Right. All I am saying is, if a 20 to 22 year old with no commitments is given a) A chance to hit it out the park and get rich or b) Become employee #21,765 at a market rate wage and equivocates, why try to push it any further? You can lead them to the water, but if they don't drink....whatever.

At the end of the day it's YC's call and really none of my business. But every now and then I get on my soapbox...

Ah, I think I see where you're going.

The choice between the two is not nearly as obvious as you think. Otherwise we should all play the lottery, no? The reasons why a is a pretty good idea can get pretty nuanced and sophisticated, and whether a 20-year old knows them all has more to do with who he's talked to recently than any actual ability.

The only reason I'm in a startup now is that I read a few of PG's essays many years past the age of 20, and started having conversations like this on reddit and news.yc. I think it's worth the minor investment in time/effort to reach out to me/them if you're a seed firm.

Yeah. I made the mistake of projecting my own life attitudes/experiences into the other person. In which case I made the assumption that the decision the other person would make is 'Based on all available data at your disposal, which is the best course of action'.

The other person does not have all the data that I have and probably has not projected future possibilities of the optimal outcome. In that case, they may equate a startup in the same neighborhood of probability as a lottery win.

Or, they may look at the startup world as a closed gig for insiders only, and not realise that all you need to do to get in the game is to start playing (and play your hardest, but i digress).

The ad makes it clear that there are people who will be willing to help you in if they think you've got what it takes, so that it's clearly not as closed as it might seem otherwise.

Are you really looking at it from the point of view of running a angel investment firm, or from the point of view of a someone not wanting more competition either for YC places or in the startup world?

green, not sure what you are asking here.

Sorry my comment wasn't really very clear. If you were running a YC clone, how would you feel about encouraging people to join startups? I think you're a little quick to dismiss people who aren't initially very keen on startups. Just questioning if perhaps your opinion comes from a place where you don't really want others to see the startup light.

I wish EVERY technical person would see the startup light. It would be a great boon to the economy. It escapes me how they can't, as statistically they probably report to someone who is not as intelligent as they are (a suit). All I am saying is that if they have such a low level of testosterone that they would choose reporting to a boss over being their own, you probably shouldn't waste your time.