[stakhanov]

I have slightly ambivalent feelings about an institution like Y-Combinator getting into the business of promoting those sorts of books. -- Making a reading list on books teaching you programming or statistics or business skills like accounting is one thing.

But when you're talking about reading materials that promote a certain world view, certain values, a certain political position, or instill in an individual a certain kind of "cognitive programming" (for lack of a better word), like psychological self-help books and the like, that's a whole different story.

This is one thing that I distinctly remember as a negative about the young entrepreneurs' scene back at university, that so much of it bordered on brainwashing.

[nomat]

the people who read HN are a self-selected tribe of a certain bent and it would be strange if YC's reading list didn't have an underlying theme to it. i dont think there's anything wrong with a "this is what guys like me are reading" (guys like me? hey, i'm a guy like me!) list of books. maybe it is a little narrow but YC is rather niche to begin with in terms of appeal so it doesn't seem like there's conflict of values here.

[stakhanov]

Angel investors frequently follow a mode of operation where they actively seek out young and impressionable minds (doing motivational speeches and mentoring programs at universities and so forth) and trying to establish themselves in the role of educator/mentor/role-model at the same time as trying to establish themselves as business partners of those young people. That is a conflict of interests, to say the least.

Now, if I were an angel investor and I had gathered around myself a group of such people who look up to me for mentoring and education and who might depend on me for financing their lives' ambitions, I don't think it would be quite appropriate for me to say, even just by innuendo, "By the way: Here is how I feel about xyz [political issue]..."