Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
YC X25, the spring 2025 batch (ycombinator.com)
29 points by todsacerdoti 7 hours ago | hide | past | favorite | 21 comments





good for them but

> One of the first questions people ask when we say we are doing a spring batch is what letter we will use to refer to it since “S” is already taken for the summer batch. We considered something like “Sp” or “P” but one founder made the suggestion of using “X” since it's a common variable name in programming and thus makes sense since the name “Y Combinator” itself is a programming term.

This chain of reasoning seems totally disconnected? "While trying to come up with a single letter to denote spring, since S was taken, we decided on... a common variable name instead" ??? what happened to denoting spring in there? Am I missing some clever reference? Is spring in particular the season for common variables?

The spring constant (in physics) is denoted by the letter "k", why not use that? I know its not programming, but at least it denotes spring.


In good spirit of programming, nothing better than a terrible non-descriptive one character variable name.

Notation is ultimately arbitrary, it's just what everyone has agreed on.

(As a fun fact, Spanish has decided to use X for Wednesday because both Wednesday and Tuesday start with the same letter, M: https://www.20minutos.es/cultura/blogs/yaestaellistoquetodol...)


I learned a while back that Miercoles is a minced oath in Spanish. As in, you start to say the other thing that starts with Mier--, make eye contact with a child, and say the other thing.

I can confirm, my wife uses this all the time

I think you may need to review what that word means in case you have an incorrect belief about its definition. Almost all notation ever created has a reason or a system, I have no idea why one would think its ultimately arbitrary (having no reason or system).

Consensus is not arbitrary either, that's a strong reason, a lack of arbitrary-ness. Even the second definition of arbitrary, something done unilaterally, is contra-consensus.


Also the word for “of or pertaining to spring” is “vernal”, so… V? Obscure and a bit antiquated, but also technically correct (the best kind).

El verano is Spanish for summer. Primavera for spring. But I agree it's all arbitrary. Could just do the boring thing and say 2025Q[1-4]

Vernal equinox is a pretty well-known expression

G would have made more sense

In MTG the 5 colors are white, blue, black, red, and green. WUBRG. B is already taken by black (bla > blu) so blue became U. Hence in my head logic spring should have been G (technically sp > su but no point to change summer’s S after decades)


Nobody knows what it means but it's provocative, gets the people going.

X also comes right after W, just as the Spring batch will come right after the Winter batch.

Maybe the "founder" is the Twitter boss

I would just take the opportunity to rename all batched 1,2,3,4 and call the batches yc25 etc to denote all batches in 2025 etc. who cares what season you are in at this point. But this is just me.

Z would have made more sense as a pair of the Y combinator (and the next letter).

X is jut plain boring because there's nothing theoritical behind it.


What about YC25q1, YC25q2, YC25q3 and YC25q4?

Hey quit it with that universally understood, sensible solution. We're here to disrupt!

V25, the Vernal YC 2025 batch!

This is great. There is still nothing like YC. Great news for batches who get in.

Can YC be attended completely remotely, or which incubators can be?

B25 for Bloom would've been nicer



Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: