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Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." YC is the new college degree. This attitude of "figuring our how to past the
by dilemma 10y ago
Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."
YC is the new college degree. This attitude of "figuring our how to past the next test on the path to guaranteed success" is the opposite of entrepreneurial.
- garry 10y agoI would argue YC is very pragmatic about the criteria it uses to fund people. If this were an every-increasing spiral of BS to get into YC, then you'd be right. Being plain spoken is basically the opposite of BS. In the post I do note that this stuff is pretty handy for anyone explaining their business to anyone. You should be worried if it were only useful to YC interviewees.
- tyre 10y agoI agree with this. The best companies and founders in our batch were those who had thoughtful, direct answers to questions. Posts from VCs can be helpful to hear the kind of questions they'll ask and why they ask them (i.e. what they are worried about.) Answer directly and honestly.
- dilemma 10y agoMine is meta commentary.
- danieltillett 10y agoGoodhart’ Law does not hold when you measure a wide variety of independent factors. If the measures are broad enough they are ungamable. I do agree with your general point that far too many people are worrying about “passing” the YC test than building something valuable.
- garry 10y agoThe ironic thing is that the YC test is mainly about trying to find something valuable.
- danieltillett 10y agoYC has far more to lose by gaming activity than the gamers. I am sure YC is worried about creating an ecosystem where startups are focused on passing and not on building value. I am not sure what the solution is given how influential YC has become.
- mathattack 10y agoDoes this imply yCombinator's returns will go down?