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How do you know they are lie detectors unless you tried lying to them?
by diskcat 11y ago
How do you know they are lie detectors unless you tried lying to them?
- freddier 11y agoIndirect experiences and anecdotes. Also, it's inevitable sometimes to feel ashamed of certain things in your startup, so you actively avoid talking about it. But they know. And you end up talking about it, which is a good thing. So... yeah, I tried lying and failed?
- wallflower 11y ago> so you actively avoid talking about it. Yes, lying is more commonly - the act of omission rather than telling.
- kelukelugames 11y agoBe interesting if they went into detail about what prompted this paragraph. Anyone can state generalities. >Lying to YC partners is a waste of time. They won't ask for the money back, so tell them everything. All startups are chaotic shitshows. They know. They invented the phrase.
- freddier 11y agoOK, Most (all?) startups have broken things. Mine did and I tried to hide them at first. But I guess YC is at a point that, after thousands of startups, they've seen most of the patterns and just want to help you fix them. They'll help you no matter in what shape your company is. Also, some startups plainly lie about their metrics, but those rarely get accepted to YC, from my limited experience.
- diskcat 11y agoWhy would you lie about metrics? That seems highly verifiable. You should only lie about things that will be hard to find out like how many women you ever slept with.
- freddier 11y agoI never lied about metrics but I've seen startups that do outside YC. Most of them don't do it out of malice but due to bad math. It's easy, for example, to miscalculate CAC in the early days of your company.
- ank_the_elder 11y agoA more interesting question: What do you think the investors lied to you about? What do you think they kept to themselves?
- freddier 11y agoAt YC? Nothing. They have no reason to do that. It'd defeat the purpose of YC.
- jonahx 11y agoOther ways, besides lying yourself, that you could know a person was a good lie detector: * You've seen them catch others in a lie * You've heard stories about the ability 2nd hand, either from people who have been caught themselves or from people who have seen others get caught. In addition, there are many fuzzier, less reliable types of evidence: * Somebody has so much knowledge and experience about something that you can safely assume irregularities would stand out to them. * They just give off that vibe: soul-piercing gaze, etc. * They tell you. So logically, the question makes about as much sense as asking how you could know someone was a good cook if you've never tasted their food. And not only that, getting caught in a lie by someone isn't even necessarily good evidence of their lie detection abilities. Maybe you are just a terrible liar. Maybe they got lucky one time.