[dk8996]

In before "survivorship bias". In any case, it's amazing that so many successful companies were in that building.

[gkoberger]

"Survive" is the one bit of advice that, by definition, is immune to survivorship bias.

Basically, Justin is saying "the ones that survived are the ones that survived". It's stating the painfully obvious, however it's a simple contrast to the normal "strategic" advice.

Paul Graham writes about this a lot:

http://paulgraham.com/aord.html

http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

http://paulgraham.com/badeconomy.html

[ak39]

Thanks for this. That PG article was sobering for me. All the while reading it, I had Shawshank's "Get busy living or get busy dying" playing in my head. :-(

[idlewords]

It's amazing that this pure meritocracy happens to favor a small group of friends!

[gkoberger]

They weren't friends beforehand, and most had no prior Silicon Valley connections.