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In Silicon Valley start-up world, pedigree counts
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- namenotrequired 13y agoEarlier discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6385227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6385227
- tptacek 13y agoA prestigious degree, a proven track record and personal connections to power-brokers Which of these things is not like the o-thers?
- btilly 13y agoThe proven track record, of course.
- untilHellbanned 13y agoobviously, the OP didn't go to Ha-vard.
- kenster07 13y agoIf a modern day Leonardo da Vinci materialized today, would he have a voice despite his lack of modern pedigree? Is this supposed to be controversial? Smart, self-aware people know that pedigree is somewhat related to, but is not the same thing as ability. After all, the great thinkers of history all predated the Ivy Leagues, and an extremely small % of all students, let alone Ivy Leaguers belong to the former group. The problem is, people, even smart people, are too lazy to think for themselves all the time. They either do not want to be tasked with, or are incapable of determining the worth of other people, so they use proxies like pedigree. It's a heuristic, and I'd go as far as to say it's embedded into human nature, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. One thing is for sure -- this problem is not local to Silicon Valley. It is a human problem. This becomes a "bubble" when people become so absorbed in pedigree that they begin to selectively ignore that which pedigree is supposed to proxy.