[eslaught]

For everyone who's being cynical about this opportunity: This seems like a great way to practice pitching what you do and why it matters. Personally, this seems like an interesting exercise, regardless of whether you get in or not.

For anyone else who is interested, it might be fun to have an organized "Show HN" where we exchange and critique pitches.

Edit: Since this is getting some upvotes, here is what I propose: I'll post a "Show HN" here at around 10am PST on February 15th. People can reply to that with links to their pitches, and then everyone else can respond/critique in the replies. (This should leave enough time for people to edit their pitches based on the feedback they get.)

[andyidsinga]

the organized Show HN event - actually sounds like a better idea that the OP. hmm - maybe organized for the same April 26 - 28 weekend?

[eslaught]

I was thinking online, but offline could work too. We could even do both. Maybe we'll wait to see how the online version goes first? If that gets traction then we can see about organizing an offline version.

[rficcaglia]

Agree. Happy to help organize/buy coffee or beers.

[kaennar]

I'm really struggling with how to structure this kind of video from a college student's (although with only one semester left) perspective. I've worked at a lot of different companies and have two or three "dream" projects, but as for what I'm working on right now? Does literature review count? Or relevant experience? I realize that people like me are not necessarily the target audience, but it still leaves me wondering if there is a perhaps a better way for me to frame my current experience and work into this kind of format.

[eslaught]

Sorry, my original post was geared a little too much toward things you're already working on---which I think is not actually what the YC 120 call is asking for. I think they're looking more for what you'd like to work on, and to the extent that you're doing anything now it's more about demonstrating potential.

In my opinion, if you've done work with a lot of different companies, that's actually great experience to have as a college student! Working is one of the best ways to get exposure to different sorts of problems and ways of approaching solutions.

Personally, the way I find problems to solve is by trying to do everyday sorts of things---be that building an app, game, a scientific simulation, a data analysis script or whatever---and then observing what's hard about it. Do this a couple times and you may start to see recurring problems. Usually my biggest problem is that I tend to undersell myself because these issues seem "obvious" to me after I've been in the trenches for a while. But sometimes the obvious problems are the most fundamental.

Anyway, if you have ideas of your own, I'd say just go for it. The instructions say they're "adjust[ing] for whatever life circumstances you were born into", and I think it's probably not unreasonable to expect them to adjust for e.g. age and stage of life as well. Compared to people in similar age categories I think you'll compare favorably in an application like this.