[JohnFen]

> Sometimes their advice is right, and sometimes it's wrong? That doesn't sound particularly valuable.

This is true of literally every source of advice you'll ever encounter.

It's not that the advice is right or wrong in an absolute sense, it's that how good the advice is depends on the context of it. So you always have to evaluate the advice according to your own circumstances. Some of it will be appropriate to you and some will not.

[Dylan16807]

> This is true of literally every source of advice you'll ever encounter.

Right, that's the point. If the main thing you have to say about some advice is a thing that's true about all advice, then that's not a good endorsement.

[lazide]

that you got advice for the particular areas you needed and it was not always bad is actually a pretty major step up from what you’d otherwise be dealing with, in my experience.

[Dylan16807]

If you could find a source of advice for areas you need that is always bad, that would be amazingly useful. Each piece of advice is another pitfall you can confidently avoid.

[lazide]

The Inverse Cramer strategy has been doing pretty good I hear.

Unfortunately, real life advice is rarely something you can short. :(

[solveit]

Eh, I know you're being facetious but the opposite of bad advice is not good advice. Things are more complicated than that. Which is why even a 20% hit rate (say) could be very impressive.

[Dylan16807]

If you can get multiple wrong takes on the same topic you can very likely narrow down the correct path by a lot. Even if each piece of anti-advice is kind of vague by itself.

[hassy]

The main thing about the advice comes immediately before the bit you’re zooming in on. Want to talk to people who have seen hundreds of companies deal with what you’re dealing? YC is great for that.

[Dylan16807]

> Want to talk to people who have seen hundreds of companies deal with what you’re dealing? YC is great for that.

The way I read your post, saying you "can get" very valuable advice immediately followed by saying some advice was wrong undermines that "can" pretty solidly. I'm not just looking at that sentence in isolation.

Could we get an estimate of how much of the advice was right, weighted by how non-obvious each thing was and how much of an impact it would have to follow or not follow?

[JohnFen]

> The way I read your post, saying you "can get" very valuable advice immediately followed by saying some advice was wrong undermines that "can" pretty solidly.

I disagree. Getting advice from subject matter experts is almost always of great value. The chances of that advice being on-target for you are never 100%, but that doesn't mean the advice is without value. It just means that it's not infallible.

In the end, as with literally everything about running a business -- VC backed or not -- you need to take in all of the quality information you can get and decide what's important/relevant and what's not.

Having access to more information is a Good Thing, even if some particular bit of information isn't helpful.

Also, while access to subject matter experts is one of the benefits of a group like YC, it's not necessarily the most important. Even if that's not useful to you, the other benefits may very well be.

Disclaimer -- I'm personally not interested in doing VC-backed ventures. For me, the juice isn't worth the squeeze, so I'm not asserting that YC is some sort of panacea that is valuable to everyone. But it is obviously of great value to some. Part of what an entrepreneur needs to learn how to do is how to determine what is of value to your startup and what is not. Every venture is different, and has different needs.

[freeopinion]

I just had this discussion with my child. I tried to advise them through experiences based on my trip through those same experiences. So I gave them advice like 'don't rack up student debt' and "don't buy a house that costs more than 3x your salary".

Turns out, even though I had the same experiences (went to college, bought a house, etc.) my advice doesn't seem to fit today's world. At some point, they should just quit asking me for advice. #DitchTheSherpa

[aflag]

100% right is likely impossible, but the way it was written it made it sound as if it was right 50% of the time, which is essentially the worst you can do. Anything below or above that is valuable. Obviously, the closer to 0% or 100% the better.

[JohnFen]

> the way it was written it made it sound as if it was right 50% of the time

Ah, I see. I didn't interpret it that way at all!

[jxramos]

Yah, seeing that is a signal from others personal experience that you’re now entering into non-formulaic territory and need to put on the appropriate hat.

[lobocinza]

Was it 50/50?