clarebear

What is the chance that would happen? ;-)

The differences in callback rates were not statistically different between the women and the lower class men. The only statistically significant different was higher class men and everyone else.

Just so you know, sometimes when women leave for "family reasons", it is because they are sick of putting up with the bullshit of discrimination while trying to balance a career with raising a family. This problem is more of a self fulfilling prophecy than chicken-and-egg.

I have no personal knowledge of Dan Grossman, but in my experience, techie guys might over report indications of sexual activity and prowess on the internet ;-)

Thanks for the article. The most helpful part for me was the way you binned actions and then acknowledged that some can be tricky to quantify right away, because relationships are important, but sometimes it is hard to tell which ones. Networking for ego is not work, but team building is. I would summarize it as: if it doesn't go in your investor updates now or support something that would be in them in the future, it might not be work.

I originally thought this post was going to be about coming home to loved ones after YC and gaining some perspective on work as only part of the game of life, and how even winning can leave you lonely. But maybe that is implied by telling people that writing blog posts that lots of people click an up arrow on is not the same as growing your company (or having someone to love you).

The author is just asking his friends to do what he is doing to provide the social context he is lacking. He is right that naming it attractively is motivating. But an attractive name is usually not enough to an engineer to make up for not getting to touch the gears of how the world actually works.

I would guess that if Elon Musk is your brother, you probably get used to that shadow.

I agree that (early) science is friendlier to women than (early) engineering. Another factor might be that, if all else is equal, pick the major that already has some women, so you have some peers.

I find it more useful to see "mean" as a power dynamic than an emotion or character trait. If someone asks you to do something and you have a choice, it is not likely to seem mean. If someone asks you to do the same thing and you feel like you do not have a choice (because you work for them, or other reasons) it is much more likely to seem mean, especially if you don't think they are fit for the role of deciding things for you. If a parent holds down a screaming child during a shot, they are loving, but if a stranger does, it can be perceived as mean. If people perceive you as being mean, it likely means that you are invoking traditional power structures more often than other people perceive you should. Successful founders probably do better on both fronts: 1) not making people do stuff because they are the boss but getting them to internalize the underlying framework and pick the right answer themselves and 2) they probably have an easier time being perceived as a boss than average, so when they do force an issue, followers don't mind acquiescing. Given all that, this essay says people who are good at accumulating power organically do well in start ups. Successful minorities probably have to be super good at (1) because they likely take a hit on (2).

You have correctly identified tradeoffs. All of life has them, but having a family brings many of them into focus. Each person has to decide what works for them and their family. I'm glad that people are starting to talk about this plainly and openly.

"There is a bit of a contradiction, Hunnicutt admits, between the dream of leisure and preparing students for new business opportunities, but he believes that an experience industry might encourage a new paradigm. If better and better experiences are out there, there will be more and more demand for free time in which to enjoy them. "It’s the good old-fashioned free market," he says. "I have no trouble with that. We are in the business of reawakening the American dream.""

I find this argument to be false in that I don't think people work long hours because they can't think of anything they would rather be doing.

I wonder if "work" hours are not shorter because culture dictates it, so many people shift their habits to surf the web (i.e. leisure activities) while at work. Not that they wouldn't rather meet with friends, paint a picture or whatever, but they can surf facebook from their cube.

My retired father-in-law who lives in a suburb of Detroit got a car that was not manufactured by the by the Big Three a couple years ago. He felt so much social pressure that he quickly returned it and got one that was. He told me that some "foreign" cars would be egged in his neighborhood. I put foreign in quotes, as big three cars are not always manufactured in the US and sometimes other cars are manufactured here. But if you are from Detroit, where the headquarters is and the profits go back to matters most, and tangibly matters.