4 ms·
You're over it.
by pg 14y ago
You're over it.
- codegeek 14y agoCurious if you determined that solely based on his post or you know more about OP ?
- mion 14y agoSolely based on my post, I guess. I did apply to YC once with a stupid idea.
- jere 14y ago>...as an undergrad I have way above average GPA You're mastering undergraduate material, which certainly doesn't give any clues as to if you are genius, but it does say you can probably build whatever you want given enough time and effort. What else does he need to know?
- tempaccount9473 14y agoPerhaps I'm being too cynical, but if PG's business model is cherry-picking busniess ideas from a firehose of potential startups, telling random strangers on the internet, "yes, you're smart enough to apply with a business idea for me to accept or reject", seems simply good business. The cost of rejecting yet another poorly conceived business plan by a marginal candidate is less than the potential loss of billions if the guy who comes up with THE NEXT BIG THING is too shy to apply to YC.
- avenger123 14y agoTo answer the main question, you don't need to know more than what the OP posted. The poster show's self-doubt, self-awareness, the ability to self evaluate and the ability to learn as indicated by his undergrad. So definitely the intelligence is there. Considering the poster is most likely in their early twenties, regardless of the idea, the best thing going for the person is their runway. They have the time to fail a couple of times before other life goals come into play. And frankly, there isn't too much correlation between business success and high intelligence. Anecdotally, it can be argued that there is an inverse relationship.
- mion 14y agoOk I'm taking your word. Amazing how a just few words can be so comforting.
- michaelgrafl 14y agoI think that's pretty obvious. I wish determination was as easily spotted as the intelligence treshold.
- mion 14y agoI wouldn't say it's obvious. A lot of people have self-doubt. I for one don't know if I would be able to build something like Dropbox, for instance. But I guess the key here is to try anyway and learn along the process. Paul Buchheit said he wasn't qualified to build Gmail when they asked him to.
- htp 14y agoI’m in the middle of the most ridiculous stunt I’ve ever attempted in my life, and while I can’t talk about it I can say this: > the key here is to try anyway and learn along the process. This is exactly right. Keep pulling on the string and see where it takes you; if you’re as determined as you say you are, that determination will be more than enough to compensate for whatever intelligence you think you don’t have.
- grinich 14y agoIf you're doing anything novel, almost by definition you can't be "qualified" to do it.
- actionbrandon 14y agoa bad ass reply.