>It's not cult-like, but it does seem arbitrary. To be clear, I did not say it is cult-like, only that it is unclear. If YC does operate on a magic oracle, th

>It's not cult-like, but it does seem arbitrary. To be clear, I did not say it is cult-like, only that it is unclear. If YC does operate on a magic oracle, then I might argue that it might be a cult. >Of course, that's what all job interviews are like. If they get a bad vibe from you or think you're not a "culture fit", they can quickly reject you based on a short impression. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not sure what it means that a YC interview may be thought of as a job interview, but I share your concerns. I'm also concerned that the essays may encourage such behavior. While the teams of the sort YC are organizing may benefit from such a selection process ("culture fit"), without any logical explanation of the process, the essays essentially encourage people to go out to start their own cults.