On: How to Apply to Y Combinator

[skywalker]

PG, please tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.

[pg → skywalker]

One day in grad school my advisor unexpectedly said something along the lines of "so, are you nearly done with your dissertation?" I was nowhere near done. But, keeping calm, I replied that yes, while I had a few things to finish up, I thought I should be done in time to graduate that June. Then I went back to my office and started writing as fast as I could. I finished about a day before the deadline. The result was not particularly good, but it got me out of grad school, which was all I wanted at the time.

[kf → skywalker]

http://ycombinator.com?

[skywalker → kf]

YC is pretty recent and he did it in his forties.

I was thinking about what he did when he was younger, just like the situation of someone that would apply to YC.

[Jimmy → kf]

I think that would count as a computer system.

[eru → Jimmy]

It's not the website. It's hacking the startup eco-system.