
YC 120 - jameshk
https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-120/
======
uptownfunk
The real question is, do I want to be in a room with 99 other people who
wanted to be selected for this so much that they produced a video with answers
to these questions? This whole thing is self-selecting for they type of person
I'd rather not be having dinner with.

YC produces a ton of great resources that are very helpful, but this is one
that makes me scratch my head.

~~~
endorphone
What type of person is that? I'm honestly at a loss because it asks for
nothing more than a simple narrative for why _this_ opportunity fits the
candidate, where the complexity of the video can be "turn on my phone's front
camera and recorded for 60 seconds".

Is that a type of person? Is it a bad type of person? I don't understand the
insinuation.

~~~
freehunter
Many cultures/subcultures/microcultures place high value on being humble. This
is the exact opposite of humble, it's blatant self-promotion. That's not
necessarily a bad thing, in fact it's very much required in business, in
interviews, in admissions, etc. But it does rub against those cultures who
value humility and frown upon self-promotion.

As an example I grew up in a poor farming town in the Midwest. Everyone drove
an older pickup. Occasionally someone's truck would break and they'd buy a new
one. It was the gossip of the town, look at Mr So-and-So flaunting his wealth,
his farm must be doing great, what's his secret, why is he showing off? A few
years later his truck is dusty and dented and rusty but someone else's truck
breaks and they get a new one, and now they're the talk of the town.

Recently I drove back into that town in my BMW... I should have known better.
My grandparents called me afterwards to let me know how everyone in town is
talking about _them_ , my grandparents, for raising such a braggart of a
grandson that he'd drive around town in a BMW. Doesn't matter how much money
you have, you don't buy a nice car because it's self promotion.

Not saying it's right or wrong, but some cultures try to avoid people who brag
about their own accomplishments. This goes hand in hand with other comments
saying they wish they could nominate someone because some people would never
nominate themselves.

~~~
endorphone
I will give that false humility is rampant, but it's incredible (and perhaps
ironic) in the context because so many seem to be saying "Well _I_ wouldn't
want to be with _these_ people." That is the opposite of humility.

Virtually all of life is self-promotion (however massaged and clouded we make
it -- we see humility as a virtue because it's great if everyone else just
gets out of the way), and sideways mechanisms to do it do little but feed into
raw dishonesty. And let me say that I have pretty strong social anxiety so
this contest has no draw for me, but I have no animosity for those who it
fits.

As an aside, I grew up in a small, blue-collar working town, and it operates
very similar to your description. But it isn't that people value humility, but
rather that they impose their own limitations and hangups on others. It was
the crab mentality.

Regardless, there are many paths to changing the world. Even if we accept the
notion that only the bad wouldn't cow under humility, to quote Ahad Ah'Em
(Asher Ginzberg) - "Men With Self-Confidence Come and See and Conquer". There
is a high correlation between people who have a sometimes inflated confidence
and those who actually affect real change.

~~~
DoreenMichele
_" Men With Self-Confidence Come and See and Conquer"_

Women with self confidence get put in a damned if you do, damned if you don't
bind. They have substantial challenges trying to self promote. I'm convinced
it's mostly systemic, not innate to women per se.

------
eslaught
For everyone who's being cynical about this opportunity: This seems like a
great way to practice pitching what you do and why it matters. Personally,
this seems like an interesting exercise, regardless of whether you get in or
not.

For anyone else who is interested, it might be fun to have an organized "Show
HN" where we exchange and critique pitches.

Edit: Since this is getting some upvotes, here is what I propose: I'll post a
"Show HN" here at around 10am PST on February 15th. People can reply to that
with links to their pitches, and then everyone else can respond/critique in
the replies. (This should leave enough time for people to edit their pitches
based on the feedback they get.)

~~~
andyidsinga
the organized Show HN event - actually sounds like a better idea that the OP.
hmm - maybe organized for the same April 26 - 28 weekend?

~~~
eslaught
I was thinking online, but offline could work too. We could even do both.
Maybe we'll wait to see how the online version goes first? If that gets
traction then we can see about organizing an offline version.

------
adpirz
So I actually think the _idea_ sounds interesting, but this is what sticks out
to me:

> We’ll invite about 100 people who could use more of a network...

>What have you done so far that shows your potential for greatness, adjusted
for whatever life circumstances you were born into?

To do something great that shows potential, you've probably already built a
decent network, so I guess the value add is a network with much greater reach?
Also, I've met people who've done astounding things "adjusted for life
circumstances", but this would never reach their radar.

Can there be a nomination process? I just feel like the people for whom this
idea makes sense would never know to apply or might not even find it
applicable. Those people need to be sought out, not expected to show up.
Regardless, I'd be curious who the final 100 are and how they fit the two
criteria above.

~~~
alain94040
_Can there be a nomination process_

YC/HN is for startups. You don't need to wait for permission to do something.
If you want to nominate someone great, I would just email that person to
encourage them to apply. Done.

~~~
adpirz
I understand that, and if this was a normal application for its standard
incubator, I'd understand. I read this as seeking out people doing exceptional
work but aren't _already_ being noticed. A lot of this people might not be
noticed because they aren't trying to be noticed, but may very well benefit
from it, or they don't have the means to / maybe they were never pushed to put
themselves out there. Encouraging application is certainly a good way to go.

------
jimkri
This reminds me of charities and other organizations that only want to bring
on experts. I really would like to join something like this but I feel that
I'm not an expert in that area. I know I could provide a lot of value and show
them ways to look at their problems differently, but I'm not what they are
looking for.

I really think people can become experts (to a certain degree) and provide a
lot of value and think differently about problems without having years of
experience. A great example is the 4Chan user that solved the 25 year old
permutation math problem by looking at it from a different lense.

Bringing people together to build their network is great. But I really think
there is power in bringing people together who have a desire to change
something regardless of how much greatness they think they have achieved.

~~~
rococode
Wow, I hadn't heard of the 4chan thing and it's super interesting!

Here's the wiki article with the improved lower bound for the 25 year old
permutation problem:
[http://mathsci.wikia.com/wiki/The_Haruhi_Problem](http://mathsci.wikia.com/wiki/The_Haruhi_Problem)

And a news article: [https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18019464/4chan-anon-
anim...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18019464/4chan-anon-anime-haruhi-
math-mystery)

Here's the original thread where you can see people confused about what the
actual problem is, I think it's a fun read:
[http://4watch.org/superstring/](http://4watch.org/superstring/)

------
staunch
I think what we all want is a lot more more Elon Musks to push the world
forward more quickly.

But he was only able to create Tesla and SpaceX because he gained a massive
windfall from PayPal. That payout could have easily been an order of magnitude
smaller, or even gone to zero. He wasn't even involved in the company so he
got super lucky with that.

Even though he had a network of powerful friends, virtually all of them were
too cowardly to invest in SpaceX or Tesla, especially after things got hard.
They all thought he was a dumb "web startup guy" tilting at windmills and
burning up his money.

His early investors totally bailed on him. The fact that he could personally
bankroll his companies is the _only_ reason they exist today. Having to answer
to _anyone else_ would have doomed him to failure.

So, you want more Elon Musks? Find super smart and crazily ambitious people
and give them massive fortunes.

~~~
burkaman
Elon Musk did not create Tesla, and it succeeded thanks to a massive low-
interest government loan.

If you want more Elon Musks, start electing politicians that are willing to
invest in things that private citizens can't or won't, and stop caring about
whose name is on top of the org chart.

~~~
staunch
He was the primary funding for the company throughout its early life and then
personally saved the company from failure. Without Elon Musk the company would
not exist at all.

The DOE loan probably did save the company, but before Telsa there was no
electric car company worth giving a government loan to in the first place. And
they paid it back 10 years early.

Fisker, a Tesla copycat, got ~$1.4 billion in DOE loans and failed completely.
Tesla got a third of that and succeeded because they had Elon Musk.

------
thanksDr
> What are you interested in and what are you working on?

I'm working on liberating child students trapped by coercive institutions.
Inmates have a reason for their incarceration, but students are trapped
through no fault of their own. Unlike students, inmates in prison have the
luxury of choosing what they read.

> What have you done so far that shows your potential for greatness, adjusted
> for whatever life circumstances you were born into?

I have been actively working on increasing my influence so I can save those
who can be saved during my lifetime. I have been tutoring, and teaching, and
teacher training, and running programs in schools, constantly broadening my
scope. My experiences working in public schools have convinced me that
'working from the inside' is a fool's breakfast. I am now working on founding
a school in a methodical and careful manner so that it can succeed in Toronto
and grow to other cities. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to liberate a few hundred
students before I die, and the schools will succeed without me.

> In a best-case scenario, what do you want your obituary to say?

Loving grandson, son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, Ryan checked out
at the hour of his choosing and saved 7 lives through organ donation as his
final gift. His autobiography 'Not Everyone Likes The Flavour' lays out his
reasoning for ending his life as 'passing the torch', exhorting young people
everywhere to realize their true power to shape the world. His legacy endures
in the schools he founded and the students he empowered.

I should be so lucky!

~~~
exolymph
Just FYI, as someone who also considers schools to be coercive institutions,
"schools are more unjust than prison" is a hugely unconvincing pitch. I'd
advise you to frame it another way.

~~~
thanksDr
Thank you. I'm trying to come up with a good wholly-positive way of framing it
in terms of benefits to leadership and innovation. I know I'm going to need a
positive message to succeed.

~~~
exolymph
Maybe something about allowing students to express their individuality and
reach their full potential as humans through curiosity and exploration?

------
briantmaurer
I personally like these questions together:

• If you could have the resume you _want_ , what would it say?

• If you could write your eulogy, what would it say?

(As the company/manager/advisor: How can we help you to get there?)

~~~
jpwagner
is your framework a reference to David Brooks' Ted Talk?

[https://www.ted.com/talks/david_brooks_should_you_live_for_y...](https://www.ted.com/talks/david_brooks_should_you_live_for_your_resume_or_your_eulogy?language=en)

~~~
briantmaurer
I had not seen this video, but it clarifies my thoughts on this topic quite a
bit. Thanks for sharing!

------
curiousDog
“Finally solving Physics?” Yikes.

~~~
andrepd
[https://xkcd.com/1831/](https://xkcd.com/1831/)

~~~
deepnotderp
While I get the underlying sentiment, it's worth noting that there have been
examples of success, e.g. Deepmind with AlphaFold for protein folding with
relatively little domain knowledge.

~~~
irq11
AlphaFold not only depended on a great deal of domain knowledge, it _actually
used_ one of the most famous physics-based methods. The only people who think
that AlphaGo was made by a bunch of noob AI guys with a neural network are the
people who don’t know anything about it.

~~~
deepnotderp
I said _relatively_ , they certainly had less domain knowledge than the
competing teams. I have always been a strong proponent of combining ML and NNs
with traditional methods.

------
avmich
I see tremendous value in these efforts to enrich networks, but have no hope
of getting through :( . All I see as answers to entry questions are sure not
to give a pass.

Are there comparable venues for much larger sets of people? Those who can't
brag about particularly nice answers to entry questions?

~~~
sudosteph
Why not try your hand at organizing your own meetup / networking event
locally? Rent a room in your local community center for the day, put up signs
at local community colleges and coffee shops to advertise.

There are other ambitious people out there, YC only wants to find the ones
that they can use for their own goals. Don't wait around for them or anyone
else if you have ideas and need a network. If they wont let you through their
gate, find another way in.

------
davidw
You guys should invite Sonja Trauss, known for her YIMBY activism in the bay
area. Housing might not be quite as exciting as some of the things mentioned,
but making it affordable makes a hell of a difference in people's lives.

And it also helps companies and just about everyone else, too, since they
might not have to pay _quite_ so much due to the extreme cost of living in
that area.

------
yksugi
This looks pretty interesting, so I decided to apply. Here’s my application
and video in case anyone’s curious:
[https://goo.gl/mhCCNK](https://goo.gl/mhCCNK)

------
newman8r
That obituary question is a bit morbid for my taste - but this sounds like an
interesting event. Reminds me of yc startup school but more personal.

~~~
nsxwolf
It's a ridiculous question. 99.9% of all obituaries look the same. An
announcement of the death, maybe a quick mention of career, a list of close
surviving relatives, and information about memorial services.

I would just submit that.

~~~
FPGAhacker
Obviously they want to know what you would like to be remembered for having
accomplished. They don’t literally care what you want on your obit. They are
asking what you would like to be known for to future generations.

~~~
nsxwolf
Here's a great way of rewording that question: "What accomplishments of yours
would you like people to remember?"

------
brianmback
This will be the new model for accelerators moving forward. Condense the most
valuable interactions down to a few days and watch the magic happen. Cheaper,
less time intensive, and more effective.

------
ecommercematt
"a return to fact-based debate"

When was this fact-based debating era?

------
TaylorAlexander
Not to be confused with Google’s Area 120, an internal start up incubator.

[https://area120.google.com/](https://area120.google.com/)

It’s funny the similarity in name!

------
ajiang
Networks like this are extremely powerful for releasing potential energy. As
much as I'd love to see the talks, it wouldn't be 5% the value of being in the
room.

~~~
avmich
To get the 95%, you need to know how to use the presence. It's definitely not
enough to be in the room, although I don't know how to learn to get values in
being in the room without trying to while being in the room.

~~~
alainchabat
How do you do that? Any article/book you recommend?

------
radagaisus
This is frustrating and borderline cringe-inducing to read. YC clearly has
their eyes on tapping introvert talent. That's a good thing. What’s not is
trying to use the same stale tools and programs to catch them. Hint: this is
not the crowd that will be comfortable talking on camera, about themselves,
answering such bombastic questions. Try again.

~~~
whatshisface
Technically, the rules do not prevent submitters from uploading silent
slideshows that just so happen to be in video file formats. Presumably anyone
whose goal was "finally solving physics," would be clever enough to think of
this. ;)

------
SandersAK
somewhat unrelated:

This is YC's mission statement: "Y Combinator provides seed funding for
startups. Seed funding is the earliest stage of venture funding. It pays your
expenses while you’re getting started."

------
mettamage
I applied.

I am looking for people who are interested in transforming education. If me
and a group of similar minded individuals are able to make people learn twice
as fast, then that would be a huge win for the world.

People say that education (idea generation and implementation) comes easy to
me. And I also find it the most fun sector to work in.

If the ed tech startups of the world are reading this: I'm available [1]. If
you want to be in education too, then let's meet up (IRL or online)! My email
address is in my profile.

[1]: this invitation is also extended to YC.

~~~
yksugi
Hi! Maybe we should talk :)

Here's my website/profile: [https://www.csdojo.io/](https://www.csdojo.io/)

------
koolba
Will the answers be kept confidential?

------
gist
First let me say I think this is a great idea even just the marketing and
publicity angle alone. [1]

That said I always love the arbitrary numbers they assign such as '100' or
similar those '30 under 30'. And so on. Heinz of course popularized 57
varieties of ketchup (not sure I have seen that duplicated).

Why not say 'roughly 100'. Give yourself the flexibility to go up or down if
needed.

[1] This is what happens when money meets creative ideas.

------
airstrike
I had a conversation with colleagues literally last Friday in which I
mentioned a version of question #2. I've always wanted to ask that question to
candidates, but felt they would struggle to think of a way to phrase an answer
in an interview setting...

YC has come up with a very concise prompt, though, so I'll have to give this a
try next time I'm out recruiting...

~~~
avmich
Second question is very delicate. You definitely don't want to discuss
something which may end up being unattainable. Say, you're working on a new
physics, and you don't have something to show in form of math theories or
experiments. Chances are you'll be labelled a nut, which from a nerd community
could be counterproductive (see "ought to work on a good ides which looks like
a bad one"). So you want to germinate your ideas - and perhaps throw those not
good enough - until you have a sort of MVP. Which defeats the idea of the
second questions substantially.

If you have something to show, it's more in venue of incremental, predictable
work, and less in "out there" ideas perhaps.

------
blizkreeg
Perhaps a better messaging here would be - if you're working on gene editing,
nuclear fusion, or some such radical and ambitious project, we want to hear.
Tell us the path you took to get to this point, and your ideas for the future.
Then select from everyone who writes in?

~~~
throwawayjava
_> if you're working on gene editing, nuclear fusion, or some such radical and
ambitious project, we want to hear. Tell us the path you took to get to this
point, and your ideas for the future. Then select from everyone who writes
in?_

You are describing a scientific conference, or perhaps a grant proposal.

Unlike NSF/NIH/etc., they're not really asking for people who have dedicated
their lives to a problem to write up a compelling and realistic plan of attack
for a hard tech problem. That can't be done in a few minutes of a video, and
certainly can't be done if in that video you also have to write your ideal
obituary. What they're looking for, I think?, are charismatic and driven
leaders.

------
rubidium
WHEW! Sama's worldview is so technocractic it's rather disturbing.

The world is _actually_ shaped by mothers and fathers. Teachers and physical
therapists. Doctors and pastors. Friends and romantic partners.

...

I hesitate to write the following because I'm not going to express everything
how I actually think. But it should add to the discussion...

Here's an interesting spin on it. I'll give my "real" answers and my
technocentric answers. Both could be said by accurately. But my worldview
aligns much more with the former.

#Honest answers

>What are you interested in and what are you working on?

I'm interested in creating a world where everyone has a human network of
mutual support and care. I'm genuinely concerned that the technocentrist
worldview that seems to consume a generation of our brightest minds will miss
the human element of life and lead society in a worse direction. I am building
neighborhood-level community with the lower middle class and poor.

>What have you done so far that shows your potential for greatness, adjusted
for whatever life circumstances you were born into?

I work with what I have, to best of my abilities, to love and serve others.
I'm often selfish and mess up. I try to correct my mistakes and hope to get
better.

>In a best-case scenario, what do you want your obituary to say?

Loving husband and father, caring neighbor, and example of a life of service.

#Technocentric answers:

>> What are you interested in and what are you working on?

I'm building better automation in the tech stack for life science research to
accelerate the discovery and delivery of medical care for the sick and dying.

>>What have you done so far that shows your potential for greatness, adjusted
for whatever life circumstances you were born into?

4.0's, valedictorian, PhD, publish in fancy journals, design and deliver
millions of dollars of research systems to all the major pharmaceuticals, ya
ya yah...

>> What have you done so far that shows your potential for greatness, adjusted
for whatever life circumstances you were born into?

Discovered a tailored medical care approach to eliminate deaths caused by
cancer. Loving husband and father, caring neighbor, and example of a life of
service.

~~~
caljones1618
Agreed. It's easy to assume that technology is good for society when it's fun
to build it, ship it, and backwards-justify what you've done. Are we sure that
AGI will be good for society? If not, why should we try and push to develop it
as fast as possible?

~~~
avmich
I once saw a presentation from Machine Intelligence Research Institute. The
presentation listed global dangers to civilization, including AI. Then it was
mentioned that, done right, AI could actually solve at least some other
problems. That was justification for MIRI efforts.

~~~
caljones1618
Agreed that AI could have large positive or negative effects on society and I
think the kind of work that MIRI does is incredibly important. I wish that
this application took MIRI's outcome-driven approach rather than being tech
for tech's sake.

------
adamnemecek
How hard is the 1 minute limit on the video? Is it a big deal if the video is
2 minutes? Some things might take a bit of time to really explain.

~~~
dannyw
If you do longer, I’d make sure the most important bits are in the first
minute.

------
DigiMortal
I mean, I'd love to go...I live in Boulder too

------
whiddershins
I am having trouble seeing what the deadline for this is. Am I missing
something obvious?

~~~
phonon
"The application deadline is Feb 18th at 11:59 PM PST."

?

------
andyidsinga
curious to know who the "20 people who are already at the top of their fields"
are.

...wondering why they wouldn't publish that so that folks who apply have a
better idea who they'll be spending time with.

------
pcmaffey
100 introverts walk into a bar...

------
pavlov
Your chance to have dinner with the next Elizabeth Holmes?

------
d--b
> Aside from some basic information, all you need to do to apply is submit a
> one-minute video with answers to these three questions:

> What are you interested in and what are you working on?

> What have you done so far that shows your potential for greatness, adjusted
> for whatever life circumstances you were born into?

> In a best-case scenario, what do you want your obituary to say?

Ugh... what a terrible selection process...

~~~
dang
"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A
good critical comment teaches us something."

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
erbium
People eventually get tired of giving useful feedback to unhelpful people.
Maybe that's a piece of advice someone should share with sama sama.

~~~
dang
You may not owe Sam or any individual better than this, but you do owe quite a
bit better to the community you're participating in here.

~~~
erbium
I hope so.

------
jhpriestley
is this like a tie-in with the HBO series or something?

------
samstave
SO, are you going to share the candidates ___prior_ __to the retreat?

Can we vote on people we feel should be there?

Can we see their submission videos?

