4 ms·

> 4. Use a more sophisticated voting system. I think a "which of these two looks better" combined with a form of Elo rating could work quite well. I think that

by S4M 10y ago

> 4. Use a more sophisticated voting system. I think a "which of these two looks better" combined with a form of Elo rating could work quite well. I think that's a bad idea given how different the startups are. It doesn't make sense to me to compare for example AirBnB (what it was when they applied) with Tarsnap or AutoMicroFarm with Cruise.

cperciva 10y ago
To me, the difficulty of comparing startups makes asking people to compare two at a time even more important: If comparing AirBnB and Tarsnap is challenging, how can people possibly compare AirBnB and Tarsnap and AutoMicroFarm and Cruise and 14 others at the same time?
- danieltillett 10y ago
  I think a bigger problem is what criteria are we supposed to be selecting the startups on? My application wasn't even a startup (just an idea). Should people have voted for it if it was a good idea, if they think I have the track record and resources to build it, if it solves an interesting problem, if it could be a unicorn, if it could raise future investor funds, etc, etc?
  - cperciva 10y ago
    Yes, that definitely needs to be clearer. Given the context of "wisdom of the crowd vs. wisdom of YC", I interpreted the sole criterion to be "YC will benefit by making this investment"; it seems that many people took it instead as "who do we want YC to give $20k to", which is a very different question...
    - danieltillett 10y ago
      The mere fact of who won suggests that you and I were in the minority on this. Most of the problems Dan and Kevin have suffered is due to most people not thinking of what is best for YC.
      - cperciva 10y ago
        I agree that we were probably in the minority, but statistically speaking it doesn't immediately follow: Votes for "who do you want YC to give money to" may have been far more concentrated than votes for "who will YC benefit by investing in". I don't know the total number of people who voted; if most people only voted for one or two submissions, then the pinboard-voters would be in the minority.
        danieltillett 10y ago
        Only YC knows the answer to this. I would not be surprised to learn that the votes were split into a large pool of people that voted for Pinboard only and another large pool that voted for multiple applications. All I know for sure is they were not voting for mine :)

by S4M 10y ago

cperciva 10y ago

To me, the difficulty of comparing startups makes asking people to compare two at a time even more important: If comparing AirBnB and Tarsnap is challenging, how can people possibly compare AirBnB and Tarsnap and AutoMicroFarm and Cruise and 14 others at the same time?

danieltillett 10y ago
I think a bigger problem is what criteria are we supposed to be selecting the startups on? My application wasn't even a startup (just an idea). Should people have voted for it if it was a good idea, if they think I have the track record and resources to build it, if it solves an interesting problem, if it could be a unicorn, if it could raise future investor funds, etc, etc?
- cperciva 10y ago
  Yes, that definitely needs to be clearer. Given the context of "wisdom of the crowd vs. wisdom of YC", I interpreted the sole criterion to be "YC will benefit by making this investment"; it seems that many people took it instead as "who do we want YC to give $20k to", which is a very different question...
  - danieltillett 10y ago
    The mere fact of who won suggests that you and I were in the minority on this. Most of the problems Dan and Kevin have suffered is due to most people not thinking of what is best for YC.
    - cperciva 10y ago
      I agree that we were probably in the minority, but statistically speaking it doesn't immediately follow: Votes for "who do you want YC to give money to" may have been far more concentrated than votes for "who will YC benefit by investing in". I don't know the total number of people who voted; if most people only voted for one or two submissions, then the pinboard-voters would be in the minority.
      - danieltillett 10y ago
        Only YC knows the answer to this. I would not be surprised to learn that the votes were split into a large pool of people that voted for Pinboard only and another large pool that voted for multiple applications. All I know for sure is they were not voting for mine :)