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Intresting question, but the feasibility of it is not dependent on my ability to give a good answer. Regardless, I'll give it a shot for argument's sake. Of cou

Intresting question, but the feasibility of it is not dependent on my ability to give a good answer. Regardless, I'll give it a shot for argument's sake. Of course everything you say is valid. you would need to do these things. I would also mine all the successes, details of interview process and characteristics of successful applicants and their applications for commonalities and then see how many of these can be easily added to an application for 'bonus points'. Of course it depends on how black-hat you want to get about this. The first thing that came to my mind though, having read pg's essays, would be 'teach them LISP' :)

netcan 18y ago
My intention wasn't to corner you, just to start a discussion. For arguments sake, let's get about as black hat as a Chinese mother with a shot at Oxford. I don't know much about YC or what influences them apart from fragments from pg's essays. Insisting that LISP or some other language no one uses is absolutely the best tool seems like it might be a bonus point. But I think that is as a bonus. What would be the core? They say smartness & an attitude that they are going to do something big with or without the program. The latter can be gamed. The former, I don't know much about the criteria.