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I watched most of the FFC. Like Marc Andreesen has said, software is eating the world. YC is getting such critical mass now that entrepreneurs and idealists/pra

I watched most of the FFC. Like Marc Andreesen has said, software is eating the world. YC is getting such critical mass now that entrepreneurs and idealists/pragmatists with world-affecting ideas are now applying for YC. Not necessarily because they'd heard of YC - but because someone they know who cares about them had heard about YC. YC, in my opinion, is getting to a point where it can help incubate world-changing ideas that don't necessarily sell technology to consumers directly but use technology to enable more efficiency or connection or empathy (or all of the above). Of all the presentations, Grace's was the best. I loved Grace Garey of Watsi's stories. About how every Tuesday night, about eight or ten of the world-wide team of Watsi, in every timezone (day, afternoon, morning) would always get together for a Google Hangout to talk about Watsi. About how she was at a busy bar in NYC with her friends and they were in the waning hours of an online contest to win $10k for Watsi. They were falling behind, and Grace had the gutsy idea to ask the bouncer to make everyone who came into the bar have to vote for Watsi on the contest site on their smartphone. They ended up winning by the scarcest of margins (1%) and the bouncer gonged a bell and the entire bar celebrated. Like Brian and Joe of Airbnb creating their own cereal, it was a gutsy move to make it to the next critical step (raising enough funds for some of the Watsi team to go full-time and all-in). And a little different. Congratulations to the YC team on making a ripple in the pond!

jsprogrammer 12y ago
YC is still stuck in a world of ideas based on controlling others through the creation of debt and claiming lifetime ownership of others' work. That they are stuck there is not entirely unsurprising, nor is it unsurprising that there is a forming gender-class that is trying to emulate the functioning of that world. To me, continuing to carry out these decade[century, millennium?]-long ideas is not very world-changing. It may be progressive enhancement, but that has slowly been happening for awhile. The anecdote that you shared about the bar in NYC smacks of this old-world thinking: >the gutsy idea to ask the bouncer to make everyone who came into the bar have to vote for I'm still not quite sure if this is slavery or just tribal exculsivism. I don't know, maybe it's both?
- voltagex_ 12y ago
  > I'm still not quite sure if this is slavery or just tribal exculsivism. I don't know, maybe it's both? The fuck? It's a nice anecdote about winning some money for what is ostensibly a charity!
  - jsprogrammer 12y ago
    To be fair, I didn't hear the original anecdote. I'm only going off of the words in the post I responded to, but making people take an action to better your financial position is slavery. From the description, the people being coerced could presumably choose not to take the action, but would then be denied entry to the bar. That is explicit tribalism and creates a situation where you either join along with the groupthink or you get cast back on to the streets. Edit: If you can't refute or contribute, down-vote.
    - efuquen 12y ago
      > making people take an action to better your financial position is slavery. "What is Watsi? Watsi is a global crowdfunding platform that enables anyone to donate as little as $5 to directly fund life-changing healthcare for people in need. Watsi is a registered U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (EIN: 45-3236734)." https://watsi.org/faq https://watsi.org/faq If these were the actions of a CEO for a for profit business your statements might make more sense, except that's not the case at all. Nobody is getting rich off Watsi and there goals are commendable. Not to say there aren't probably other examples that would make your point, but seriously this doesn't seem like a good one to pick.
      - jsprogrammer 12y ago
        I'm not sure what US Codes or Officer status has to do with my assessment. A CEO is not entitled, by position, to any business profits. They are strictly reserved for stock-owners. Those points are irrelevant to mine. I just took a look Watsi's Transparency Report. It's commendable that they seem to be going much further than many other organizations do in opening up their financial information. However, while I found lots of patient details, I was unable to find a breakout of salaries and other payments to employees, officers, or other, only an aggregate monthly salary line item of ~66k. If their about page is accurate and there are currently 6 employees, that's about $132k/year/person. Not Jamie Dimon salaries, but still more than double US median household earnings. Edit: Also, I'm not ragging on Watsi. I'm not familiar with them other than what I just shared above. My beef is with the behavior in the anecdote (which may or may not be accurate to what actually happened at that NYC bar) that was shared, but more importantly with the culture that people seem to be trying to emulate.
SFjul 12y ago
Watsi = inspiring. Thanks for this jolt. I needed it to kick me in the ass when whining about funding.

jsprogrammer 12y ago

YC is still stuck in a world of ideas based on controlling others through the creation of debt and claiming lifetime ownership of others' work. That they are stuck there is not entirely unsurprising, nor is it unsurprising that there is a forming gender-class that is trying to emulate the functioning of that world. To me, continuing to carry out these decade[century, millennium?]-long ideas is not very world-changing. It may be progressive enhancement, but that has slowly been happening for awhile. The anecdote that you shared about the bar in NYC smacks of this old-world thinking: >the gutsy idea to ask the bouncer to make everyone who came into the bar have to vote for I'm still not quite sure if this is slavery or just tribal exculsivism. I don't know, maybe it's both?

voltagex_ 12y ago
> I'm still not quite sure if this is slavery or just tribal exculsivism. I don't know, maybe it's both? The fuck? It's a nice anecdote about winning some money for what is ostensibly a charity!
- jsprogrammer 12y ago
  To be fair, I didn't hear the original anecdote. I'm only going off of the words in the post I responded to, but making people take an action to better your financial position is slavery. From the description, the people being coerced could presumably choose not to take the action, but would then be denied entry to the bar. That is explicit tribalism and creates a situation where you either join along with the groupthink or you get cast back on to the streets. Edit: If you can't refute or contribute, down-vote.
  - efuquen 12y ago
    > making people take an action to better your financial position is slavery. "What is Watsi? Watsi is a global crowdfunding platform that enables anyone to donate as little as $5 to directly fund life-changing healthcare for people in need. Watsi is a registered U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (EIN: 45-3236734)." https://watsi.org/faq https://watsi.org/faq If these were the actions of a CEO for a for profit business your statements might make more sense, except that's not the case at all. Nobody is getting rich off Watsi and there goals are commendable. Not to say there aren't probably other examples that would make your point, but seriously this doesn't seem like a good one to pick.
    - jsprogrammer 12y ago
      I'm not sure what US Codes or Officer status has to do with my assessment. A CEO is not entitled, by position, to any business profits. They are strictly reserved for stock-owners. Those points are irrelevant to mine. I just took a look Watsi's Transparency Report. It's commendable that they seem to be going much further than many other organizations do in opening up their financial information. However, while I found lots of patient details, I was unable to find a breakout of salaries and other payments to employees, officers, or other, only an aggregate monthly salary line item of ~66k. If their about page is accurate and there are currently 6 employees, that's about $132k/year/person. Not Jamie Dimon salaries, but still more than double US median household earnings. Edit: Also, I'm not ragging on Watsi. I'm not familiar with them other than what I just shared above. My beef is with the behavior in the anecdote (which may or may not be accurate to what actually happened at that NYC bar) that was shared, but more importantly with the culture that people seem to be trying to emulate.

SFjul 12y ago

Watsi = inspiring. Thanks for this jolt. I needed it to kick me in the ass when whining about funding.