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Age is just a number that happens to correlate with obligations, health, energy, ambition, etc. But whether these are weak or strong correlations, what truly ma

Age is just a number that happens to correlate with obligations, health, energy, ambition, etc. But whether these are weak or strong correlations, what truly matters isn’t a number, but what kind of person you are. As far as I know, YC doesn’t see any significant correlation between age and success, most likely because their criteria for acceptance focuses on real character traits rather than proxies like age. Using age to judge anyone — whether young or old — is just lazy thinking. Having said that, at the extremes of age, it makes sense to be lazy in a virtuous way. A four-year-old would make a poor CEO. So would a 110-year-old. There is a spectrum where you can make assumptions based on age. Where does one draw the line in making assumptions based on age? 15? 20? 60? 80? YC has already identified for us what matters when it comes to startup success: a team of insanely determined founders who have the right mix of intelligence and boldness. Age, given those qualities, is irrelevant.

JohnFen 7y ago
> what truly matters isn’t a number, but what kind of person you are. I'm actually not entirely sure what you mean by this, so my comment here may be agreeing with you. I don't think that "age is just a number". Age inevitably brings experience. The older you are, the more situations you have encountered and the more experience you have gained. I think discounting that is a mistake. However, it's not like there's a linear or directly comparable relationship here. People are different. One 50 year old can have a very different amount of experience (or, more accurately, has learned more from their experience) than another, and I have met 20-somethings that have learned more from life than most middle-aged people. That said, if you look at a person in their 20s and compare with the same person in their 50s, the 50-year-old version is most likely wiser and more knowledgeable than the 20-year-old version.

JohnFen 7y ago

> what truly matters isn’t a number, but what kind of person you are. I'm actually not entirely sure what you mean by this, so my comment here may be agreeing with you. I don't think that "age is just a number". Age inevitably brings experience. The older you are, the more situations you have encountered and the more experience you have gained. I think discounting that is a mistake. However, it's not like there's a linear or directly comparable relationship here. People are different. One 50 year old can have a very different amount of experience (or, more accurately, has learned more from their experience) than another, and I have met 20-somethings that have learned more from life than most middle-aged people. That said, if you look at a person in their 20s and compare with the same person in their 50s, the 50-year-old version is most likely wiser and more knowledgeable than the 20-year-old version.