
Biz Stone: How I Faked My Way into Google (2013) - orky56
http://www.wired.com/2013/04/fakeit/?kw=mytoc_capella
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paul9290
Great story, but that's a diamond in the rough of start-up stories.

For me I'm living like a pauper - broke, in debt, family-less (g/f of many
years wants stability before we have a kid) and well right now I'm not sure
why I chose this path the past 7 years (2 start-ups).

I do have a nifty/interesting resume, a lot of cool stories/experiences of my
own that a day job would never provide and an idea of mine has been
copied/worked on by dozens including one that now has 1.5 million users/raised
$3 million (not me though).

IS it all worth it?

EDIT: I find myself asking this question when the rollercoaster slows down
(slow times/nothing exciting happening .. heads down development). Currently,
the coaster is going 10MPH, though two/three weeks ago it was going 100MPH.

~~~
lotsofmangos
No. Nothing is worth it and we are all dead in the end. If you had fun though?
Fun is something else and isn't really to do with worth. You could have been
born in a cave and chased rabbits all day. Would that have been worth it?

~~~
reduce
Fun is definitely not the reason that I do startups.

It's similar to when I did cross-country running for a few years. That wasn't
fun at all, not even once. It was painful. I'd say that I did it just because
of competitive instincts.

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tingley
This is not an uncommon SV story archetype, but as many people have pointed
out before me, it's one that highlights the concept of privilege with
particular clarity. In the US, both men and white people are more aggressive
at this sort of bluff than non-men and non-white people, and there are strong
implications that this is because it's a much easier bluff for them.

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aytekin
Read the book instead. It is really, really good:

[http://www.amazon.com/Things-Little-Bird-Told-Me-
ebook/dp/B0...](http://www.amazon.com/Things-Little-Bird-Told-Me-
ebook/dp/B00ECEA35C/)

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MarioSpeedwagon
Anybody else just have the take-away of, "Man, what a colossal douche"? Really
discouraging to me re: acting like a totally overconfident tool and liar more
so than encouraging re: success.

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SurfScore
Does Google still refuse to hire people unless they have computer science
degrees? In this day and age that doesn't make sense.

~~~
thrownaway2424
Google hasn't ever done that.

~~~
SurfScore
The story says "Google had a reputation of hiring only people with computer
science degrees." Dunno if it's true or not, I'm just curious.

~~~
jpatokal
It's never been an absolute policy, but they certainly used to prefer people
with degrees; it's an easy filter when you've got a million CVs a year to
parse through.

HR found it was useless as a predictor of success, though, and the policy was
officially dropped last year:

[http://www.businessinsider.com.au/google-hiring-non-
graduate...](http://www.businessinsider.com.au/google-hiring-non-
graduates-2013-6)

