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Hey sama! From the YC founder's profile application: > Please tell us about the time you, <username>, most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to yo

Hey sama! From the YC founder's profile application: > Please tell us about the time you, <username>, most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage. I am so much longing to know, why a "non-computer" system? There are so many things I could have boasted of but can't because of the "non-computer" thing :P

matheweis 12y ago
I don't speak for YC, but I'd guess it has to do with demonstrating that you're not just a coder in a basement, and that you'll be able to get things done in the "real" world. Sam's answer to his own question is probably a great indicator of the type of thing that he's looking for: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239203 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239203 edit: also this - have you done the impossible https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239229 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239229
CurtMonash 12y ago
Those are very different skills. When I was a stock analyst, well before Reg FD, it was about getting information other people didn't. Same is true now that I'm a self-employed industry analyst. It's about relationships, and having the relationships be productive in specific ways. Self-promotion generally takes some cleverness. It shares aspects with my previous example -- you use people who like you in ways that are productive, that don't harm them (or, much better, explicitly help them), and don't cause them to stop liking you. This requires understanding of other people's needs and motivations. I did some clever negotiating things back in the day -- getting a game theory PhD in 1979 pretty much guaranteed that I was a negotiation "expert" in the 1980s, although subsequently general understanding of game theory and negotiation advanced and obviated such an advantage. The first time a company threatened me with a scary libel suit I got their arch-competitor to, the same day, offer to pay my legal fees. That may have been my flashiest hack of all. :)

matheweis 12y ago

I don't speak for YC, but I'd guess it has to do with demonstrating that you're not just a coder in a basement, and that you'll be able to get things done in the "real" world. Sam's answer to his own question is probably a great indicator of the type of thing that he's looking for: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239203 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239203 edit: also this - have you done the impossible https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239229 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9239229

CurtMonash 12y ago

Those are very different skills. When I was a stock analyst, well before Reg FD, it was about getting information other people didn't. Same is true now that I'm a self-employed industry analyst. It's about relationships, and having the relationships be productive in specific ways. Self-promotion generally takes some cleverness. It shares aspects with my previous example -- you use people who like you in ways that are productive, that don't harm them (or, much better, explicitly help them), and don't cause them to stop liking you. This requires understanding of other people's needs and motivations. I did some clever negotiating things back in the day -- getting a game theory PhD in 1979 pretty much guaranteed that I was a negotiation "expert" in the 1980s, although subsequently general understanding of game theory and negotiation advanced and obviated such an advantage. The first time a company threatened me with a scary libel suit I got their arch-competitor to, the same day, offer to pay my legal fees. That may have been my flashiest hack of all. :)