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The Cult of Conformity in Silicon Valley

Y Combinator

2.4M subscribers • 16 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 2 people: 2 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell, Y Combinator partners
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

96K views3 years ago2 recommendations

Careers and interviewsTools and practiceStartupsThe tech industryCareer growth

Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell discuss how Silicon Valley startups have shifted from attracting nonconformist outsiders to status-seeking conformists.

What happens when the unconventional becomes conventional? Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell discuss how the startup world has changed from being dominated by outsiders and nonconformists to now attracting more mainstream conformists looking for status and money. They share stories of what the tech scene was like when they were in school - and how radically different it is today. Dalton and Michael offer advice about navigating a world that doesn't always reward nonconformists embarking on risky entrepreneurial journeys. Don't just think different, act different. Apply to Y Combinator: yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: yc.link/DandM-jobs Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - - Intro - Mainstream Startups - Ye Olde Startups - School Mindset - Waiting In Line - Weirdos - Investors - Where Is Home? - Positive Signals - Learning & Growing - Confidence - Grand Takeaways

Why it's here

2 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an insightful discussion on how startup culture has changed and why it now attracts more conformist archetypes.

robocaton Hacker News • Recommends

On “Tech's Elite Hates Labor”

…the cultural gap between typical SV "tech employee" and typical SV "tech leader/founder" has widened dramatically Maybe something to do with the change in the type of people wanting to work in tech - it used to be geeks and now it is a high status job and attracts status/money seekers. Great discussion on “The cult of conformity in Silicon Valley” link to this video link 2000’s - “the Dark Ages you and I went to school in the early and mid 2000s” - “it's probably hard for us to explain to a current college kid how uncool Tech was” - “I was a Yale 05 graduate and in my graduating year Yale graduated 10 CS majors in a class of 1200 kids” - “status seeking thing that a gunner should want to go after:” F…
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earthnailon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?”

What helped me was surround myself with people I like - I mean, work wise. That’s much easier said than done. Michael and Dalton touch on this on a recent video where they compare modern FAANG with Goldman Sachs: link to this video The founder culture is so full of kool-aid that it can be tough to find those people there, too, but I found overall that that was the best place for me. Interestingly, I found the older and more successful people to be much more sane, and super happy to meet smart sane young people. I have a lot of older friends now; many are founders of large companies who are just glad to have normal conversations - the kind of people that as a FAANG middle manager would be status contact…
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throwaway-3-2-1on Hacker News • Mentions

On “The Epistemology of Software Quality”

I think there is merit to this stereotype and you should not use personal anecdotes to argue ("i have never met/seen/found") against it. Having a talent for programming imo means being good at abstracting away subproblems into nice encapsulated code units and having a passion for such tasks or the technical environment around it is like being a hobby bureaucrat. Now, tell me, this is normal :) I could also use personal anecdotes of me, a classic nerd, rubbing incompatible company culture the wrong way. Previously on HN: Y Combinator - The Cult of Conformity in Silicon Valley link to this video
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fairityon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: Is YC becoming less of a home for hackers and more for MBA-types?”

Yes, and YC is aware of this trend also. Michael and Dalton (YC partners) talk about it here: link to this video Since they’re aware, if the trend continues, they might actually believe this conformist archetype has equal or greater chance at success in today’s environment. If that's the case, it's probably bc the archetype tends to overlap with other skillsets that correlate with success (e.g. fundraising, recruiting, management).
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codegeekon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: Is YC becoming less of a home for hackers and more for MBA-types?”

Yes. Even YC veterans like Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell have talked about it in videos like these below 0. They call these people "conformists" 0 link to this video
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