Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

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I don't think I've ever really disagreed with any of your comments on HN before Ed, but this time I do. YC stands to win from having everybody that wanted to apply under the original deadline to do just that, and it shows that they care more about people than about their arbitrary time-tables.

Those that live in an area that is right now an absolute mess will be happy to see their power restored in the next few days and it will be tough for everybody in the region to pick up their lives.

"No matter what": What if your parents had to be moved out of their house and you had the choice between helping them or applying to YC?

And a ton of other examples that I could come up with but you get the idea.

There is a time to be rigid (when there are no other options) and there is a time to be flexible (when things were arbitrary to begin with and being rigid makes everybody lose).

Sure life isn't fair. But if it is possible to make it a bit better by being nice to each other then I see absolutely no reason why you should not do so.

A good business person is running a business, they're not applying to YC. The New York Stock exchange is currently closed for business, the area is an official disaster area. In light of that I think we can forgive a few start-up applicants that they don't have their ducks in a row just yet.

Extra points for those that did apply under the deadline.

I agree with you, and more generally I find the "life isn't fair/no excuses" mindset to be a strange phenomenon. The idea that being prepared for adversity, planning ahead, etc. is a good thing is totally sensible. And sometimes you get some bad breaks, and you have to take your lumps and move on. But I can't help but feel that sometimes those that take the "no matter what" position are doing so less in response to the specific situation, and more because they have been conditioned/hardened against the many people that do look for shortcuts or are too quick to make excuses.

It seems like many in the no-excuses camp often frame the hard line as teaching a lesson for "the real world." But I would argue that a main reason deadlines are important in the real world is because other stakeholders need to have clear expectations to use for their own planning. It's unreasonable to expect them to adjust their plans do to one party's shifting schedule, and it's generally a bad idea to treat deadlines lightly.

But if there's a sensible reason and it doesn't cause a big problem for anyone, I don't see why the "principle" of a deadline should trump empathy and business judgement.

Especially since YC can always use the timing and circumstances of the application as additional pieces of information in their process.

It's tough balancing "fair" in this case. Is it fair that my family in the northeast is without power while I read HN? Probably not. I would support changing as many deadlines as possible to be compassionate and to remove any incentive for them to focus on non-essential stuff like YC (similar to what you're saying).

Is it fair for the person in southern California to get an extra couple days to revise because others are going through a hardship? Probably not. I would want them held to the original standard (similar to what the grandparent is saying).

That's the tension I see with this decision. And how do we handle the special cases with teams that are split between coasts?

I don't think one rule will be completely fair, and I would ask pg to apply wisdom regardless if the official date changes. The date is just a date. It's better described as a spam filter than a deadline since YC accepts late applications anyway.

Another thing is time considerations for the founders to review applications. Assuming they remain on schedule with the interviews and such, extending the deadline gives less time for them to review applications - which gives less time for each individual application to be reviewed. This affects those who applied before the original deadline.

This is all speculative of course (I don't know the effect the deadline has on the founders), but I agree that there is no right answer.

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