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She’s was a PhD candidate in theoretical physics and is working at a startup directly building mobility robotics prototypes. How is she a consulting/finance sho

She’s was a PhD candidate in theoretical physics and is working at a startup directly building mobility robotics prototypes. How is she a consulting/finance showman? Because she was at McKinsey at one point? Maybe if she quit immediately after losing the Google X prestige you might be able to infer something about her motivations, but she’s clearly passionate about the deep engineering project she’s working on and still at it even in the startup environment, so your comment seems to completely miss the mark.

bumby 2y ago
To me, it raises red flags of status-seeking behavior (ie, extrinsic motivation). I read the OP as saying the person was looking to check resume boxes rather than achieve something great. There's almost a template of what the stereotypical SV entrepreneur's resume "should" look like, and it's part of that myth. Sometimes, I think people get too concerned with looking the part rather than being the part. (I can't speak specifically in this situation because it's behind a paywall). It's not that people can't achieve great things by extrinsic motivation, but if I were a betting person (and that's essentially what VC is), I'd prefer to put my money on someone with more intrinsic motivation because it tends to wane less when things get tough or the tides of what's trendy change.
- RandomLensman 2y ago
  I think this is mixing somewhat the portrait of that person with who that person might. The portrait might be somewhat stereotypical but the person might not be.
  - bumby 2y ago
    Of course that’s possible, but unless we know them personally, there only information we have is from their portrait. That’s also why I said they are “red flags” and not definitive conclusions.
coliveira 2y ago
> she’s clearly passionate about the deep engineering project There is nothing there saying that she is passionate about anything. The kind of thing she's doing is only a job. Just because you're doing something related to startups doesn't mean you love startups, most of the time it is just a job you need to do to get from point A to point B.

bumby 2y ago

To me, it raises red flags of status-seeking behavior (ie, extrinsic motivation). I read the OP as saying the person was looking to check resume boxes rather than achieve something great. There's almost a template of what the stereotypical SV entrepreneur's resume "should" look like, and it's part of that myth. Sometimes, I think people get too concerned with looking the part rather than being the part. (I can't speak specifically in this situation because it's behind a paywall). It's not that people can't achieve great things by extrinsic motivation, but if I were a betting person (and that's essentially what VC is), I'd prefer to put my money on someone with more intrinsic motivation because it tends to wane less when things get tough or the tides of what's trendy change.

RandomLensman 2y ago
I think this is mixing somewhat the portrait of that person with who that person might. The portrait might be somewhat stereotypical but the person might not be.
- bumby 2y ago
  Of course that’s possible, but unless we know them personally, there only information we have is from their portrait. That’s also why I said they are “red flags” and not definitive conclusions.

coliveira 2y ago

> she’s clearly passionate about the deep engineering project There is nothing there saying that she is passionate about anything. The kind of thing she's doing is only a job. Just because you're doing something related to startups doesn't mean you love startups, most of the time it is just a job you need to do to get from point A to point B.