[walleeee]

> All of them are solid, kind, high-quality people, the likes of which you are unlikely to meet in the regular world.

This attitude may have something to do with the skepticism we low-quality people out in the regular world may harbor for the Silicon Valley startup sphere

[dang]

> we low-quality people out in the regular world

I understand how easily this feeling can arise. It may not be obvious but we spend a lot of energy on HN trying to mitigate it. I don't want a high-status-insider vs. low-status-outsider dynamic on HN.

One thing I'd like to tell you is that as someone who came from little class privilege and a geographically provincial place, and had zero connection to the "Silicon Valley startup sphere" or really any other sphere, YC welcomed me and gave me a shot and a lot of help.

These dynamics aren't simple but I'd like to think (and do think) that YC is still one of the best ladders in the snakes-and-ladders game if you're talented, ambitious, and sincere. And at the same time, there are still lots of obstacles.

[digging]

maybe my brain is sleed-deprived but this doesn't feel great to me either. can we not be high quality people without those connections, regardless of how those connections might be made easier for the rare individuals who participate in YC?

[dang]

Of course we can! And are.

[satvikpendem]

Who is saying you/we are not high quality people? No one is saying that high quality people don't exist outside YC, just that YC accepts high quality people. You are committing the logical fallacy known as the fallacy of composition [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_composition

[GreymanTheGrey]

I believe this was the offending sentence fragment that implied the sentiment you say is not there: "the likes of which you are unlikely to meet in the regular world"

[MichaelZuo]

I read that as 'There's a higher probability of meeting high quality people in a location that actively concentrates them, then just randomly going through life.'

[_sentient]

Definitely not trying to imply that these people don’t exist elsewhere, but rather than YC does a great job getting a bunch of them in one place.

[_sentient]

Definitely could have worded that better, but my point is that I found YC to cultivate a density of smart + ambitious + nice people that I haven't found in quite the same quantities in most other networks I've been a part of.

Tons of incredible non-YC folks out there too.