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Well, the bit about having to start hacking at age 13 to have the right mindset to be a founder packs a number of assumptions into one bundle; and some of those
by olefoo 13y ago
Well, the bit about having to start hacking at age 13 to have the right mindset to be a founder packs a number of assumptions into one bundle; and some of those assumptions are gendered.
There are girls who start programming at that age, but they learn to mask it because peer pressure runs against them. It also makes assumptions about the socio-economic status of the household; being able to afford even a cheap computer for a child takes some doing even today. It's not an opportunity that everyone gets, and it's a sad fact that in most human cultures scarce opportunities are handed preferentially to boys.
The thing is; and I think PG is aware of this, ycombinator is missing out on good opportunities because of false negatives in this particular area; and even more so because potential founders who happen to be female perceive that they aren't as welcome as they might be.
I think the best thing he could do would be to reach out to some of the people who are seen as his harshest critics ( specifically Shanley Kane and Ashe Dryden ) and open a dialogue with them.
The thing is that Paul Graham and YCombinator have accrued a level of influence and power that can be quite damaging if exercised blindly and he would I think understand the need to use that power responsibly. And in this case that means having some uncomfortable conversations and being challenged in ways that I'd guess he's becoming rather used to not being challenged.
- wvenable 13y agoI think PG would agree with everything that you are saying -- and he really hasn't said anything otherwise. We could all maybe totally agree that peer pressure runs against girls, economic status matters, and so on. What is the result of all that? Less women with the right ability at the right time for YC. I don't think there is much to argue about there. But then you assume that PG isn't doing enough to support women. But that's just an unfounded assumption born out of nothing. The only reason why we're even talking about this is because of some mis-quote to begin with. It's frankly all a bit pathetic.
- olefoo 13y agoOddly, the only thing I said PG _should_ do is open a dialogue with some of his critics. This is a much better explanation http://danilocampos.com/2013/12/explained-why-people-are-angry-at-paul-graham/ http://danilocampos.com/2013/12/explained-why-people-are-ang...
- theorique 13y agoI could be wrong, but I don't think the YC interview process specifically cares about how long the team has been coding. Other things being equal, if they have more experience, it's better than if they have less. But given these two scenarios, what would you pick? - team with great enthusiasm, communication, chemistry that has a cool idea and an interesting prototype. Tech lead has 4 years experience. - team with weak enthusiasm, bad communication, keep interrupting each other. Tech lead has 10 years experience. Maybe someone who has been through the process can speak to this?