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> I’m going to personally donate $10 million Statements like this always turn me off. I guess it's because it breaks the illusion that Sam and everyone else at
by pw 11y ago
> I’m going to personally donate $10 million
Statements like this always turn me off. I guess it's because it breaks the illusion that Sam and everyone else at YC are normal people like most of us. They're not. They're INSANELY wealthy by any reasonable standard.
- AndrewKemendo 11y agoI guess it's because it breaks the illusion that Sam and everyone else at YC are normal people like most of us. Not to sound contemptuous, but are there really people out there who consider the folks running YC "normal people?"
- pw 11y agoI feel like you're using "normal people" as pejorative. I meant it as "is able to relate to the day-to-day experience of most people in this country."
- AndrewKemendo 11y agoI'm definitely using it as you intended. "the day-to-day experience of most people in this country" is nothing like any of the things Altman, PG, Livingston etc... experience on a daily basis.
- outericky 11y agoI'd wager most HN readers can't relate to the day to day experience of most people in this country.
- pw 11y agoAlso a problem.
- wtracy 11y agoA reminder about how most Americans actually live: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/most-americans-have-less-than-1000-in-savings-2015-10-06 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/most-americans-have-less-th...
- Nadya 11y agoIt's strange to me the huge gap between $5-9k and "over $10k". I wonder if that gap has more to do with upper/middle class or young business owners vs working 9-5?
- maxerickson 11y agoI would think it's a matter of the same behaviors that get someone to having $5,000 quickly get them to $10,000. The buckets aren't well sized there.
- pw 11y agoExactly. And I think that's a huge problem.
- kzhahou 11y agoYa, or even "is able to relate to the day-to-day experience of most people who read Hacker News." Sam's startup --like for many here-- was not a roaring success. Few of the entrepreneurs and engineers here on HN have an extra $10m in the bank after an experience like that.
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- rudolf0 11y agoI'm not quite sure who would have that illusion. The executives of investment companies (which is essentially what YC is, albeit a little bit different) tend to be wealthy.
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- yannyu 11y agoIf he is donating, why should he be obligated to donate it to some other charitable cause? Should humanity only focus on one problem at a time?
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- giarc 11y agoYou're getting downvotes because you are assuming that the research will be focused on something that won't impact humans in some "charitable" way. >I think it's very interesting phenomenon that he values this research more than the lives of other people, It's possible to make a donation to research something that isn't curing cancer for example but still impact the lives of people.
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- mhartl 11y agoThis is a charitable cause. My guess is that YCR-sponsored organizations will be involved in the kinds of projects that might affect world hunger, etc.
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- unethical_ban 11y ago"turns me off" is a negative emotion. Does the realization that we're not all financially equal feel worse than the fact he's donating $10m to this cause?
- argumentum 11y agoIf it's any consolation, they were "normal people" before they became insanely wealthy. If anything, that's the point of YC .. to give "normal people" with intellect, determination and good ideas the chance to become "insanely wealthy" while improving the world.
- pw 11y agoI'd probably argue that it's a bad thing for anyone to have the chance to be "insanely wealthy."
- oldmanjay 11y agoWow, please do make that argument. I'm dying to see it.
- djhn 11y ago"I wish everyone had the chance, but nobody would use it" could be better.
- pw 11y agoThat's an excellent point. Would love to chat with you more about it, but I don't see contact info in your profile. Feel free to hit me up at p@pwhite.org.
- cryoshon 11y agoAgreed. It's important to remember that sama is SV elite (tm) and can afford to throw his money after extremely ambitious and risky projects-- he isn't living the "normie" life. There's nothing wrong with that, but it can be a bit jarring to be reminded of it. I still think that this is a great (fantastic and maybe even unprecedented, depending on how serious he is about the duration) move by YC, though. I really hope that they nail the concept of research being different from shipping products, though-- the mentality that research is a product that has to be shipped out has largely killed the scientific research community of academia, warping it into a horrendous paper-churn for survival.
- majani 11y agowhy would you want to be sheltered from such a basic fact of life? Anyway, if it's any consolation, 10m is probably not small change for Sam. His biggest liquidity event so far was 40m for Loopt, so 10m is definitely a considered investment for him. He probably wrote it in an off the cuff manner to set a precedent for the mentality towards the fund. Basically signaling to other investors not to think about putting money up too much since its such a worthy cause
- vanessa98 11y agoHe got 40M from selling Loopt? Didn't Loopt raise 40M? How does Sam have 10M lying around?
- majani 11y agoAccording to the press releases from the Loopt exit, they had raised 17m at that point, and 9.8m of the acquisition was the golden handcuff for the employees. So sama probably doesn't have 10m just lying around and is probably pulling some financial acrobatics to get it, but he's putting on a brave face by quoting the amount nonchalantly.
- pw 11y agoI wouldn't want to be sheltered from such a fact but being reminded of it is jarring and changes my feeling towards YC.
- Mz 11y agoI share some of your sentiment, yet...not. I was one of the top three students of my graduating high school class. I turned down a National Merit Scholarship, in part to go be "normal" and walk away from the sick inculcation with being an obnoxious brainiac and social outcast, hiding my insecurity and emotional pain over the social end of things behind a wall of contempt and superiority. I have managed to wash off a lot of that shit, but being a nobody for years and becoming quite poor -- even homeless -- has failed to make me normal by any stretch of the imagination. I have given up on being normal. I still hope to find ways to put out useful information that will benefit people who are more "normal" than I am and I do have my concerns about the world being designed and run by so many people who absolutely cannot relate to the day-to-day experiences of most of their target audience/customers. But I don't know that hoping for "normal" people to do the design work is in any way useful. I don't know what the answer is, but it seems like a lost cause to want people to do brilliant design work and also be normal. If you are that brilliant, you simply are not normal. Period.
- Imscaredofsama 11y agoThe whole sama thing doesn't compute for me and has negatively impacted my otherwise stellar view of YC. He dropped out of Stanford, founded Loopt (which raised $30 million and then acqui-sold for $43 -- and I'm sure Sequoia got the bulk of it), was then made a YC partner and finally appointed president. His Wikipedia page says he's made some angel investments in successful companies like AirBNB, but my question is: "With what money?" Maybe he sold some private shares of these companies at some point. There's nothing wrong with that. But again where did the original money come from? Family? I just don't get it. Please explain to me how dropping out of college and having your only startup fail leads to (a) being handed one of the most prestigious and influential positions in SV and (b) having so much money you can donate $10 million dollars like it's chump change. How does that make any sense in this universe? pg started YC and deserves all the credit for basically inventing the accelerator archetype. He can do whatever he wants and I guess he thought sama was the best guy for the job. Maybe he is. Heck, I'll even admit that I think he's done a good job so far, although I also think plenty of people would be equally adept at watching a golden goose lay eggs. I think SV -- and YC especially -- perpetrate a few huge myths which cause people to have unrealistic expectations of their lives and ventures. ("There aren't enough engineers!", for example. Just last week, sama was saying how easy it is to live in SV if you work at Facebook, make a $150k+ salary and got a $75k signing bonus... a situation he was pawning off as "average" but is actually highly above average.) These lofty, then unfulfilled expectations then cause depression in vast amounts of people, both inside the Valley and out. To me, sama is a colossal SV myth, incarnate. "Look! If you're smart enough, you can rocket to the moon! Even if you drop out of school and your only startup fails!" I don't understand the full story, apparently, but I just hope people aren't fooled. There is more than meets the eye, here.
- NhanH 11y agoI was surprised at the $10 millions number at first, but a quick thought process clear it out for me: it's very easy to see that a few of YC founders will be (or already are) billionaires. Is it really a surprised that the head honcho of YC might be worth in the hundred millions range?
- muyfine 11y agoCompletely agree. Would love to understand the money here - think it would provide a lot of perspective on how the technology financing community works.