
Ask PG: Why not use chatbot interviews as part of application process? - amichail
Candidates would be required to submit a chatbot for each founder.<p>YC could have a chatbot of its own to interview the founder chatbots. What the YC chatbot will/may say would be kept a secret.
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mahmud
I am not sure if this is a sharply pointed piece of satire critical of how YC
does business, or if it's another "Ask HN" from amichail that's just beyond my
modest IQ to grok.

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jacquesm
Are those mutually exclusive though ?

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mahmud
Touche! I am really easy to dumbfound, haven't had my orientation session at
Singularity University yet.

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jacquesm
Maybe that should be a requirement for YC application too ?

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mahmud
I have a few tests for people before I can trust them in any professional
capacity, and from a quick reflection, I think I developed it to avoid
theorists:

Are they able to solve simple logistics problems: How do they deal with missed
trains or planes? how do they deal with lack of seats when we go to eat at a
busy restaurant? how do they cope with rain, snow, excessive traffic, or
crowds if we need to hail a cab? How do they treat bar and waitstaff? how
about hotel staff? Are they able to book and change rooms in a sold-out hotel?
How fussy are they about limited options for a late night meal? lack of
internet? flat tire? a massive brawl nearby? road closures? power outages?

If you want to test someone's will to survive, in this day and age, put them
in the stadium part of town immediately after the big game and watch them
fetch for themselves and compete for food and transportation, not to mention
personal space, with hordes of drunken and volatile masses.

The ones who whine, wince, or the least bit annoyed or confused should be
dropped like dead weight.

[Edit: s/smirk/wince]

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zaidf
_The ones who whine, smirk, or the least bit annoyed or confused should be
dropped like dead weight._

There is a good chance you'll end up dropping the likes of Bill Gates and
Steve Jobs. In fact, the only kinds that might be able to make past your test
may be emotionless robotic types.

Anyone who is not at least a bit annoyed in those circumstances is not human.

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jacquesm
Nonsense. You can be annoyed without being a jerk.

Showing emotion is quite ok, abusing people is not.

And if that would filter out Steve Jobs or Bill Gates is an open question, I
don't know if they would be rude, abusive or simply not nice in such
situations.

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zaidf
_Nonsense. You can be annoyed without being a jerk._

I believe that position is closer to mine than the OP's.

He is saying that any bit of emotion is bad and a dealbreaker.

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jacquesm
No, he's saying that _negative_ emotion is all bad and a dealbreaker.

And I fully concur with that. When faced with adversary circumstances you can
choose to be active and constructive (and polite to boot), or you can be
inactive and negative (complaining, whining, 'why doesn't anybody do
something' and so on).

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cperciva
_Candidates would be required to submit a chatbot for each founder._

This would greatly disadvantage those of us who are smarter than the current
limits of AI.

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amichail
It would only be part of the application. And it would make applying more fun.

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jacquesm
I saw it as an 'Ask PG' so I wasn't going to jump in but I can't resist.
Writing a chatbot is not 'fun', it is very hard work, if you want to do a half
decent job of it.

HN is as far as I know not recruiting chat bot programmers (though plenty of
the YC alumni and current partners could certainly do this), they're
recruiting people that are on the verge of starting or have already started a
company.

To have those people do all kinds of 'make work' because it is 'fun' would put
YC on the map as a frivolous party, not a serious one.

Think about it, if you had to go and interview with a VC and they told you
'you have to go and write this chatbot first or we won't hear your
application', at the 'seed' level the overhead of doing that (especially one
for each founder!) would be enormous compared to the size of the investment.

I think this is a bad idea.

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hendler
Some one should write this and apply to YC.

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davidw
I think it would be kind of fun to seed a chatbot with pg's essays :-)

(Just give me credit if you go do it!)

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Confusion
When, and how, did you get the impression that YC requires their applicants to
grok enough AI to be able to write a decent chatbot?

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DanielBMarkham
I am equally torn between thinking this is a somewhat-good-but-very-original
idea and that it is a completely idiotic idea. (grin)

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bhousel
What information would a chatbot provide about the founders that you couldn't
already get from the application?

Chatbots usually have some sort of factpack that allow them to parrot out
responses. Whatever facts you'd want in the factpack would just be the
responses to the application questions.

I think it's an really interesting idea actually, but in the general sense of
building and training an online agent that could 'stand in' for you in a
conversation. I don't see how it solves any problem with the YC application
process.

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prabodh
How does this better/improve the existing process...i couldn't think of any
way...and Chatbot definitely cannot be used to judge someone...

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amichail
It would be sort of like giving everyone an interview. But unlike a normal
interview, candidates will need to try to cover a huge chunk of possible
conversation space in advance.

Bot performance would show how much thought they have given to the whole
matter as well as some indication of their technical proficiency.

Would it require a lot of effort? Sure, but that effort can be amortized
across future bot interviews, not just with YC.

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DTrejo
Interviewing a chatbot would be very inefficient. YC has enough work set out
for them already.

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zackattack
<http://erinkelsey.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/gift.gif>

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zackattack
This thread is so blatantly stupid that it must be flamebait. Accordingly, I
responded.

To those who are taking it seriously: you will not be successful with YC until
you get a better grasp of reality.

