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I think he glossed over that type of business because it's not a startup. It is a perfectly reasonable style for many who wish to start a new business, but the course is focused on startups.

This reply is very late and you may not see it, but I wanted to express my thoughts.

I appreciate the way Sam presents his thoughts (questions, answers, or otherwise). They're both extremely thoughtful and simple in a sense that he won't repel those who may feel below his level intellectually. Some of his points are so insightful, but it's taken me a lot of time, experience, and thought to be able to absorb or agree/disagree with them. Some just seem like simple advice that I should consider because I don't know enough to strongly believe he's right or wrong.

Perhaps you're at a high enough level intellectually that his simply-stated yet thoughtful points are, by now, obvious to you. I definitely don't mean to imply otherwise. Unfortunately, I haven't found many writers whose thoughts are as insightful as PG's, but I am content with rereading his old essays as I'm certain I haven't thoroughly understood everything he's written at the depth of understanding that he or others may have.

The part about risk resonated so much with me. I feel exactly the same way as Sam now, but it's taken many years and experiences to arrive at that mindset. I wonder if I would've taken his advice seriously when I was younger; it seems contrary to the advice I (and many others I assume) received about risk.

To be clear, I suggest all young adults follow Sam's advice on risk.

While reading one of Richard Feynman's books, one of many curiosities he wrote about sent my mind racing. He and some acquaintances were trying to accurately count to 1 minute in their minds without help from any timing device. None of them got it right, but the interesting part is the result of performing the experiment multiple times. Each individual would finish counting at almost exactly the same erroneous time as they had each previous attempt, and the individuals' times were distinctly different than the others'.

At the time I was reading that book, I'd been wondering if there were better ways than a username/pass or physiological biometrics to authenticate someone yet would also allow anonymity when the user prefers. I thought this internal timer would be a great fit, but depending on its accuracy and if it's actually unique to each individual, it might be best when combined with other similar behavioral biometrics.

Note: I didn't even know the term behavioral biometric until a wonderful person whom I met at Startup School 2016 informed me. I appreciate that kind person, and I'm very glad I met him.

Thank you for this. I didn't quite make it into the top 10, but it was a lot of fun. I really like what you guys are doing. I began learning to code by writing bots for games so your approach to teaching is a lot of fun. It looks like lots of others enjoy learning to code this way too.

I'm very curious about and hope that you'll post your opinion on the success of this tournament as a channel for hiring. This is a refreshing approach to filtering candidates that, hopefully, will be adopted by many others. I'm also curious to know if the tournament accelerated new user sign-ups. Perhaps the extra incentive (an interview was offered to the top 10 players) was enough to convince some to learn to code who would've put it off otherwise.

Thank you again. I hope the result of this tournament will be very positive for CodeCombat, and I wish you all the best moving forward.

In the article, he suggests finding Michelangelos. I imagine there are many who are clearly the right type, but many more non-obvious Michelangelos. Do you have (or intend to discover) a reliable way to foresee the best people even while circumstances influencing their lives have diverted them from the traditional outlets to look for such individuals? I assume there will be enough obviously great candidates wanting to "work" at YCR that you won't need to dig for hidden gems. I was just curious to know if it was something you'd considered.

Sam, when I met you at Startup School last year, I wanted to be brief. The most important thing I wanted to communicate to you was my gratitude, and I thanked you for sharing your startup class. I'm blown away by and so grateful for the stuff you've been doing since. I'm very excited to see how these new projects work out. Thank you again man.

In the 24th Upvoted by Reddit podcast, Steve and Alexis talked about all the great content and communities hiding within Reddit that go undiscovered. I'm excited to see how they'll try to solve that problem, and hope they find a great solution. Reddit is really great, and it's very cool to see both Steve and Alexis back to enjoy and advance it.

Some lessons include a "Tips and notes" section below the lesson segments. It's often positioned below the fold, and there aren't many indicators that there is more content if the user scrolls down.

I probably have a different perspective than most, but here's why I enjoy Duolingo's style:

The first foreign language I began learning was Spanish. I took it throughout high school and college. I was taught theory first, so I could understand most of what I'd read or hear following the new lesson. Running the input through the theory I'd established in my brain worked, but it was very slow and took a lot of practice to speed up my speaking and understanding.

When I was visiting my wife in Brazil while we were dating, I learned Portuguese very differently. Although they were aware that I didn't speak Portuguese, many of her friends and relatives did not let that reason hold them back from speaking it to me anyway. So I was bombarded with the language, and slowly began to understand more and more. First, I'd only understand one word in a phrase, then 25% of it, then 50% and so on until I reached a critical point where I understood enough of what was being said that I could use the context of what I did understand to infer the rest and learn that too.

Learning Portuguese was so much quicker for me. I still know more Spanish theory, but I still speak and understand it too slowly to consider myself fluent. On the other hand, Brazilians tell me all the time that they're impressed with how well I speak Portuguese.

I think the jumping right into the deep end style of learning Duolingo offers is fun, but may not be the best for everyone.

Thank you for offering your perspective, and it's awesome of you that you're donating to patients. I actually found the article refreshing and hope-inspiring. I think there's a considerable amount of variation between each person's interpretation of the 'basic message'. IMO the basic message of this work in particular is that organizations like Watsi and Wuqu’ Kawoq are bringing healthcare to natives in Guatemala who need it but have been restricted from it. The new hope Watsi and its partners provide in areas like this is shown through the happiness of those in the photographs.

Also, I hadn't known specific details about the troubles natives were suffering in Guatemala. This article gave me some clear events and dates to start researching to learn more. So I'm glad I was able to read it.

Thank you for your thorough response. I agree that only after sufficient research (not only about the person, but about the subject of focus as well) does one get a good idea of who may be a good mentor. The research does provide insight about the interests and attitude of the prospective mentor, but doesn't always clarify how that person may want help. Perhaps after more time and research, I'll prove myself wrong.

I agree that one should not be dependent upon a mentor's guidance. I think, based on your response to my second question, I may have inadvertently implied that I was seeking a mentor to enlighten me with the 'right path' or that I wouldn't start until I had received the advice. In fact, when I considered the circumstance prompting my second question before I had written it, my thoughts were very similar to your answer.

The guidance I expect a mentor can provide is similar to the reading list provided by tptacek for those who wish to learn more about security (http://www.amazon.com/lm/R2EN4JTQOCHNBA/ref=cm_lm_pthnk_view...). Someone who wants to learn who blindly chooses the first few resources may eventually come across the same books or learn the information elsewhere, but may take far longer than necessary, pick up some bad habits, and not gain more expertise for the extra time spent stumbling along tangent resources that turn out to provide little or no benefit.

I think your strategy of delving into the work and in turn the community surrounding it is a great way to promote the serendipitous mentor-like relationships that will naturally form as a result.

My only disagreement is that you seem to find little value in seeking out those who aren't necessarily 'famous' but definitely are experts in a particular subject, researching more about them, and asking for mentorship if the research suggests it would be a good decision and could provide mutual benefit. There's likely a very low chance of success, but that person (who may have been a great mentor) may not have noticed you otherwise. I've decided that I'll do what I can to avoid any more reasons to think to my future self "I wish I had tried." A single mentor who I may not have been acquainted with otherwise would be worth all of the rejections to me.

Thank you again for taking the time to respond with such a well-thought-out comment.

Thanks for mentioning your post. I really enjoyed it. I have a couple questions that, to my understanding, weren't covered in your blogpost, and I'd like to learn your opinion.

I'm guilty of having contacted someone I greatly respect and asking "Will you mentor me?". While I honestly believe that particular individual understood the naivete in the format of my request as shown by the kind response, I would like to improve the manner in which I seek mentorship in the future.

In your examples, you offered to help improve a project of a prospective mentor with work you had already completed. If you don't know what work may help that person, would you ask directly how you may provide a benefit to him/her?

My next question is about the type of advice I seek. You suggest "[...] have gone as far as you can by yourself" before seeking mentorship. I'm not stuck, but there are a few paths I might choose. Each is a considerable time investment, and making the wrong choice would be a setback I'd really like to avoid. The conventional advice I have sought online hasn't provided a clear answer to my specific situation. What is the best way to ask someone if he/she has the time to offer advice? I don't want to start by presenting the questions and making them feel obligated to answer something that may take more time than they have available to consider.

I really like their concept, and believe this is the direction non-free education should move toward (satisfying the goals of both the provider and most students). I hope that they are so confident in their program that the answers to your questions will lean much more toward giving the job seeker the freedom to choose what is best for him/herself.

I understand your aversion to ads. When I tried affiliate marketing, it made me sick just learning of the products shady companies were trying to trick consumers with. I quickly moved toward creating websites to offer useful content and including ads or affiliate links. Most of them failed to earn anything substantial.

I don't think you're wrong, but many great websites that provide content people really want rely on Adsense-type earnings to sustain themselves and afford the content creators the income necessary to continue producing it. It's unfortunate that the financial fate of some really great contributors is so closely tied to that of others who seem to produce little or no value. I wonder how those who offer high quality content via their own free website will continue to thrive.

The sentence, "The truth is this: I think Noa is raising us as much as we are raising her." and the paragraph it heads really resonated with me as a parent of a young child.

Upon seeing the title, I expected the article to be about the unknown languages infants sometimes seem to invent. We speak two languages to our son, but my wife and I both understand each language quite well. Our son was very vocal as an infant, but less than half of his words were English or Portuguese. He's nearly three now, but he'll still use some of his invented words to unnecessarily lengthen phrases. I imagine this is to mimic adults who express themselves with more words. He may believe that longer phrases are given more consideration as he tends to do this more often when making a request with a small chance of success, like asking for another treat after being told he can only have one.

Many on HN, including myself, are very excited about Starfighter. However, many HN readers are probably already employed or can easily find employment if they desire. You guys and gal know that maximizing outreach will be critical to your success. You aim to find buried talent, but that talent must first know Starfighter exists and understand it well enough to be enticed to try. I assume you want to both find talent whose ability is not accurately represented in a typical technical interview, but also those who have aptitude for these skills but whose resume wouldn't even be considered.

I grew up near a small town surrounded by family farms. I've really enjoyed manipulating code and finding bugs in games and other software since middle school, and I suspected I was the only one when I was younger. There were very few "nerds" at our school who focused on computers, and even those that did almost never discussed the discovery or exploitation of bugs. Although I stumbled upon a few communities online that shared my interests, I hadn't found one that just clicked. I happened upon HN while learning more about startups, and it was just right for me. I'm grateful I found HN, but I wonder why it took me so long to find the community I was looking for.

I didn't even know about CTF games until tptacek's recent hiring post, and it was another "How could I have been oblivious to this awesome thing for so long?" moment. There are many people who are a great fit for your clients, and they won't know about Starfighter unless you cast a wide or deep enough net. How do you plan to address this challenge?

Good luck, and thank you for building this!

>>At this point, my biggest fear is that I might not have the technical chops to complete the challenges.

I fully expect that I don't have the technical chops right now to complete the challenges, but I can barely contain my excitement to get started. Learning whatever it takes to overcome a defined challenge is so much more thrilling than learning a topic for the sake of knowing it.

Have you noticed any specific traits founders who face increased skepticism have that aren't apparent in other founders?

I found sama's class (http://startupclass.samaltman.com) to be a particularly great collection of knowledge. I remember catching a few almost subtle drops of wisdom that I'd have underappreciated had I not previously known some info I'd already picked up by studying other educational resources on startups. I'm sure there are more that I did not catch. So if this class is one of the early resources you utilize, then I'd suggest you revisit it again later as well.

I don't think people need someone with a relatable trait to believe they can also accomplish audacious goals. However, I am convinced that it provides disproportionately more inspiration.

I agree that schools are failing all students, but I don't believe your idea of segregation will help resolve the diversity problems in tech. Perhaps it would be better to treat computer and coding skills like science, math, history, etc. and make it a mandatory subject for the entire class.

I'm interested in more courses than I have time for. So, like others who've responded, I often prioritize sections of moocs. Sometimes I quickly go through lectures alone when I want to review something I'd learned but haven't used much recently. And sometimes I won't have time to even start a course during the designated date and deadlines, but I fully intend to take advantage of the content later.

I think the incentives you mentioned are very relevant. College students don't want to waste the high tuition they've paid, nor do they want to lose their academic status they've worked for. But you left out another huge factor. In the current hiring system, too many employers value where a skill was learned more than the level of proficiency.

I believe that, as more companies transition to audition-style interviews and make more accurate assessments of ability, the value placed on educational credentials will diminish. When this happens, there will be hope that educating oneself via moocs will provide a fair chance to be considered for skilled employment. When students believe that most companies genuinely value what you can do more than where you learned how to do it, I think there will be far more incentive to both enroll in and complete moocs.

Unfortunately, many societies today incorporate too strongly one's official profession/title with self-worth. I don't believe sama was implying those who work those jobs are worthless. Instead, it seems like he's trying to say that there are far better ways to accomplish the same objective, and we shouldn't ignore them.

Because our systems of retraining and placing workers into a new profession are so terrible, it's common to assume that many or most displaced workers will remain unemployed. Breaking this status quo is essential to giving everyone a fair chance to work on what truly drives them while we automate more and more worthless jobs. That's why I'm so excited about free and widely available educational resources springing up online. It's not perfect yet, but we had to start somewhere. I have a deep respect for everyone (including sama) who've helped build or teach a mooc.

Although I disagree with the condescending style, I found your article very interesting and a good argument against this hypothesis. I'm likely out of my depth, so I apologize if my question seems very naive. You said, 'it is overwhelmingly likely that whatever the “most elementary” controllable aspect of reality is, be it strings or something else, it will be able to encode at most a single bit per thing.' What if more variables were considered when deriving meaning from an electron? For example, Up means 1, Down means 0, and the position of that 1/0 relative to other 1s and 0s provides further info, or the time between transitions between 0 and 1 provides further info. Could a single electron then store information about more than 1 elementary particle?

There will almost certainly be unseen consequences. Some may be negative, but I believe the aggregate will be more positive (assuming senescence remains at least proportional to lifespan). As Newton stated, we may see further by standing on the shoulders of giants. As our species acquires more knowledge, the time it takes to learn what has previously been discovered often increases. Our average lifespan may become (or already be) a bottleneck to faster technological innovation.

Imagine those at age 100 preparing for the second half of their lives rather than expecting to die in the very near future. That may spawn a new phase of maturation that doesn't exist today. What if, generations from now, people recall how young and dumb they were before they turned 100?

I found your statement very interesting, and would like to learn more. If you're allowed, would you please provide more details or links to resources that further explain the security issues that process-per-tab resolves?

I'm curious to know how you admit it. I recently completed a website redesign for a relative in Brazil. He wanted to use the existing MySQL db and some PHP functions, and expand on both. I had some experience with HTML, very little with CSS and Javascript, and had never built a website using a text editor alone for the code. I'd just completed the HTML/CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery courses on Codecademy and was excited to apply what I'd learned, but I made it very clear that I wasn't an expert at frontend code nor design and had no PHP nor databse experience and would need to learn them to complete the project.

He showed me various websites and features he liked, and I recreated them with HTML, CSS, and jQuery designing the new site to his satisfaction in about 5 days. Then, I powered through a couple tutorials on PHP and MySQL for a couple days. Most of the old PHP that he wanted to salvage was filled with deprecated code, so I rewrote it. The data he wanted to store and use for the new site required entirely new db tables. So the new site didn't reuse any of the old code. It took me a month to complete the site and get it online. A few days later, the owner of a quite-a-bit larger company that partners with my relative's company told him that he really liked the new site, and asked for my info. My relative told me that I was far too modest about my ability before I took on his project; that I wasn't an amateur at all.

I know that I was and still consider myself very much an amateur, but I know I can (and enjoy to) learn new technologies pretty quickly. I take pride in doing a job well, and really believe I'll provide a lot of value to the projects I work on. I just can't sell myself without being completely honest about areas that I know I have lots left to learn. How can I be completely honest without seeming incompetent next to a 'professional' (and great salesman) who only knows how to plug content into a CMS template? How do you express your confidence in the value you create when you're aware you will have to learn a lot to create that value?

I agree that the majority of talent remains untapped, and that's why I believe actions like Sama offering his startup class free online are huge steps in the right direction. While I don't wish to instigate an immigration debate in this thread, I do believe that the goal of equal opportunity regardless of geographical origin is extremely important as well.

I generally agree with you that investors and founders mitigate their risk through diversity and networking. However, I wouldn't single out employees as "the only one who really loses when a startup fails." Like you said, choosing a Google-like startup is tough, and most founders believe theirs will be incredibly successful when they hire early employees. But I can think of at least one example where the employee of a failed startup will have benefited greatly, possibly more than the investor and founders.

Imagine an employee who chose the startup because she passionately shared its vision, and the position available was exactly what she wanted to be doing. She worked out a budget so that her family would be fine with the lower salary. She gets to do what she enjoys in a fast-paced environment learning many new skills alongside others who share her vision. If that startup fails, she's out of a job, and the equity she earned is worthless. If she was paid enough to stay within her desired lifestyle range without taking on debt, and she enjoyed working at the startup much more than she would have enjoyed being a cog in the BigCorp machine working on projects she felt indifferent about, then I believe her risk as a startup employee was relatively low.

Opinions will obviously vary depending on how important compensation (after a certain threshold) and prestige are versus working on what you want.

Most probably aren't just envious. However, those who wrote negative comments weren't afraid to announce seemingly definitive conclusions without enough data to justify their assurance. Keep in mind that the author and his cofounder were interviewed by YC partners and all of the cofounders. While their selection system has flaws, most probably agree that it's one of the best that exists right now. Perhaps they saw strengths in the author's founding team that the author himself had not perceived.

Based on the author's age, I assume he considers this the greatest failure in his life. He wrote this shortly after exiting an educational system that indoctrinates students to believe that success occurs without failures. So his perspective may have been from a point of low self-worth making it difficult to see his own strengths that will help him recover and succeed moving forward.

Thank you for writing about your experience Charlie. I hope the traveling has been beneficial, and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

I believe he pursued that profession because of the mission which he thought would be the main focus of the system. Compensation was only 1 (and the last mentioned) of the 5 key areas that need to be re-evaluated.