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I've got a problem for you to solve. This is not a complete sentence. Solve that. ;) In the spirit of showing you that we can thrive at Y Combinator, and that

I've got a problem for you to solve. This is not a complete sentence. Solve that. ;) In the spirit of showing you that we can thrive at Y Combinator, and that we are more than who we are on paper.

dfc 15y ago
Awesome, free grammar advice from someone who writes: "I have got a problem" Thanks for the LOLz...
- jack-r-abbit 15y ago
  I've got something for you to read. http://bit.ly/HcYIJS http://bit.ly/HcYIJS Edit: Also, while I stand by the correctness of my first statement, me being right or wrong wouldn't make that fragmented sentence a complete one. However, unlike the OP, my comment was not intended to catch the attention of Y Combinator to get an interview with the hopes of getting my start-up kick started. So I would tend to give posts like mine a little more leeway than a challenge like the OP. Perhaps grammatical errors like that resulted in the rejections.
  - dfc 15y ago
    What am I looking for? Formal written usage or informal spoken usage of the two phrases? Clear and succinct or acceptable?
    - jack-r-abbit 15y ago
      Look for whatever category you think a comment on a thread on HN would fall into. I don't think that would be "formal" anything. You didn't specifically mention "informal written" but that is probably what I would classify it as since this is an informal setting and it was written not spoken. The top few results certainly put it in the "acceptable" category. General usage of the phrase in similar situations leads me to believe I don't really need to defend my usage of it.
  - dfc 15y ago
    While admittedly childish on my part; the use of formal grammar brings up an interesting question. In a potst somewhere on HN I read that yc uses some sort of bayesian filter on applications. The details and my recollection are a little murky about the process. It would be interesting to know if there was a correlation (+/-) between formal, colloquial or improper grammar and the success of applications.
    - jack-r-abbit 15y ago
      That would be interesting. As imperfect as my grammar and spelling are, I know that when I have a stack of resumes on my desk to review, the first pass weeds out the ones with grammar/spelling mistakes. Applying for a job is too important of a task to make avoidable mistakes like that. If you have not taken the time to make your resume perfect then you are likely to do sloppy work in your day to day activities. I would apply the same filter to a YC application. If I ever find myself working up an application for YC, I would spend the time and money needed to make sure every bit of that was correct. Now whether it should be formal or informal or what have you would be a big mystery. I would tend to lean toward formal in something like that. But perhaps not so formal that I come off has a robot. You can't trust robots.

I've got a problem for you to solve. This is not a complete sentence. Solve that. ;) In the spirit of showing you that we can thrive at Y Combinator, and that we are more than who we are on paper.

dfc 15y ago

Awesome, free grammar advice from someone who writes: "I have got a problem" Thanks for the LOLz...

jack-r-abbit 15y ago
I've got something for you to read. http://bit.ly/HcYIJS http://bit.ly/HcYIJS Edit: Also, while I stand by the correctness of my first statement, me being right or wrong wouldn't make that fragmented sentence a complete one. However, unlike the OP, my comment was not intended to catch the attention of Y Combinator to get an interview with the hopes of getting my start-up kick started. So I would tend to give posts like mine a little more leeway than a challenge like the OP. Perhaps grammatical errors like that resulted in the rejections.
- dfc 15y ago
  What am I looking for? Formal written usage or informal spoken usage of the two phrases? Clear and succinct or acceptable?
  - jack-r-abbit 15y ago
    Look for whatever category you think a comment on a thread on HN would fall into. I don't think that would be "formal" anything. You didn't specifically mention "informal written" but that is probably what I would classify it as since this is an informal setting and it was written not spoken. The top few results certainly put it in the "acceptable" category. General usage of the phrase in similar situations leads me to believe I don't really need to defend my usage of it.
- dfc 15y ago
  While admittedly childish on my part; the use of formal grammar brings up an interesting question. In a potst somewhere on HN I read that yc uses some sort of bayesian filter on applications. The details and my recollection are a little murky about the process. It would be interesting to know if there was a correlation (+/-) between formal, colloquial or improper grammar and the success of applications.
  - jack-r-abbit 15y ago
    That would be interesting. As imperfect as my grammar and spelling are, I know that when I have a stack of resumes on my desk to review, the first pass weeds out the ones with grammar/spelling mistakes. Applying for a job is too important of a task to make avoidable mistakes like that. If you have not taken the time to make your resume perfect then you are likely to do sloppy work in your day to day activities. I would apply the same filter to a YC application. If I ever find myself working up an application for YC, I would spend the time and money needed to make sure every bit of that was correct. Now whether it should be formal or informal or what have you would be a big mystery. I would tend to lean toward formal in something like that. But perhaps not so formal that I come off has a robot. You can't trust robots.