

Ask YC: What is considered high level of ability ? - krentip

IQ ? SAT ? Experience ? Creative answer :) ? 
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jsjenkins168
I considered putting down my IQ, but decided that would be a bit tacky so I
just listed some of the areas of technology that interest me or that I feel
I'm good in.

IQ and SAT stats do not strongly correlate with performance anyway.

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cperciva
SAT scores correlate highly with academic performance. This should come as no
surprise, since their whole purpose was to democratize college admissions by
allowing those students who would do best at college to be accepted,
regardless of their religion or social connections.

The fact that SAT scores correlate poorly with workplace success is a red
herring -- SAT scores were never supposed to predict workplace success.

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Alex3917
"SAT scores correlate highly with academic performance."

Incorrect.

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aston
SAT scores are actually pretty decently correlated with freshman year grades.
Colleges wouldn't use it if it weren't predictive, and so the College Board
has put a lot of work into ensuring the test means something. Then again,
freshman year grades don't really mean much in the grand scheme of life, but
they do mean something, definitely.

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davy
IQ and SAT might provide benchmarks for intelligence, but they have no
correlation with the desire and ability to complete a large task. Everyone
knows that smart kid in high school/college who sat around playing WOW and
drinking Mt Dew all day. Y Combinator does not want him.

In addition, sometimes the not-as-smart kid who has a good idea and a lot of
motivation can accomplish something great.

If you did not spend months working on something, possibly crying at times
with frustration and jumping around euphorically when you hit a new milestone,
you have not done something with a high level of ability.

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rms
I have a feeling cperciva wins.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079>

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cperciva
Any time someone mentions "ability", you should ask "... to do what?"

If you're looking for ability to find new algorithms and prove their
correctness, I probably win. If you're looking for ability to build a robust
application (which is a key point to me -- I'm working on online backups, and
the central point of backups is that they do NOT lose data, even if hardware
failure occurs) I might win. If you're looking for ability to create an
engaging Web 2.0 site, I definitely lose.

I'd assume that what YC means by "ability" is "ability to create whatever
you've said on the application form that you intend to create" -- which in my
case was an efficient, robust, and secure online backup system, but for most
applications would be an engaging Web 2.0 site.

EDIT: Incidentally, it didn't even occur to me to mention the Putnam on the YC
application form. For the "high level of ability" question I pointed towards
my BSDCan'05 paper concerning stealing RSA keys on Intel CPUs with
HyperThreading via an architectural side channel.

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zach
Dude, if I won the Putnam I would invent some letters that signified that fact
and put them after my name. Heck, maybe in front of my name.

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kashif
I think they want to know if you have achieved a high-level of ability in any
field. This would indicate a certain discipline and application.

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mynameishere
Using IQ scores to measure people is extremely efficient. A 15 minute test can
give you a good, rough idea of what sort of work a person is capable of.
Someone who gets an 85 on an IQ test isn't going to MIT (no matter the
effort), whereas a person with a 145 probably could (with effort).

This is mainly useful in situations optimized for efficiency--think mass
inductions, as into the army or college, where individually judging people
isn't possible. The army can't send everyone to officer school, and Harvard
can't give everyone a one-semester tryout.

This isn't the situation faced by investors, who can devote more time to
distinquishing people.

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sharpshoot
This question is all about showing that you have achieved a level of
excellence in a particular field. This could be academically (having won
awards) or entrepreneurially (having set up stuff or had a large impact on
people) or creatively (being incredibly awesome at jazz piano).

Think of a situation where you show above average ability relatove to someone.
The truth is high achievers will continue to do so irespective of field - so
if you want to be the best in the startup world try and extrapolate back to
comsthing you have achieved.

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nurall
I think this is a useful metric for evaluating a startup team, but I do think
the metric is subjective!

I am sure a lot of us (not so fortunate ones) realize our best abilities while
working on something we really love.

So the best bet would be to describe your abilities relative to the problem
you are trying to solve. How are your abilities helping your startup make
significant forward progress?

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kingnothing
>I am sure a lot of us (not so fortunate ones) realize our best abilities
while working on something we really love.

Why is that unfortunate?

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nurall
i meant to say, earlier we find something we love the better, so that we could
start realizing our abilities sooner.. :-)

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falsestprophet
Perhaps you could describe accomplishments that require a high level of
ability. Perhaps you could include your academic papers, patents,
contributions to open source projects, extracurricular engineering projects,
or business adventures.

If you can't talk about something like that, I don't think you can demonstrate
a high level of ability. Otherwise, do something great or work for someone who
can.

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ptn
Maybe people should see how much others improved at their extra-curricular
activities since they took them. You are not forced to do those (as you are
forced to study for some exams or go to work), you do them because you have
fun with them. Then, what you would really be measuring is how determined the
person in question is to be better. That's an ability too.

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daniel-cussen
IQ? SATs? How dare you! Everyone knows those are not correlated with
intelligence.

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olavk
No, but is startup-success correlated with intelligence? (I hope not!)

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blored
If Icanhazcheezburger, yhou can haz cheezburger thoo.

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german
I can code, design, play guitar, dance Salsa, surf, speak Spanish, English and
a little Portuguese. :P

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kingnothing
Do you also enjoy candlelit dinners and moonlight walks on the beach? If so,
we might be a perfect match!

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german
hehehe, sorry, I'm not looking for a serious relationship right now ;)

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comatose_kid
Demodulating v32.bis with your ears.

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jeffumich
Id say it means higher than most other people you know or have met.

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pius
in that case, there's a penalty for surrounding yourself with intelligent
people . . . probably not a good thing

