7 ms·

What happened to pg, is he still involved in YC day to day operation or the application process?

by quan 10y ago

mwseibel 10y ago
(edited for tone) PG and Jessica are currently on sabbatical in the UK - after running YC for 10+ years they are taking a little break spend more time with their kids
- quan 10y ago
  Yes absolutely, I'm only curious because his essays inspire me to think differently about work and attracted me to this community. Thanks for your answer
  - mwseibel 10y ago
    Same here - thanks for the question :)
- gist 10y ago
  > after running YC for 10+ years they deserve a little break no? With all due respect what is so special about running YC that means you deserve a sabbatical? They are taking a sabbatical not because they deserve it but because they can afford to do so financially and have left their organization in what they feel are very capable hands. It is actually atypical in most professions in the US (at least outside of teaching or academics) to be able to step away other than for a somewhat short vacation. And business? It moves to fast and the competition is most likely hard at work step away and someone else is there to take your place. Hats off to them for creating an organization where they can do this but most people who are in either traditional businesses or professions (medicine, law as only two examples) can't do something like this. Edit: Predictable downvotes. Everyone looks at this through a lens that says the commenter surely is showing disrespect or lack of knowledge for how special YC is. Edit2: Noting that it has been edited for tone so...
  - jboogie77 10y ago
    you jelly?
  - jey 10y ago
    Surely he just means a break from YC. And running YC was a job that required always being "on-call" in the early days.
    - gist 10y ago
      "on call"? Plenty of businesses require the entrepreneur to be 'on call'.
      - brudgers 10y ago
        Plenty of businesses require non-entrepreneurs to be on call too.
  - Cyph0n 10y ago
    > but most people PG isn't "most people". He's a super successful guy, so I don't see why you are comparing him to everyone else. And about him taking a sabbatical: he can do whatever the hell he wants because he can afford to. It's true that many of us can't, but that's just how life is my friend.
  - brudgers 10y ago
    With Graham, taking a break (or 'hammock time' as Hickey might phrase it) appears to be a pattern if one can draw a pattern from two data points. After selling Viaweb and working a Yahoo for a bit, Graham wrote and painted and created a new dialect of Lisp for several years before the experiment that led to YCombinator (there may have been consulting and investing in there too, it wouldn't surprise me but since I've never seen anything directly stating there was, it would not surprise me if there wasn't)...and Graham's descriptions of why he did a startup includes not having to get 'a real job' so to speak. When Graham turned over the public face of YC to Altman, I was like, huh? Since then, I've come to think that 'I'm going to take my money and learn to paint' is one diffs between Altman's and Graham's personalities...though in fairness Graham was well into his thirties when he made his first millions and Altman was just 29 when he became president of YC.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

What happened to pg, is he still involved in YC day to day operation or the application process?

by quan 10y ago

What happened to pg, is he still involved in YC day to day operation or the application process?

(edited for tone) PG and Jessica are currently on sabbatical in the UK - after running YC for 10+ years they are taking a little break spend more time with their kids

quan 10y ago
Yes absolutely, I'm only curious because his essays inspire me to think differently about work and attracted me to this community. Thanks for your answer
- mwseibel 10y ago
  Same here - thanks for the question :)
gist 10y ago
> after running YC for 10+ years they deserve a little break no? With all due respect what is so special about running YC that means you deserve a sabbatical? They are taking a sabbatical not because they deserve it but because they can afford to do so financially and have left their organization in what they feel are very capable hands. It is actually atypical in most professions in the US (at least outside of teaching or academics) to be able to step away other than for a somewhat short vacation. And business? It moves to fast and the competition is most likely hard at work step away and someone else is there to take your place. Hats off to them for creating an organization where they can do this but most people who are in either traditional businesses or professions (medicine, law as only two examples) can't do something like this. Edit: Predictable downvotes. Everyone looks at this through a lens that says the commenter surely is showing disrespect or lack of knowledge for how special YC is. Edit2: Noting that it has been edited for tone so...
- jboogie77 10y ago
  you jelly?
- jey 10y ago
  Surely he just means a break from YC. And running YC was a job that required always being "on-call" in the early days.
  - gist 10y ago
    "on call"? Plenty of businesses require the entrepreneur to be 'on call'.
    - brudgers 10y ago
      Plenty of businesses require non-entrepreneurs to be on call too.
- Cyph0n 10y ago
  > but most people PG isn't "most people". He's a super successful guy, so I don't see why you are comparing him to everyone else. And about him taking a sabbatical: he can do whatever the hell he wants because he can afford to. It's true that many of us can't, but that's just how life is my friend.
- brudgers 10y ago
  With Graham, taking a break (or 'hammock time' as Hickey might phrase it) appears to be a pattern if one can draw a pattern from two data points. After selling Viaweb and working a Yahoo for a bit, Graham wrote and painted and created a new dialect of Lisp for several years before the experiment that led to YCombinator (there may have been consulting and investing in there too, it wouldn't surprise me but since I've never seen anything directly stating there was, it would not surprise me if there wasn't)...and Graham's descriptions of why he did a startup includes not having to get 'a real job' so to speak. When Graham turned over the public face of YC to Altman, I was like, huh? Since then, I've come to think that 'I'm going to take my money and learn to paint' is one diffs between Altman's and Graham's personalities...though in fairness Graham was well into his thirties when he made his first millions and Altman was just 29 when he became president of YC.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]