

F*** Pattern Recognition - ASquare
https://medium.com/@mjb_sf/fuck-pattern-recognition-8178b279430f

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sdoering
Thanks. Oftentimes could relate, even being a 30-something male. ;-) Coming
from a literature background and learned some things on the way, it sometimes
feels strange.

But the moment, I was able to contribute to a open-source project I was
thrilled.

~~~
TarpitCarnivore
Similar situation, coming from an education background, some experience in
windows administration and currently in an editorial. Being able to make my
first "project" that had people (albeit small group) interested felt awesome,
regardless of how crude it looks.

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tlb
There's some point in one's early musical education where you learn that all
music follow patterns. And you think "how limiting," because the only patterns
you know are major scale folk melodies and 3-chord rock. But as your pattern
library grows, you appreciate how even the most avant-garde music follows
patterns too, and without grokking the patterns you couldn't hear everything.

Company pattern recognition must seem limiting to someone who's only seen a
small number of companies. But people who've seen 10000 companies can
appreciate a range of patterns that would astonish someone who's only seen
100.

There are investors who focus on just one kind of company or founder, which is
reasonable for part-time investors who want to leverage their particular
experience. But in order to expand the universe of startups, YC specifically
looks for promising new kinds of teams (though OP wouldn't be the first 40ish
female founder new to programming to go through YC.) I hope Ms. Byerley will
give us a chance to help her.

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zabalmendi
tangentially related (and thank you for posting!)

German Women Find Break in Startups Denied in Corporate Chambers

"Women are changing entrepreneurship in Germany...” said Samuli Siren, a
managing partner at Berlin-based Redstone Digital, which finds investors.

Women “are adapting and reinventing the idea of the startup, which is changing
the game.”

“It’s important for women to share their entrepreneurial experiences with the
public to encourage and motivate other females...”

[http://www.garp.org/risk-news-and-resources/risk-
headlines/s...](http://www.garp.org/risk-news-and-resources/risk-
headlines/story.aspx?newsId=117694)

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mindcrime
As a 41 year old male who didn't attend an Ivy League school (and never even
bothered finishing his B.S degree), I can relate to this as well. I mean,
we're not trying to raise money so I don't know for _sure_ how VC's will react
to us, but from the various informal interactions we've had with various
investors and other people in the "startup world" I definitely get the feeling
that people don't take us seriously because we don't "pattern match" for them.

But then again, we're going against the grain intentionally in many areas, so
it's not entirely unexpected. For one, we're not doing a Social-local-mobile-
daily-deals-ride-sharing-uber-for-X application. We're doing enterprise
software. BORING, right? We have also consciously chosen to bootstrap while
continuing to work dayjobs so far. We'll quit our dayjobs when the time is
right, but it's downright insulting when people act like we aren't "serious"
or whatever, because we're still working so we can, you know, pay the light
bill and buy food.

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njstc4all
I can't get past the author's painful misuse of the concept of pattern
recognition. That is literally the only thing the human brain does.

~~~
mindcrime
It isn't the author who started using the term this way. She's referencing
something that has, of late, clearly become part of the vernacular in the
startup world.

