whoever wrote the code is not a Ruby programmer. That's usually the case.I've been using rfacebook lately and this is definitely the case. I'm constantly going back to the rfacebook source to figure out how to use it and every time I come across code that strikes me as highly unrubyish (what's with all the gratuitous "return"s?). I did not know facebooker existed. I will be looking into it very soon.

null

0

16

2007-09-05 18:55:46 UTC

50,634

50,509

far33d

Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...

juwo

This is one of the few benefits of a single-payer system.. It might actually encourage entrepreneurship, since healthcare is so prohibitively expensive.

(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.

4

18

2007-09-05 18:58:56 UTC

50,635

50,380

mikesabat

Sunday's Solutions

augy

I love it. No development, just come up with a name that makes sense and post the link for the article. People can leave their ideas for a business that solves the problem in the comments. The top vote getter wins ice cream.

In the essay Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas, PG states"Reading the Wall Street Journal for a week should give anyone ideas for two or three new startups. The articles are full of descriptions of problems that need to be solved."This statement gave me an idea for YCnews. What if every Sunday (usually a slow news day) PG posts an article from the Wall Street Journal or any other publication, but instead of people just giving their opinions they gave their solutions to the problems presented in the article? People could then up-vote the solutions they liked the best. This would get everyone's thoughts flowing in the right direction, which is forward towards creation and innovation.

2

12

2007-09-05 19:02:17 UTC

50,637

50,436

garbowza

I Think You're Fat: The Radical Honesty Movement

charzom

I resent him for creating a "difficult to learn" lifestyle that conveniently requires people to spend $2,800 per workshop to learn. The reason I resent that is because I'm jealous of how much money he makes.

null

0

53

2007-09-05 19:03:35 UTC

50,643

50,638

pg

Fame/Reputation building seems key motivating factor for user uploaded content.

ranparas

Register now to read this article? What are they thinking?

null

1

5

2007-09-05 19:11:51 UTC

50,644

50,456

epi0Bauqu

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

PG: have you noticed that a) GPA matters (at any school); b) that GPA matters at so-called elite schools in particular; c) any other consistencies with regards to college activities and/or honors, e.g. Phi Beta Kappa, having had started clubs or groups, etc.?

null

31

103

2007-09-05 19:13:36 UTC

50,645

50,436

oconnor0

I Think You're Fat: The Radical Honesty Movement

charzom

Besides the issues you have with how he's popularizing/selling his ideas, what do you think about the concepts he's presenting? Are they useful, dangerous, morally superior/inferior?

null

2

53

2007-09-05 19:14:56 UTC

50,649

50,372

dfranke

So I got a startup job

tempo

I think your experience is atypical. Most people I know who work at startups, myself included, got their job through a personal introduction to one of the founders. We have one employee whom we hired from Monster, but he wasn't specifically looking to work at a startup; he just applied for jobs that sounded interesting regardless of the size of the company. I don't know anyone who has gotten a job at a startup by sending resumes to twenty of them and getting lucky on one.

Hi. This, my first blog post, explains what I learned in the process of getting a startup job in the Valley. Feedback of all kinds is welcome: from typos and style to things I'm so wrong about.

0

23

2007-09-05 19:24:14 UTC

50,656

50,509

ph0rque

Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...

juwo

Isn't CA thinking of doing universal healthcare anyway?

(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.

7

18

2007-09-05 19:32:31 UTC

50,660

50,431

byrneseyeview

We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?

rwebb

I see no indication of how many comments a story already has.

thoughts?

15

17

2007-09-05 19:37:10 UTC

50,663

50,460

gibsonf1

Peter Norvig: Global Climate Change Consensus

abstractbill

I've read recently that this same study was repeated this year (don't have the link), and the result dramatically different given the recent findings on the solar impact of global warming.http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.B... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/03/030321075236.ht... http://www.aip.org/pnu/2003/split/642-2.htmlStudies: http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelid=B18307... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070801174450.ht... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070801175711.ht...

null

0

22

2007-09-05 19:39:56 UTC

50,665

50,431

byrneseyeview

We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?

rwebb

Also, there doesn't appear to be any indication of who submitted a story.

thoughts?

14

17

2007-09-05 19:43:08 UTC

50,669

50,580

portLAN

As Prostitutes Turn to Craigslist, Law Takes Notice

brett

I detect a start-up opportunity.

null

0

6

2007-09-05 19:49:39 UTC

50,670

50,509

SwellJoe

Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...

juwo

While I don't think this is a particularly good idea--as pg pointed out, you have to be an employer of people to insure them in any reasonable scalable way, because that's just the way the world of insurance works right now--I do think that this (not just insurance, but all of the boring crap like that) is perhaps the biggest single pain point of building a business. In the first months or year or whatever it takes, you don't have enough to pay for the problem to go away, but you can't ignore payroll, insurance, income taxes, franchise taxes for the corporation, basic bookkeeping and accounting.I'm not even sure what kind of person to hire for some of these tasks. Obviously an accountant is expensive overkill for payroll and bookkeeping, and the accountants I have known outsource it. Administaff doesn't seem to like very small companies (or at least they charge as though they don't like them). The online services I've used for payroll have ended up with me doing most of the hard work by hand (they're glorified calculators with all the percentages already punched in, but they don't handle actually paying people or getting the taxes paid).And, of course, no one should ever be without health insurance for any period of time. It's just too much risk. But I haven't found health insurance to be the hardest part to deal with: just call up Unicare. They provide individuals with reasonable health care plans for reasonable price. I pay $84/month for a crappy plan (but I'm in good health, with no bad or dangerous habits, so I just want to know that if I go to the hospital it won't bankrupt me).Also, as for aston's point, you might be surprised. Group health insurance is much more expensive than individual plans for young healthy people (most of what YC funds). I looked into it and group insurance for me would cost about $280/month, vs. the $84 I'm paying now. The insurance a company buys for you has to deal with pre-existing conditions, dependents, all ages, etc. and generally doesn't even discriminate based on smoker/non-smoker status. Of course, the group rates I was looking at were for a 2-10 person company, while YC would be covering 50 or so people, so the rates might be considerably lower at that scale.Anyway, it's not a bad idea for YC to do something about all of these stupid but necessary aspects of business. The days I'm doing bookkeeping or payroll or taxes are days that are really painful...I can't think of anything in my day to day life that I hate more. I'm now in a position to pay someone for them to go away, but I'd have to find that someone or someones...But that's just me complaining. ;-)

(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.

0

18

2007-09-05 19:52:12 UTC

50,671

50,509

portLAN

Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...

juwo

Just add it to your monthly expenses -- apply to eHealthInsurance.com and get either short-term insurance (cheaper, doesn't cover normal visits) or one of the PPOs.The only trick is you don't know exactly where you'll be living at first, so if you could use YC's address to get the process started then you could apply and get accepted before you move so you don't have a gap in coverage.

(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.

3

18

2007-09-05 19:55:11 UTC

50,675

50,436

portLAN

I Think You're Fat: The Radical Honesty Movement

charzom

This is why people like dogs better than other humans. They have more tact.

null

7

53

2007-09-05 20:06:45 UTC

50,677

50,638

steffon

Fame/Reputation building seems key motivating factor for user uploaded content.

ranparas

I completely agree with this article. And a startup that could efficiently tap into people's hunger for fame and recognition on a broad basis could become a destination for user generated content that far outdoes current web 2.0 offerings. "We observed that users cite a variety of reasons for posting content online--chief among them, a hunger for fame, the urge to have fun, and a desire to share experiences with friends"What's interesting about the notion of reputation and fame is that, for a user to feel like they belong or are "having fun" or a held in esteem by a group of people, that group needs to be a compatible reference group meaning, they need to have things in common (this idea was touched upon in the article "The Problem with Social News" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50015 and the discussion of homophily, meaning loosely birds of a feather flock together). For examples, entrepreneurs are much more likely to be concerned about the opinions of other entrepreneurs than other people. I take more seriously the music suggestions of people that have the same tastes as me (obvious, right?).So if everyone on a site could be plugged into a compatible reference group, the fame and reputation motivation could be leveraged across much larger populations of users, not just the ones that want to be, for example, on the top viewed videos on youtube. Each user would be compared against those users with which they have common interests, so the idea of having a reputation becomes more salient, so people spend more time contributing, and the content becomes better for everyone at an individual level. Lots of sites are able to harness the reputation motive on subject specific areas (like Y Hacker news), but no site has tried to harness the motivation for reputation across all interest groups. Definitely email me if this interests you because it fascinates me and I have plans to build such a site.

null

0

5

2007-09-05 20:13:50 UTC

50,693

50,685

steffon

The New iPod Touch

luccastera

An iphone without the phone.

null

0

10

2007-09-05 20:51:45 UTC

50,699

50,456

portLAN

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

"Good" colleges are a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the best students organized online and randomly picked some backwoods institution and applied there, it would instantly become the place to be. Meanwhile the previous top schools would be left with the second-stringers.It bears repeating: out of the top 10 richest "U.S. Americans", 4 inherited it; of the six who didn't, one has a degree (Warren Buffett), and 5 are drop-outs: Bill Gates, Sheldon Adelson, Larry Ellison, Paul Allen, and Michael Dell. Woz dropped out to start Apple (he went back to school only after he was done working there) and Jobs dropped out of Reed College here in Portland. (We're all very proud of him.)

null

23

103

2007-09-05 21:00:10 UTC

50,701

50,431

qvtqht

We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?

rwebb

I like the color scheme.You should allow logging in with the user name as well as the e-mail address.The upgrade/downgrade links give me no feedback, but that may be because I'm using Opera.I'll be checking up over the next week or two. The news is good from what I've seen so far.

thoughts?

5

17

2007-09-05 21:01:48 UTC

50,704

50,685

run4yourlives

The New iPod Touch

luccastera

only 16 GB?

null

1

10

2007-09-05 21:09:22 UTC

50,705

50,437

Goladus

MySpace: Hot or Not?

charzom

Next, let's take a look at random MySpace profiles to see how active they are. Personally, I find it mind boggling that people can be looking at these ugly and disorganized pages, but there is no mistaking it: MySpace users are very active. The mistake is assuming that people spend a lot of time admiring the pages. The homepages are absorbed quickly, at which point pople move on to listening to music, looking at pictures, commenting/messaging, or looking for more people. You can waste hours browsing through profiles, it's a lot like wikipedia clicking. It's also a lot like people-watching on a busy street.I log into facebook if I get a message from someone, or meet someone new irl and want to add them. I putter around for a little while, maybe play with a couple of gimmicky mashups for a few minutes. Then I log out and don't check it again for weeks.

null

0

5

2007-09-05 21:11:24 UTC

50,706

50,431

blored

We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?

rwebb

Looking good !!!

thoughts?

18

17

2007-09-05 21:12:06 UTC

50,712

50,710

dood

The Python ORM Problem

dood

Adam Gomaa suggests writing your own mapper around SQLAlchemy. Django [http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2007/sep/04/orm-wars/] and Pylons [http://groovie.org/articles/2007/09/04/sqlalchemy-declarativ...] devs share their thoughts.[seems to be a bug, I tried to add this as 'text' for the submission, but it didn't show up]

null

1

2007-09-05 21:19:17 UTC

50,716

50,715

mhb

Child robot with biomimetic body (video)

mhb

Another video: http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=61204&videoCha...

null

0

1

2007-09-05 21:25:44 UTC

50,718

50,456

cstejerean

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

I'm surprised it took Paul this long to realize this about universities. A little less than half way through high school I realized that the entire process (get good grades to go to a good school, get good grades there so you can get a good job) is crap. I decided that it was more important to spend my time in high school learning what I cared about then to obsess over GPA.I never got around to finishing my college degree, I left about 2 years into it and got a job because I ran out of things to learn in college. I've worked for a series of both small and large companies and I've found that most companies also don't care where one went to college (Google is a big exception to this). Most companies simply don't value people that are fresh out of college because colleges don't teach people the right skills.It's true however that in good schools there are more smart people and you are more likely to meet interesting people, but that doesn't mean you need to go to a top school, just live close to one.

null

16

103

2007-09-05 21:27:20 UTC

50,722

50,710

cstejerean

The Python ORM Problem

dood

Well, this article may very well defined the Django ORM problem, but calling it a Python ORM problem might be pushing it a little. Also, I'm not sure who declared the Django ORM the clear winner of the Python Web Frameworks.Also, the next Google won't be using SQL Alchemy either. The truth is when you get that big the law of leaky abstractions comes to bite you in the ass. You can only ignore the fundamental issues that these "frameworks" abstract away for so long. This allows you to build prototypes and medium sized applications easily but sooner or later you need to learn the details and most likely build a custom framework around it that solves your problem. As your application becomes larger chances are YOUR problem is significantly different from the AVERAGE problem and as such you can't use average tools.

null

0

1

2007-09-05 21:36:36 UTC

50,723

50,710

mattculbreth

The Python ORM Problem

dood

I posted back on programming.reddit about this. The correct move is to use Elixir and SQLAlchemy. They're different tools and you can really put each of them to work.

null

2

1

2007-09-05 21:36:41 UTC

50,726

50,595

michaelneale

Comparison of two Ruby approaches to Facebook API

DocSavage

Wow that is a lot written about very little. Some abstraction == good, brittle == bad.

null

1

16

2007-09-05 21:40:49 UTC

50,731

50,431

menloparkbum

We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?

rwebb

Now that all that information is aggregated into one convenient place, it doesn't really provide an edge, does it? ;-)

thoughts?

12

17

2007-09-05 21:50:03 UTC

50,741

50,431

ulvund

We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?

rwebb

Loads slowly

thoughts?

19

17

2007-09-05 22:13:03 UTC

50,750

50,098

sammyo

My startup. Comments?

joe

I know what it was about instantly, but software geeks are not your customer. Your demographic probably needs some flash glitz but get to the point quicker.

Wondering what you all think of this. Does it make sense? Would you use it? Comments in general?

18

31

2007-09-05 22:51:00 UTC

50,756

50,690

blored

A demo of I'm in like with you, which CN fails to understand

tuukkah

I am a big fan of IILWY and I think they have a fantastic product. That said, the presentation didn't go well.

null

0

12

2007-09-05 23:22:48 UTC

50,765

50,509

uuilly

Suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance...

juwo

Almost everyone here is a young healthy male. Pretty much the only thing we really need health insurance for is car accidents. If you ramp up your deductable > $1000 health insurance will cost less than your cell phone bill. Your company could give everyone high deductable insurance and agree to pay their entire deductable if they get in an accident. Barring a freakish number of accidents you'll probably save a bundle of money. Of course this doesn't account for people with chronic health problems. But they're not likely candidates for startups anyways.

(Almost certainly, I am not applying but thought this would help those who are).There is sometimes a perception that YC is perhaps exploiting founders. This is because it is founded on the VC model. This can be removed if it is more like a "temporary job to work at your own startup".More like IBM or Microsoft provide elite employees, the freedom to work at their own R&D projects aka skunkworks - but in this case, making them into successful businesses.suggestion: YC should provide its founders with W2 benefits for one year. Healthcare, Life insurance, etc.

2

18

2007-09-05 23:40:00 UTC

50,770

50,580

jsmcgd

As Prostitutes Turn to Craigslist, Law Takes Notice

brett

Whats the point in making this form of soliciting illegal again?

null

1

6

2007-09-05 23:53:20 UTC

50,772

50,438

jsmcgd

Loss of Arctic ice leaves experts stunned

charzom

Scary shit

null

0

10

2007-09-05 23:57:32 UTC

50,777

50,773

aaroneous

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

I'm 24, my biz partner just turned 32.

null

7

14

2007-09-06 00:06:08 UTC

50,779

50,773

blored

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

23 and 25.

null

16

14

2007-09-06 00:08:45 UTC

50,781

50,773

rms

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

21 and 22

null

15

14

2007-09-06 00:09:29 UTC

50,783

50,773

run4yourlives

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

32

null

28

14

2007-09-06 00:11:59 UTC

50,785

50,773

vegashacker

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

29 and 29

null

14

2007-09-06 00:12:06 UTC

50,789

50,773

samson

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

22

null

27

14

2007-09-06 00:16:44 UTC

50,792

50,773

portLAN

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

69

null

25

14

2007-09-06 00:18:34 UTC

50,793

50,767

rms

The #1 Most Important Resume Tip

marrone

yes, that's pretty good advice.

... make sure you type your phone number right.#2 - If you are going to mis-type it, at least make sure to correct it before sending out 25 of them, and agreeing to 3 or 4 phone interviews.Those are just my two-cents. Take them or leave them, but I will say from experience, it is good advice!!!

1

11

2007-09-06 00:19:22 UTC

50,794

50,773

DocSavage

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

43 and 43. (My first startup was at 31. My partner/wife's first startup was at 20.)

null

3

14

2007-09-06 00:19:52 UTC

50,797

50,773

cellis

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

20

null

44

14

2007-09-06 00:22:44 UTC

50,799

50,431

kingnothing

We wanted it, so we built it...feedback?

rwebb

Black on white text > white on black text.I won't even look at it long enough to find out what it is supposed to do with that color scheme.

thoughts?

10

17

2007-09-06 00:29:38 UTC

50,800

50,773

gustaf

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

26 when we started, turned 27 in June

null

4

14

2007-09-06 00:33:09 UTC

50,802

50,436

rokhayakebe

I Think You're Fat: The Radical Honesty Movement

charzom

This shit is fucking truth. I am no saint, but i tell the truth most of the time, when I know it will get me in trouble. I cannot stand fucking liars. It's like being scared of someone or what they are going to do. What you will realize is that by always telling the truth everybody around you will envy you for it.

null

9

53

2007-09-06 00:33:38 UTC

50,806

50,773

chadboyda

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

28

null

24

14

2007-09-06 00:37:14 UTC

50,807

50,776

migpwr

An Interview With Paul Graham...

blored

Dont forget #7...7) Are my lips hurting your ass?

Hi Mr. Graham, I would like to ask some questions and possibly publish the results on my blog. I thought that YC news would be the best way to answer the questions, that way we can all read the answers right here.1) Has YC ever considered investing in a not-for-profit start-up?2) To your recollection, are there any ideas that were rejected by YC that have made it big? If so, can you name them.3) You seem to be one of Silicon Valley's busiest/most influential/hard-working persons, why all the fuss? Haven't you earned a respite?4) Have you ever thought about franchising the YC brand?5) In your spare time, what does Paul Graham like to do?6) Rumor has it that you studied the Arts in University, at what point did you realize that you were more capable with the keyboard, if ever?Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. They are as much a personal interest of mine as I'm sure they are for many others.

1

42

2007-09-06 00:37:54 UTC

50,809

50,773

kashif

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

26 and 27(me)

null

11

14

2007-09-06 00:41:36 UTC

50,810

50,776

pg

An Interview With Paul Graham...

blored

1) No. We'd do charitable donations individually, not through YC.2) I don't know of any, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.3) I like the stuff I work on. You don't need a respite from work you like.4) We wouldn't trust anyone else enough. We'd rather see if we can cook up some clever way of doing everything ourselves.5) Write essays.6) I haven't given up on painting. But the web has opened a window for writing essays that never existed before, so I decided I'd spend a couple years mostly writing.

Hi Mr. Graham, I would like to ask some questions and possibly publish the results on my blog. I thought that YC news would be the best way to answer the questions, that way we can all read the answers right here.1) Has YC ever considered investing in a not-for-profit start-up?2) To your recollection, are there any ideas that were rejected by YC that have made it big? If so, can you name them.3) You seem to be one of Silicon Valley's busiest/most influential/hard-working persons, why all the fuss? Haven't you earned a respite?4) Have you ever thought about franchising the YC brand?5) In your spare time, what does Paul Graham like to do?6) Rumor has it that you studied the Arts in University, at what point did you realize that you were more capable with the keyboard, if ever?Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. They are as much a personal interest of mine as I'm sure they are for many others.

0

42

2007-09-06 00:41:57 UTC

50,811

50,773

motoko

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

23

null

42

14

2007-09-06 00:43:59 UTC

50,818

50,773

chaostheory

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

29 and 30

null

17

14

2007-09-06 00:55:32 UTC

50,821

50,773

aarontait

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

19... Looks like I'm the youngest one... Suckers!

null

46

14

2007-09-06 00:58:30 UTC

50,824

50,707

kingnothing

ActiveState announces the Open Komodo initiative (nice IDE for RoR, PHP etc)

nickb

Reading through the feature differences between the free edition and the $300 edition, I'm not sure why anyone would choose Komodo Edit over the Ruby project for Netbeans.I'll download it and give it a shot, though.Netbeans ruby project: http://deadlock.netbeans.org/hudson/job/ruby/Komodo Edit Feature Comparison: http://www.activestate.com/Products/komodo_edit/edit_vs_ide....

null

0

4

2007-09-06 01:10:13 UTC

50,828

50,773

rbitar

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

26

null

22

14

2007-09-06 01:13:48 UTC

50,829

50,773

pg

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

The avg for the last YC batch was 24.5. Range: 19 to 35.

null

0

14

2007-09-06 01:15:46 UTC

50,834

50,773

nostrademons

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

24 and 26 (me).

null

9

14

2007-09-06 01:28:51 UTC

50,838

50,690

rokhayakebe

A demo of I'm in like with you, which CN fails to understand

tuukkah

I never tried IILWY. I think, as Blored mentioned, that the problem here is their presentation. At the same time the quality of this videop is poor, so that is working against them. Maybe we need to see a good presentation b4 we can judge. That being said, I still think that online dating stuff is for teenagers and really old people. Anyone in the middle can do fairly ok by wearing a bleu shirt (most attractive color to women), a nice watch, going to a bar and shut up. You will find soon more women trying to figure you out, then you can find online.

null

3

12

2007-09-06 01:31:58 UTC

50,848

50,773

thejefe711

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

17

null

47

14

2007-09-06 01:45:14 UTC

50,856

50,850

mattculbreth

screencast suggestions?

rwebb

I recently used http://www.shinywhitebox.com/home/home.html for this very purpose. I did a very simple demo of our application with me talking, merely for the purpose of showing a remote colleague what we were doing. Worked great.If you go here: http://seankelly.tv/videos/tools-of-the-trade/ you'll see a great post about some good tools. This fellow created a nice cast of different web development frameworks that's become a must-see on the web. Might even post it here as a separate item for folks.

I'm launching an app soon and think a screencast would be very useful for users. I'm looked at demogirl.com but our users are going to be middle aged men using the service for business purposes...molly's peppy voice probably isn't a good fit. any other good services out there? or any good free software to do this myself? preferably for a mac?

0

2

2007-09-06 01:56:37 UTC

50,863

50,767

chengmi

The #1 Most Important Resume Tip

marrone

...and if you're listing a cell phone number, make sure your phone is charged and not silent!

... make sure you type your phone number right.#2 - If you are going to mis-type it, at least make sure to correct it before sending out 25 of them, and agreeing to 3 or 4 phone interviews.Those are just my two-cents. Take them or leave them, but I will say from experience, it is good advice!!!

0

11

2007-09-06 02:02:53 UTC

50,872

50,773

pc

What is the average startup entrepreneur age? ie your age (I am 26 almost)

rokhayakebe

18

null

8

14

2007-09-06 02:10:46 UTC

50,873

50,822

mattculbreth

Rails' Unusual Architecture

nickb

I like Rails. Works well for quick CRUD apps, especially when combined with ActiveScaffold.But trying to dig into the source of the framework is a bit hairy. I'm a fan of AOP myself so I generally like to see it, but I always get a bit confused looking through the Ruby/Rails/ActiveScaffold code. Pylons, TurboGears, SQLAlchemy, Elixir and other Python-based frameworks seem easier to grok to me.

null

0

12

2007-09-06 02:11:32 UTC

50,877

50,776

guest

An Interview With Paul Graham...

blored

For PG: Outside of the internet, what would you say is another disruptive technology platform that is worthy of investigation?

Hi Mr. Graham, I would like to ask some questions and possibly publish the results on my blog. I thought that YC news would be the best way to answer the questions, that way we can all read the answers right here.1) Has YC ever considered investing in a not-for-profit start-up?2) To your recollection, are there any ideas that were rejected by YC that have made it big? If so, can you name them.3) You seem to be one of Silicon Valley's busiest/most influential/hard-working persons, why all the fuss? Haven't you earned a respite?4) Have you ever thought about franchising the YC brand?5) In your spare time, what does Paul Graham like to do?6) Rumor has it that you studied the Arts in University, at what point did you realize that you were more capable with the keyboard, if ever?Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. They are as much a personal interest of mine as I'm sure they are for many others.

3

42

2007-09-06 02:17:08 UTC

50,880

50,330

euccastro

With Apologies to Robert Frost

divia

Uh-oh, another reddit deja vu. xkcd is consistently great, so why don't we all just subscribe to the RSS feed, rather than racing to post every new entry here?

null

0

26

2007-09-06 02:23:44 UTC

50,885

50,456

sethjohn

Paul Graham: News from the Front

mattculbreth

I've noticed the same thing about top-tier chemists. Grad schools tend to have a good mix of Ivy kids and others, but the most brilliant scientists always seem to come from some mid-level state university or a little liberal arts college.Success at the highest levels of scientific research takes an odd mix of creativity, intuition, and intellegence that has little to do with academic success in high school or undergrad.

null

18

103

2007-09-06 02:34:44 UTC